A Bit More About TA

Today, I’ll quote one of my trainers.

When I started my TA training (initially just for personal development—I was happy in the corporate world and had no thoughts of a career change), there was a lot of buzz and discussion in the training group about the CTA exam (Certified Transactional Analyst). I wasn’t paying much attention; the conversations didn’t really affect me, and this remained true for many years.

However, when I eventually became interested, even the written exam seemed like such a distant goal. Keeping in mind TA’s accessible language and the explicit intention for Transactional Analysis to be for everyone, I once asked my trainer—while listening to the complex description of the written exam and the extensive requirements for candidates:

• “But why so complicated? Berne wanted it to be simple.”

And the response:

• “Berne also wanted it to be professional.”

The accessible language of Transactional Analysis makes things very clear for everyone. As a therapist, it gives me simple, easy-to-understand tools to convey complex models and information to my clients. In this way, many of them gain clarity about their own intrapsychic processes. But this requires the TA therapist to be deeply trained, in order to facilitate such a process.

This is one of the first ways clients benefit from a corrective emotional experience: by understanding why they feel, think, or behave in a certain way—which, right now, might be limiting them.

And from there, the process of change can begin.