About Therapy

Transactional analysis is humanistic form of psychotherapy and counselling that is widely used in personal, individual, couples and work associated therapy across the world. It is built on the premise that everyone is fundamentally OK and that everyone has the capacity to think. In addition, we make unconscious decisions about life and its meaning when very young but these decisions can be changed. These decisions or beliefs about ourselves, others and the world feed into the life plan (or Life Script) we unknowingly create for ourselves. Increasing awareness of this process can free us to make new decisions bringing us greater freedom and enjoyment of life.

From a Transactional Analysis perspective, a person can operate from one of three ego states at anyone time and can flick between these operating systems within moments. 

In the Adult ego state, we are operating in the here and now, we process the information in an unbiased way, a bit like a computer and think, feel and behave accordingly. 

When in a Child ego state we are thinking, feeling or behaving more like we did as a child. This means we could be free and having spontaneous fun, but also could be being adapted or rebellious. Sometimes we can identify exactly how old we feel in a certain situation (e.g. feeling like you are being sent to the headmasters office). 

In the Parent ego state we revert back to the message we picked up from our care givers. Have you ever thought “Oh no, I just did, said or behaved exactly as my Mum would have done”. We could be nurturing or critical.

Which ego state we operate from not only affects how we feel, think or behave but also how we interact with others. You can imagine how you might feel angry if a work colleague is operating from Parent ego state and tells you off as if you are a child and them the parent. Hence awareness of our own internal processing can influence our interactions and relationships with others.