TA Training In West Yorkshire
We are now offer TA101 courses in the beautiful town of Buxton, Derbyshire in addition to our Leeds venue.
Courses take place on 19 & 20 March 2018 or 14 & 15 June 2018 and are presented by Lin Cheung. We know you will love the venue for these workshops – the amazing Devonshire Dome, right in the heart of Georgian Buxton and surrounded by the the outstanding Peak District countryside.
To book your ticket for either of these courses, go to our TA101 page.
Ego state theory is one of the models in TA theory I use regularly in my work with clients and in supervision. It’s one of the ideas in TA that immediately resonates with clients. In its simplest form it is easy to understand and apply to self with some degree of accuracy. In this post I thought I would share some of my favourite quotes, definitions and ideas about ego state theory.
As many of you will know Eric Berne’s background was as a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. His work means that transactional analysis theory has a psychoanalytic heritage. Berne was familiar with the work of ego psychologists Fairbairn and Federn. They were writing about ego states in the 1950’s.
Berne’s significant contribution to ego state theory was that ego states are being experienced internally. In addition, categories of ego states have specific sets of behaviours that are consistent with these internal states. By observing patterns in behaviour, the therapist can begin to form a view of the ego state of the person.
“Exteropsyche,neopsyche, and archaeopsyche are regarded as psychic organs. And which manifest themselves phenomenologically as exteropsychic (e.g. identificatory), neopsychic (e.g. data processing), and archaeopsychic (e.g. regressive) ego states. These types of ego states are referred to as Parent, Adult, and Child.” Berne (1961 p23)
Transactional analysis’ psychoanalytic roots can be seen in this quote where Berne is referring to psychic organs. These are a metaphor or a way of describing a psychological or mental process. Mental processes which then show themselves in what he describes as Parent Adult Child.
“are coherent systems of thought and feeling manifested by corresponding patterns of behaviour.” Berne (1974)
This particular quote highlights the link between behaviour as something that corresponds to a pattern of thinking and feeling. Therefore, if we begin to identify patterns in behaviour we can begin to understand the thinking and feeling. This idea helps us begin to identify discrete psychological processes linked to stimuli.
A Parental ego state is a set of feelings, attitudes and behaviour patterns which resemble a parental figure.” (1961 p75)
“Parent is exhibited in two forms, direct and as an influence.” Berne (1964)
This idea of the Parent ego state as an influence, is highlighting that when the Child ego state is cathected there will be a part of Parent that is also active in the form of an influence. An internally experienced replay of an aspect of Parent, possibly offering helpful structure or nurture or in the negative aspects of Parent, control and criticism.
“Parent ego states are an actual historical internalisation of the personality of one’s own parents or other significant parental figures as perceived by the child at the time of introjection.” Erskine (2003 p89)
Erskine is offering the view that Parent content at the moment of introjection is as perceived by Child. This explains the punitive, critical and sometimes frightening nature of the content of Parent ego state.
“The Adult ego state is characterised by an autonomous set of feelings, attitudes, and behaviour patterns which are adapted to the current reality.” Berne (1961 p76)
“When in the Adult ego, a person is in full contact with what is occurring in a manner appropriate to that developmental age. This neopsychic (current mind) function of the ego accounts for and integrates: 1) what is occurring moment-by-moment internally and externally, 2) past experiences and their resulting effects, and 3) the psychological influences and identifications with other significant people in one’s life.” Erskine (2003)
The idea of the integrating function. Adult draws on Parent and Child content and sifts it for usefulness and applicability in the current reality.
“The Child ego state is a set of feelings, attitudes and behaviour pattern which are relics of the individual’s own childhood.” (Berne 1961 p77)
“Each person carries within a little boy or little girl, who feels, thinks, acts, talks, and responds just the way he or she did when he or she was a child of a certain age.” Berne (1974 p31)
“a system linked to the organisation of instinctual drives, basic needs and primary emotional experiences” (Tudor2002 p10)
Introjection. Process of identification and internalisation of the experience of another including perceived thoughts feeling and behaviours.
Berne talked of Child as being about primary process, a psychoanalytic term used by Freud and as Tudor describes above instinctual needs and drives.
Contamination of Ego states occurs when the solidity of the barrier around the Adult ego state breaks down and beliefs from the either the Parent or Child ego states, or both “contaminate” Adult ego state functioning. I.e. the person is using thoughts/feelings and experience from either Parent or Child to problem solve in the present without reality testing their relevance, accuracy and applicability. This means that the Integrating function of the Adult is affected by unfiltered content.
Identifies the ego state that is the one that is in control. That is where the majority of the person’s energy is. It is also the ego state which is dictating the patterns of thinking feeling and behaviour.
What this hinting at is that we are rarely ever completely in only one ego state. Often even though in the main it is the Adult ego state that is cathected, content in Child and Parent might be active. An example of all three ego states being active whilst the Adult remains in the executive:
Being asked to give a speech at the National TA Conference, I may be feeling a whole range of things:
So, these are some of my favourite quotes and ideas – what are yours? What aspect of ego state theory do you make most of in your practice? I’d love to hear from you.
And, if these ideas are new to you and you’ve found them useful then maybe you’d like to find out more. Our TA101 course is a first introduction to TA and is a great beginning .
Lin Cheung talks about contracts and contracting and their importance within the transactional analysis model.
Contracting is one of the key principles of how we work as transactional analysts. As they say “If you are not contracting, you aren’t doing TA” This is a really interesting idea but what does it mean?
I think its about being clear about what we are doing and why we are doing it. And that its not just me that is clear about that but also the person I am working with. It applies across the board, whether we are in an organisation working as a coach, if we are doing organisational consultancy, if we are a psychotherapist, if we are a counsellor. Its about being clear and not having any confusion about what we are here to do and what the end outcome is.
Charlotte Sills uses the word ‘confusion’ and I really like that idea. What we are seeking is clarity. This doesn’t necessarily happen straight away and can often be emergent. Moment by moment we are seeking clarity – ‘What does this mean to me right now?’
Our clients often come to us, as psychotherapists, without a sense of what they are seeking and a big part of what we are there to do is to help them work it out for themselves and then to have a shared idea of the goals of psychotherapy and how we are going to get there.
That is contracting for me.
We explore contracts and contracting in our Foundation Certificate course which runs each academic year, September – July.
Andy Williams is talking about the Working with Groups training that took place over the weekend in this short clip.
Hello everybody, I’m checking in after this weekend with the advanced psychotherapy clinical training group looking at group work.
We had a really good time considering aspects of working with process groups and the theory of running process groups.
We were looking at the 7 principles of process group work that Adrienne Lee* talks about. The fact that we are healing primal wounds so a group can be many things:
The group is about moving from non-relationship into relationship.
We also talking about ideas of intimacy through ensuring we close things down and there are no loose ends at the ends of groups (if we can help it).
We looked at empowering the client. The group is there to change things through having an authentic, relational experience with people and we talked a lot about the relationships within a therapy group.
Finally we explored the experience of ‘plenty’ – Adrienne Lee talks about the idea of ‘plenty’ – there is enough for everybody, over time, within a therapy group.
Find out more about our Clinical Training programme by clicking here.
*Adrienne Lee BA MPracNLP TSTA(P)
We are now offering experienced therapists the opportunity to join our Year 4 Theory Group for single days of advanced clinical theory. Attendees will spend a day considering advanced counselling and psychotherapy theory on specific topics.
As well as in-depth theoretical exploration, we offer a warm, welcoming and relaxed setting – a great basis for getting involved in engaging discussions and thinking around a theory topic.
“It’s great to be able to spend a day in the comfort of the The Horsforth Centre and engage with like-minded therapy colleagues, thinking about advanced topics”
Since the workshops are open to experienced therapists and practitioners, we expect that attendees may be:
The seminar programme includes The Therapeutic Relationship, Working with Obsessive Compulsive Clients, Psychodynamic Modality, The Schizoid Defensive Structure, Memory and the Brain, Humanistic Theory, and also Borderline and Narcissistic Traits. Whilst the headings give you a general idea of content, there is more detail on the workshop page. You can reach it using the link below.
Seminars take place roughly one Saturday per month over the year and cost just £75 per workshop. We have full information available which you can reach by clicking here.
Our First Steps to Private Practice day took place on 13 May with some excellent feedback from those who attended. Here are some of the things they said:
“Really ‘on the ball’ training” V, Leeds
“An excellent course that more than fulfilled my needs and expectations. Would highly recommend“, J Firth
“Attuned therapists, warm and engaging” AW
“I found the training today informative and affirming of me as a practitioner. There has been a lot of new information to go away, reflect and digest. I feel encouraged and supported“. Joanna Buglass, Bingley
“Excellent, informative and thought provoking day, delivered professionally and enthusiastically“. D Hooker
The First Steps course is on 17 March 2017. If you have a specific issue to do with working in private practice, book on to a Supervision day and bring your issue as part of the agenda for the day – receive advice, discussion and input within a small group setting.
What are Personality Adaptations?
Lin Cheung talks to Andy Williams about personality adaptations – the topic from the last Transactional Analysis training weekend.
Cumbrian Hills
What a great conference! I’ve not attended the UKATA Cumbrian Conference in Penrith for a few years – it’s a great venue and lovely event tucked away just outside Penrith. I wasn’t intending to run a workshop and had planned for a social time with some interesting CPD then was asked if I could replace a presenter at the last minute, who was ill.
My workshop was on working with people who are anxious, material and ideas I have been pulling together over the last few years in response to working with a number of therapy clients with anxiety in my private practice in Chesterfield.
There are three key messages to my presentation:
Here are the slides from my session, along with a couple of pictures of the Cumbrian Hills to wet your appetite for next years event.
Andy and I are thinking about a future training day on working with anxiety using a mixture of modalities. If you think you might be interested please email us to express your interest using the form below.