The first time I came across Transactional Analysis (TA) a friend of mine gave me a book called “The Games People Play”. It was fascinating to get a hint of what happens internally as people are interacting. And with this little bit of knowledge the story behind how people relate became apparent. After being introduced to the “Ego State Model”
The first time I came across Transactional Analysis (TA) a friend of mine gave me a book called “The Games People Play”. It was fascinating to get a hint of what happens internally as people are interacting. And with this little bit of knowledge the story behind how people relate became apparent. After being introduced to the “Ego State Model” I knew I was going to become a TA therapist. Suddenly my internal world made sense, and I had a language that explained clearly what I did, why I did it repeatedly and what I needed to do to change it. The Ego State Model was so simple, it consisted of 3 circles placed one on top of the other which represented Parent, Adult and Child this constituted a basic representation of a person. Parent representing any parent figures from the past, Adult representing here and now thoughts, feelings and behaviour and the Child representing how the person would have felt, thought or behaved as a child and how that impacts the now. Once I gathered the Adults role was to mediate what appeared as a perpetual battle between the Parent and Child I was sold. Its simplicity is its genius. Seeing how people interact with themselves, others and the world through the eyes of the Ego State Model began my love affair with Transactional Analysis (TA).
