From Transactional Analysis in education to Educational Transactional Analysis: a personal encounter

Abstract

I became an educational transactional analyst almost by accident. TA was prov- ing very effective in my counselling work and I had joined a psychotherapy training group – because that was the only TA training that was available in the UK nearly thirty years ago. I had no idea when I started that it was possible to actually qualify in the education field, but when I discovered that it was I could see how all my pre- vious professional experience (social work and social work training, youth work, women’s groups, community development projects, adult education courses) couldbe framed in that way. Once I became a certified as an educational transactional ana- lyst, however, things soon changed. The evident usefulness of TA in schools, partic- ularly in behaviour support, and the network of people bringing the ideas into teach- ing meant that I was in demand even though I had never been a school teacher. Butthat didn’t matter – educators of all kinds were avid for ways of sharing TA in their work and were also realising what a difference it made to them personally in in- creasing their sense of self-worth and professional competence.