Here at Iron Mill College we teach Transactional Analysis (TA) which is an integrative approach to psychotherapy grounded in a humanistic philosophy. Transactional Analysis (TA) was originated by Eric Berne in the 1950s and developed by others through the decades. Classical TA has four core theoretical ideas that explain intrapsychic and interpersonal dynamics.
One of the best known ideas from TA is the theory, developed from Freudian psychoanalysis that people’s minds are structured into three ego states:
- Parent: Represents the external world and significant others that we have internalised and often functions as how we take charge when we are stressed.
- Adult: The here and now functioning we do as we take in the environment and respond based on the present reality rather than past experiences.
- Child: This refers to our historical selves – particularly the fixed ways of learning to cope when we were infants and children. In psychotherapy, we sometimes think of this state as moment by moment or more fixated forms of regression. - When we literally re-experience the past in the present.
TA has a number of ways to convey dynamics within and between people. It is based on the wish to be really clear, so that people can map their interactions with others. Overall, TA aims to foster awareness and facilitate healthier communication and relationships. At the Ironmill, we use a relational approach in TA. This is an integrative approach that combines contemporary philosophy and theories from psychoanalysis with transactional analysis psychotherapy. This approach supports clients to change in profound ways, to improve their lives, their relational patterns and ways of being in the world. It allows the psychotherapist and client to work at depth, in the long term, with complex psychological problems, including some that the medical profession would deem to be serious mental illnesses.
