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EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS N°104, JUNE 2012 EATA Newsletter Bucharest Architects‘ Association Building With pleasure we remind all TA trainers and 101 instructors that this year on July 12th and 13th the INTERNATIONAL TRAINERS MEETING will take place in Bucarest – in conjunction with exams, the General Assembly in the evening of the 11th and the EATA council meeting. The INTERNATIONAL TRAINERS MEETING of EATA is organized every three years as a place to learn, to exchange, to communicate, to have fun, to present, to get to know colleagues – in short to really be part of the international European TA community of teachers and trainers with all its richness. Invited by EATA free of charge are all TA trainers and 101 ins- tructors – not only from Europe but from around the world. All details about the place and dates are on the EATA website – www. eatanews.org – and all additional questions can of course be put to the EATA office. N°104, June 2012 EATA Newsletter Come to International Trainers Meeting to Bucharest EUROTAPA – The European TA Proficiency Awards – continues to expand across Europe, with interest also being shown in India and South Africa. Ulrika Widén, the National Co-ordinator EUROTAPA Italy, has prepared a presenta- tion that will be delivered by Milly De Michele at the ITAA Conference in India in July, and we may well end up with some international partners. Meanwhile, within Europe there have been award ceremonies run in the UK through 2011 and 2012, with a truly pan- European flavour when the Co-ordinator for Italy went to be the EUROTAPA Ambassador at the Award Ceremony in Armenia. Ulrika’s great description of this is included on page 3 ff. Also on page 3 ff is a report on how the scheme ran in the UK during 2011; this includes insights obtained during fol- low-up interviews with those involved. New developments include Croatia, where National Co-ordinator Martina Smolcic is doing a great job of looking after initiatives relating to a scheme already running in a school, another due to run in several kindergartens, another that will be for a group of teachers who want to get the TAPATE – TA Proficiency Award for Teachers & Educators – and yet another for parents of children with special needs. Also, the Education Section of DGTA – the German TA Association – have adopted the scheme and produced a very professional looking folder of materials for teachers to use. Julie Hay, Project Manager Please find details about experiences in different countries in this issue of EATA Newsletter page 3 ff. EUROTAPA continues to grow A student in Gyumri showing her work.

EATA Newsletter · EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS N°104 ... In this issue of the EATA newsletter I have the ... and others thanks to concepts like Okayness,

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EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS N°104, JUNE 2012

EATA Newsletter

Bucharest Architects‘ Association Building

With pleasure we remind all TA trainers and 101 instructors that this year on July 12th and 13th the INTERNATIONAL TRAINERS MEETING will take place in Bucarest – in conjunction with exams, the General Assembly in the evening of the 11th and the EATA council meeting. The INTERNATIONAL TRAINERS MEETING of EATA is organized every three years as a place to learn, to exchange, to communicate, to have fun, to present, to get to know colleagues – in short to really be part of the international European TA community of teachers and trainers with all its richness. Invited by EATA free of charge are all TA trainers and 101 ins-tructors – not only from Europe but from around the world.

All details about the place and dates are on the EATA website – www.eatanews.org – and all additional questions can of course be put to the EATA office.

N°104, June 2012 EATA Newsletter

Come to International Trainers Meeting to Bucharest

EUROTAPA – The European TA Proficiency Awards – continues to expand across Europe, with interest also being shown in India and South Africa. Ulrika Widén, the National Co-ordinator EUROTAPA Italy, has prepared a presenta-tion that will be delivered by Milly De Michele at the ITAA Conference in India in July, and we may well end up with some international partners.

Meanwhile, within Europe there have been award ceremonies run in the UK through 2011 and 2012, with a truly pan-European flavour when the Co-ordinator for Italy went to be the EUROTAPA Ambassador at the Award Ceremony in Armenia. Ulrika’s great description of this is included on page 3 ff.Also on page 3 ff is a report on how the scheme ran in the UK during 2011; this includes insights obtained during fol-low-up interviews with those involved.

New developments include Croatia, where National Co-ordinator Martina Smolcic is doing a great job of looking after initiatives relating to a scheme already running in a school, another due to run in several kindergartens, another that will be for a group of teachers who want to get the TAPATE – TA Proficiency Award for Teachers & Educators – and yet another for parents of children with special needs.

Also, the Education Section of DGTA – the German TA Association – have adopted the scheme and produced a very professional looking folder of materials for teachers to use. Julie Hay, Project Manager

Please find details about experiences in different countries in this issue of EATA Newsletter page 3 ff.

EUROTAPA continues to grow

A student in Gyumri showing her work.

2EATA Newsletter N°104, June 2012

In this issue of the EATA newsletter I have the pleasure to present a collection of interesting themes:

• Information and report about the activities of EUROTAPA - Transac-tional Analysis (TA) Proficiency Award – which is an important and growing activity to help children and young people in the development of literacy and culture with the help of TA. The program is supported financially by EATA.

• Research is again very present in this issue and shows how EATA’s activities to support research in TA get more and more interest in the membership. This time we have the review of the Research Book of Roland Johnsson from Sweden and again the clear and easy instruc-tions how to access the EATA research Journal – IJTAR – which is still free and where research articles are published continuously.

• Leilani Mitchell gives us interesting information about Twitter and I am delighted because the social media are more and more present in our daily lives – professionally as well as in our private lives – and at least I do not know much about them and their benefits and possible dangers.

• We have this time input from individual members about relevant the-mes in the TA community as: the role of ITAA in Europe and about exam experiences and quality.

• We have the report of the last conference of ITACA – International Transactional Analysts for Childhood and Adolescence – and the an-nouncement of the next one this year. Also we proudly present an ad for the next Spanish TA conference of APPHAT.

• In addition to this interesting content I want to remind you all that EATA is looking for a new editor for this newsletter – my term will end definitely by the end of this year – please send your application for this interesting and rewarding post to the EATA office. Any in-formation about the task is gladly offered by Marianne Rauter, our executive secretary, or myself.

With best wishes for a great summerJan Hennig

Editorial

is published by theEuropean Associationfor Transactional Analysisa non-profit associationregistered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mailing addressEATA, c/o M. RauterSilvanerweg 878464 Konstanz, GermanyFon:+49-7531-955190Fax: +49-7531-95271E-mail:[email protected]://www.eatanews.org

Editorial BoardJan Hennig, editorRosanna Giacometto

Managing EditorMarianne Rauter

TranslationFrench: n.n.German: Bea SchildItalian: Cristina CaizziRussian: Olga Tuchova, Lilit SargsyanSpanish: Carlos Ramirez

Frequency/Deadlinesfor copy and advertisingAugust 20 for October issue,December 20 for February issue,April 20 for June issue.

Subscriptionis a benefit of paying membershipand is not available separately.

Membershipis available directlyfrom Affiliated Associations

Non-European ITAA members may also subscribe from the EATA office.

EATA Newsletter

�N°104, June 2012 EATA Newsletter

Arriving in Yerevan, Armenia, the first thing you meet is a very colourful, new airport. The windows and in-terior decoration are coloured in red, orange and blue, like the Armenian flag. Walking around in the capital there is a lot of movement going on, old buildings are being torn down and new ones, very modern are ri-sing. The feeling I had was of a dynamic city, positive and innovating. Just like the atmosphere I felt meeting the TA representatives of Armenia, the teachers, psycho-logist, students and headmaster in the school of Yere-van where they during the last two years have run the EUROTAPACY project.

The reason I was in Armenia was to participate in ceremonies as “Ambassador”, representing the EUROTAPACY project, funded by EATA, and the body promoter, the IDTA (Institute of Developmental Transactional Analysis) in the UK. The EUROTAPACY project is about Educational Transactional Analysis, how young people can learn TA techniques to use in their lives, helping them to better understand themselves and others thanks to concepts like Okayness, the functional Ego-state model, strokes and theory of transactions. Communication is also an important theme that is being treated: using TA to understand what is not working, and how to make it work in dysfunctional moments of a dialog, for instance discovering what Rackets and Games are about. Being a ‘EUROTAPACY Ambassador’ means participating at the ceremonies of awarding certificates, listening to what the children have learned about TA and talking with the teachers and educators about their experience, looking at the portfolios of the students containing creative work about six topics, called “Tools”, to be chosen among the TA theoretical concepts. So what the Ambassador does with the local participants is giving feedback and strokes. Feedback on the work they’ve done, and strokes to the students who have participated, strokes to their teachers and educators that have learnt the concepts and been able to teach them to the students, and finally strokes to the TA organization that in that specific country has organized the classes. But the Ambassador is there also to learn: how TA is “inculturated” in different environments, how we can improve the project and how the concepts can be seen from different point of views. People of various ages, countries and background have with this project a chance to meet, being creative, interact and learn from each other. The groups in Armenia were situated in two different cities and settings. In the first one, in Yerevan, the psychologist of the ‘N114 High School after Khachic Dashkents’ had asked who of the students were willing to participate in the project, after the school hours. The enthusiasm was big among the students regarding the project, and they have even asked for the possibility to go deeper into the TA-concepts analyzing pieces of classical literature (like Tolstoy, or other famous authors), from a TA-point of view. This encouraged the teachers to go deeper into the concepts them-selves, and it also created curiosity about TA among the other students in the school, who were not participating in the project. The second group I met was organized in Arevamanuk, a child and family care foundation offering after-school ac-tivities in a town called Gyumri. The students were as in the previous group, about 14-15 years old: we spoke about the TA-concepts they’ve learnt and how they have been able to connect them to their lives. The educators spoke to me about how the project have been proceeding, how they have been feeling doing it, how to find solutions in

EUROTAPACY in Armenia – with an Ambassador from Italy

Yerevan, Republic Square

4EATA Newsletter N°104, June 2012

difficult situations in the classroom and doubt about the concepts of TA (And the importance of doing supervision with Julie Hay in these si-tuations!). In Armenia, the EUROTAPACY-project has created a lot of interest about TA among psy-chologists, teachers and educators who have seen the students connecting the tools to their everyday life. Examples of this were a psycho-logist, who asked information about how she could develop a project of TA with children with disabilities, and another psychologist, working in a art-museum, wondered if it would be possible to develop a project including art and Transactional Analysis, so we spoke about how to make that possible. It was very important for me to see how the tea-chers and educators have grasped the TA mate-rial, being able to teach the concepts in an easy and understandable way, without simplifying it. One example of how a 15 years old Armeni-an student related TA to her personal life like I liked a lot was: “I’m Ok you’re not Ok is like if I have chocolate but I keep it all to myself and I don’t give anything to you. You’re Ok I’m not Ok = I see you have the chocolate but you don’t offer any to me. I’m not Ok You Not Ok, nobody gets chocolate. I’m Ok you’re Ok, we both get chocolate and enjoy it together.”

Seeing the positive effect the knowledge about TA concepts has brought to these students and the satisfaction showed by their teachers and educators was a true pleasure for me and I wish that many other young people in different coun-tries will have the possibility to live an expe-rience like the students in Armenia.

By Ulrika Widén

In Yerevan from left: Karine Muradyan, the TAPACY teacher, Goya Levonyan from the Armenian TA Association AATA, Varduhi Shahnazaryan, National Coordinator Armenia and also translator , Ulrika Widén EUROTAPACY Ambassador (and National Co-ordinator Italy) and some students holding their EUROTAPACY Certificates.

In Gyumri, seated are Roza Muradyan and Anna Tumanyan, the TAPACY teachers; standing is Ulrika Widén EUROTAPACY Ambassador (and also National Co-ordi-nator Italy) and Varduhi Shahnazaryan, National Co-ordinator Armenia and also translator, seated in front is Goya Levonyan from the Armenian TA AATA.

�N°104, June 2012 EATA Newsletter

1. EUROTAPACY in the UK—promoting pupils’ emotional literacy

During the Spring and Summer term of 2011, over 100 pupils from Stam-ford Queen Eleanor, Grantham Isaac Newton and St Michael’s, Thorpe on the Hill participated in the county’s first TAPACY scheme. TAPACY - the Transactional Analysis (TA) Proficiency Award for Children and Young People – is an award scheme that seeks to promote pupils’ emotional litera-cy by introducing them to key ideas from TA .With a strong emphasis on encouraging pupils to reflect upon the ideas and apply them to everyday life, the programme has proved to be a very powerful means by which to develop their self-awareness and awareness of others. There were many accounts from both pupils and staff as to how effective this learning programme has been in helping pupils to engage better in lessons, strengthen their friendship skills and in some instances improve their behaviour quite significantly. As well as the children learning, staff also engage in the learning journey. All staff involved have already engaged in their own TA-based professional development, training that has had a profound impact upon their own classroom practice and leadership roles. TAPACY is highly dependent upon the quality of learning experiences the adults provide and the staff involved with this cohort demonstrated fantastic teaching and learning. BackgroundThe Lincolnshire School Improvement Service has been involved in introducing Transactional Analysis to school-based staff for the past five years. Over one hundred colleagues had completed their 101s by Spring 2011 and a num-ber of their schools had expressed a strong interest in further explorations as to how TA could support their school improvement plans. As part of this, Lincolnshire carried out its first TAPACY project during the Spring/Summer terms of 2011. Three schools were involved – Stamford Queen Eleanor (Secondary), Isaac Newton Primary and Thorpe St Michael’s Pri-mary. This involved just over one hundred pupils engaging in an exploration of TA concepts in a variety of different ways: Stamford QE – the lead teacher was able to devote a half term unit of work, teaching TA concepts through literacy lessons – using text (poetry) and DVD material. Isaac Newton – the person teaching TA worked with a specific group of Yr 4s and 5s who had been identified by class teachers as either having difficult behaviour or needing to have their confidence increased Thorpe St Michael’s Primary– the teacher walked her Y6 pupils through a programme of learning focusing upon supporting their transition to secondary school. Following the completion of the project, I was able to interview sample groups of pupils and also some of the staff involved to gather their perceptions as to how doing TAPACY had been helpful for them.It became very apparent that for both staff and pupils alike, there were common, inter-related areas where they could identify TAPACY as having had a positive impact. These centred on increased self-awareness, improved self-esteem and improved relationships, both pupil-to-pupil and teacher-to- pupil.

Increased self-awareness“(Drivers) help you go in life. They help you have a better understanding of yourself” (Y6 boy)“Now I realise that my behaviour affects how other people feel” (Y4 boy)All pupils spoke of how exploring TA had helped them to have a better understanding of themselves, and in particular of their own feelings and behaviour. This was a theme that ran through much of the feedback and is intertwined with the other key areas TAPACY impacted upon. As one teacher put it, “TAPACY isn’t a magic wand, but it does give the children tools to cope with their feelings.”

By Steve RussellSenior School Improvement Consultant – Behavioural Support

�EATA Newsletter N°104, June 2012

Improved self-esteem/Increased self-confidence“Doing TAPACY has helped me realise that we are all different – not just me”The interviews provided what I think would have been a relatively small snapshot of just how positively TAPACY impacted upon individual pupils’ self-esteem and had time allowed, it would have been interesting to have gathered more detailed feedback on this. Given that the pupils were talking of how looking at TA had led to improved beha-viour, more harmonious relationships with both peers and adults and improved learning, all key components to their self-esteem, it would be reasonable to suggest that exploring TA concepts in the way they did most probably had a very positive impact upon their self-esteem. Some specific feedback gathered about this included how beneficial pupils felt it had been to have time to share more personal things about themselves with their peers, promoting greater acceptance of both self and others. One girl spo-ke of how she felt her classmates, who had seen her as ‘a bit odd’ now had a more accurate picture of her – including a greater appreciation of her qualities. The same girl had been part of a group who looked at the Permission Wheel. This had proved to be very popular, with the pupils saying how much they had appreciated the way it allowed them to look at how they had changed over the year, and “helped us to feel better about ourselves.” And, of course, looking at strokes provided many opportunities to give and receive positive messages about one ano-ther. Staff included times within the project for youngsters to provide one another strokes, including writing a letter to a friend, sharing what specifically they appreciated about them. As a Y8 put it, “When we did strokes, I was on a high for the rest of the day”. One teacher, who hadn’t been directly involved in teaching TAPACY, spoke of how much more confident one of her class was having done it, with her regularly offering her own ideas and answers in class which she simply didn’t do prior to the project. The teacher had also sensed that the girl had started to shift her perception of herself from being a family of ‘wrong ‘uns’ to realising that she can do things and can succeed. Reducing Conflict/Improving Peer Relationships“TA helps bring the class together as a community – where we can find out about each other” (Y8)All pupils cited how they were much better able to get on with others having done TAPACY. Specifically they spoke of having an increased awareness of how their behaviour impacts upon others and, as a result, were trying to be more considerate towards peers. As a Y6 girl put it “I understand now that I can upset others”. A group of Y5 girls, with a long history of falling in and falling out with one another, spoke very passionately of how contracting had offered them a magic key to “unlocking better friendships, increasing our understanding of others and understanding feelings”. It was very evident in talking with them how they had become a far more cohesive group who clearly had a very good understanding as to just what a negative impact their behaviour had had upon one ano-ther – and were committed to ensuring this didn’t happen in the future. Indeed contracting was cited by several different groups of pupils as being a very useful tool for improving relation-ships. This was on two different levels. Firstly, contracting was cited by some as helping to build more trust in the classroom, particularly because people’s expectations were being made very clear and also included discussion of how one person’s behaviour can impact upon other people’s feelings. Secondly, when disputes did occur, pupils were now using contracting to help resolve these. And on that note, there was a wonderful account of how one of the Y4 boys, having been part of the contracting within the TA group, went home that same night, sat his mum and older brother down, drew the triangle (with himself at the top!) and said that he was fed up with all the arguments that were going on and that they needed a contract to stop these. Another great example of how TA served to promote greater acceptance and harmony within the classroom was that offered by the Y8 girls. They described how, prior to doing TAPACY, there used to be 2 distinct groups in the class-room – those who sat in the middle of the classroom and tended to chat a lot and get very little work done – and those on the outer circle who generally got their heads down. During TAPACY this started to change – and now, having completed it, there is no such distinction. What was particularly powerful here was that this description came from the

�N°104, June 2012 EATA Newsletter

very students who had been part of the inner circle. Very importantly, they also spoke of how, post-TAPACY, students were working with one another in groups that, prior to the project, they simply refused to work with. Pupil-Teacher Relationships“Doing TAPACY has helped bring the teacher and the students together” (group of Yr 8s)“TA really lets our feelings out. It really helps us understand each other and our teacher – and to celebrate dif-ference”. (Y6 girls) Another aspect of relationships that TAPACY was seen to impact upon was that of pupil-teacher. There was a strong sense from both pupils themselves of how their respective teachers had forged stronger relationships with them both during the process of teaching TAPACY and afterwards. This appears to have happened in several ways. Firstly, many of the pupils spoke of how they had experienced their teachers listening better to them, and valuing their ideas and opinions. One group in particular spoke very passionately about just how important this had been to them. Secondly, there was a tangible sense on the part of the pupils that their teachers had been more personally involved in the lessons/sessions. Some of the Yr 8s interviewed spoke of how “Miss was more involved (in the lessons)” – by which they meant that they really appreciated the way in which the teacher talked about how she could apply TA concepts to herself e.g. Windows on the World. The impact of this was very significant – as one pupil put it “I felt closer to her”. Similarly, another pupil cited how helpful it had been looking at affirmations. He believed that, because the teacher had asked the children to choose the affirmation(s) they particularly liked the sound of, she had a better appreciation of the pupils as individuals. The theme of being understood better and valued more as individuals by the teachers was a recurring one and was expressed strongly by younger and older pupils alike. Impact outside of schoolIn talking with both pupils and staff, several pieces of feedback pointed to the impact doing TAPACY has had on some of the children/young people outside of school:“I know now how to better understand my mum” (Y8 pupil) “I am so proud of how well he has worked” (From the grandparent of a Y4 boy)“I can’t believe the change – he’s growing up. He will now listen far more to what his mum tells him to do –and will usually do it without the strops he used to throw.” (Grandmother’s comment to the class teacher) Impact on engagement in learning“Kids want to come to English now” – feedback from one of the English teachers at SQE.“We are learning more than we were before we did TAPACY – even though we aren’t doing TA any more. We respect each other more and are behaving better” (from the English group)For a couple of pupils, their creative writing had improved noticeably, with far more content about feelings. Some general pointsThe pupils appreciated the fact that they weren’t bound by having to complete pen-and-paper tasks, and also the choice some of them were offered in terms of the type of activity they could do to demonstrate their learning. This is not peculiar to TAPACY – matching tasks to individual learning styles is a key aspect of any teaching. It might be that some of the staff felt better able to be more flexible because they weren’t feeling so constrained by meeting the targets associated with traditional curriculum subjects. Several also pointed to how powerful it had been to be part of a more collaborative approach to learning – working in partnership with their teachers, who themselves were very aware that they were learning as they were teaching. Again, this isn’t peculiar to TA – but it might be that the teachers were more aware themselves of their own learning journey. They had certainly been encouraged throughout TAPACY to focus on the process of learning – and this might have freed them up to be a bit more vulnerable in sharing their own ‘lack of knowledge’ with pupils.

�EATA Newsletter N°104, June 2012

Getting Involved

We now have TAPA Manuals for three kinds of schemes:

TAPACY – Children & Young People TAPATE – Teachers & Educators TAPACP – Caregivers & Parents

These three are run by the IDTA with financial support from EATA.

IDTA also has a contract with ICDTA – International Centre for Developmental TA – to run DTAVA, which are De-velopmental TA Vocational Awards. Similar to TAPAs, DTAVAs are for those such as Managers & Executives (DTA-VAME) who learn some TA, perhaps on organisational training courses, and produce evidence of their application of at least 6 TA concepts to their work. DTAVAS are, therefore, the organisational and counselling/coaching fields of applications to match the educational field TAPAs.

For more information about any TAPA or DTAVA options, including the option to create new target groups, please contact Julie Hay on [email protected]

Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy investigated through Johnsson’s research

Research studies on treatment outcome in psychotherapy must address a fundamental issue in defining of what the treatment consists. Roland Johnsson, in his book Transac-tional Analysis Psychotherapy, Three methods describing a TA group psychotherapy (published by the Department of Psychology, Lund University, Malmo, 2011), gives a significant contribution to the understanding of what the ingredients of a TA psycho-therapy are and, also, what the specific elements of a TA treatment are.

Johnsson’s book presents his doctoral dissertation and collects three different studies, linked in an overall project and accompanied and integrated by an overview of TA’s theory, method and history. The studies which were previously published, as single articles, in the International Journal of Transactional Analysis Research, the newborn Research Journal on the EATA web site, tackle three main areas of TA psychotherapy, namely diagnosis, treatment and therapeutic alliance. The overall aim of the research is to deepen the understanding of the active ingredients in a TA psychotherapy and to determine elements in TA, so as to make it a distinct and replicable method of treatment. As a matter of fact the book comes out as a complex and concise discussion of several questions related to TA and research in the psychotherapy field.

The first section of the book consists of a juicy presentation of the theory and method of TA and an introduction to the topical issues in the research on the psychotherapy outcome and process. In this frame of reference the Author gives an update on research in TA and on the studies on the TA efficacy, pointing out strengths and limits of the TA literature. The rich references mentioned by Johnsson are a specific point of interest.

The work of Roland Johnsson is impressive and shows a great love for research, considering that his studies were unfolded over twenty two years, in collaboration with some colleagues, his wife Annika Bjork included. Johnsson has analyzed a remarkable amount of recorded tapes and material related to the group psychotherapy which he ran for one year. The TA psychotherapy was mainly based on Goulding’s Redecision approach.

Davide Ceridono, PTSTA, P

Maria Teresa Tosi, TSTA, P

�N°104, June 2012 EATA Newsletter

The reader is struck by the rich and robust research methodology selected by Johnsson, as he uses a range of research approaches and investigation tools in the three studies. The research methodology is mainly drawn from the TA spe-cific research field but refers also to fundamental contributions in the wider research on psychotherapy. In the study on diagnosis the Author uses a script questionnaire and associated checklist developed by Ohlsson, Johnsson & Bjork (1992). In the study on the components of the psychotherapeutic TA approach, Johnsson resumes the operational definitions of categorisations by McNeel, developed and applied by him and an independent assessor to complete discourse analysis of transcripts of group therapy. In the study on the affective dimension of the therapeutic alliance, developed together with Gunvor Senland, two well-known methods in psychodynamic psychotherapy research are used: the CCRT (Core Conflictual Relationship Theme) method by Luborsky & Crits Christoph (1990) and the Plan Diagnosis method by Weiss & Sampson (1986). Moreover, in the three studies the analytic method of triangulation is used, which aims at integrating multiple sources of data. Different perspectives for collecting data are adopted and the Author’s evaluation is compared with the evaluations done by independent observers. The research is an intensive investigation on few subjects (10), thoroughly studied through quantitative and qualitative analysis. Among the points of interest of this book it is important to mention that many sessions’ transcripts are reported so that the reader can frame the single patients and have a clearer idea about the therapeutic interventions which are discussed in the study. Johnsson’s work represents a model of how to do qualitative/quantitative research on one’s own clinical practice de-veloping a meta-reflecting process over the years. It is also noteworthy that we have an example of the possibility to do research on a psychodynamic approach.

It is especially exciting to read the discussion of the research results. Johnsson highlights both the general and the spe-cific nature of TA approach “where both consistency and deviation from the therapy’s expected treatment methodolo-gy is apparent” (page 45). For example “mutual negotiation” appears as a specific component of the TA methodology, a sub-category of “contract”, while other categories like “specification-clarification”, which are recognized as typical of a TA treatment, tend to be represented also in other approaches. It is desirable to further develop the conclusion in the III study which shows that a more specific focus on the affective dimension of the therapeutic alliance is linked to a better outcome of the psychotherapy. In study I interesting conclusions can be drawn when we consider that some categories of the script diagnosis can be identified with more reliability. These results open some newsworthy questions which are indicated by Roland Johnsson himself: what are the main strengths and weaknesses of the TA me-thodology in terms of diagnosis, treatment method and therapeutic relational attitude; what is TA-specific and what is common to all psychotherapies; how important it is to bridge the gap between academic research and TA practice. A further line of research could be to continue to define TA “techniques” and different TA models of intervention and to find scales to measure the “adherence” in the therapeutic process.

This book is very readable despite the complexity of the discussion and the issues raised so we think it will be really enjoyed by the wide community of the TA practitioners. We strongly recommend it not only to those that are speci-fically interested in TA research work but also to those psychotherapists involved in a self-reflecting process on their own practice and wanting to improve their work and offer the best service to their clients.

ReferencesLuborsky, L. & Crits-Cristoph P. ( 1998). Understanding transference: The Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Method. (2nd ed.) Washington, DC, American Psychological Association.Ohlsson, T., Bjork, A. & Jonsson, R. (1992). Transaktions-analytisk psycoterapi. Lund: StudenlitteraturWeiss, J. & Sampson, H. & the Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group. (1986). The Psychoanalytic Process. Theory, Clinical Observations and Empirical Research. New York: Guilford Press

10EATA Newsletter N°104, June 2012

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Using Twitter

Twitter is here to stay! It was started about five years ago. There are now 500,000 new accounts daily, 140 million tweets daily and 1 billion tweets every 8 days – that’s a lot of communication. Social media has changed the way people network, market and communicate with others. It is a very powerful tool and as transactional analysts, we have the possibility of using it to promote ourselves and our products.

I started using Twitter about a year ago, albeit reluctantly. It didn’t really make sense to me, seemed like a waste of time and I was not sure it was worth the effort. A year later I have found many benefits. It has increased my business by at least 10%. I expect this to grow year on year, exponentially.

Marketing takes time, or money, or both – Twitter is free but does take time. However, the effort has certainly been worth it for me and my training centre.

When thinking about it from a TA perspective, Twitter is all about strokes, transactions, communication, relationships and attachments. It’s communication, as a past time – building relationships and forming attachments with others. It’s NOT about selling yourself or directly promoting what you do. Over time – the people you interact with get to know what you do. The more people who know what you offer – the more business you will get.

11N°104, June 2012 EATA Newsletter

You can Google Twitter and join very easily. When selecting your Twitter name, I suggest you use your own. Gene-rally it’s yourself you want to promote. People like to connect with people and not companies.

Twitter allows you to search people/locations/topics for you to follow at the top of your home page. For example – my searches include Transactional Analysis, Sussex, Kent, Counselling, Psychotherapy and local towns to me. To begin with I suggest you find about 50 people to follow – some of them will then follow you. Successful marketing on Twitter is about quality of followers and not quantity. Generally, I would suggest not fol-lowing those who do not follow you, unless they are a useful resource of information. I now follow approximately 2200 people and have about 2000 followers. This means that every time I tweet there are potentially 2000 people who could read it. If you would like – you can search me at @leilanimitchel and watch what I do. I am happy to help people while they are learning, so just send me a tweet. Note – it has to have my name in it for me to receive it.

Tweets themselves are short messages of no more than 140 characters; you will be surprised how much you can com-municate in such a short word count. Just engage with people, respond to what they have said, talk about the weather, what sort of day you are having, ask questions etc. Your aim is to build relationships with others.

There are different ways of sending messages – you can send a general public tweet which might be something like – What a glorious day it is in Sussex. How is it where you are?

Or a public tweet, but to the person you want to see it. It would look something like this– @leilanimitchel Hey Leilani I have just joined twitter, can you or anyone else give me some advice?

Or you can send a private tweet which will only be seen by the person you send it to – it might look something like this– Mark shall we go out for dinner tonight? Xx

You will learn these things over time.

You can also re-tweet other people’s messages. This is a way of forwarding their messages on to your followers. I suggest that you re-tweet (RT) for others, as they are then more likely to re-tweet something for you. By re-tweeting, the tweets will reach a wider audience.

Apart from the business advantages - which is why I joined Twitter, there have also been unexpected benefits. I have re-homed my dogs, received free marketing advice, made new friends, re-connected with old acquaintances, been as-ked to present at two events, had some fun, found someone to build a room in my garden, received advice on eczema and been helped with presentations. I have also been able to recommend people to each other. Another advantage is being able to connect with the TA community. I have been helping people to use Twitter and we now have a number of people using Twitter, worldwide. Some are of course more active than others, but it has been lovely to see and hear, what other TA people are up to.

One thing to watch out for is spammers and prostitutes. The prostitutes are usually easy to spot – they generally have naked photos of themselves. They tweet infrequently and don’t cause any problems - but you may not want to follow them as others can see who you follow.

The other problem is spam. Sometimes you may be sent spam – usually in a direct message. If you receive a tweet you are suspicious of - delete it – they are usually quite obvious.

It is important to remember that whatever you tweet (apart from direct messages) is out there in the public domain. For those of us that are therapists we need to consider how much we want people to see of us. Generally it will be your followers – and you can block people – but anyone can potentially read it. We need to tweet ethically and be aware of that potential. Don’t tweet anything you would not say publicly and remember – Alcohol and Twitter don’t mix!

Leilani Mitchel

12EATA Newsletter N°104, June 2012

Meeting the child through play

90 participants and 15 speakers: these are the figures of the Fourth Seminar in Lavarone, that took place on the 26th, 27th and 28th August 2011, titled Meeting the child through play. The event was organised by the I.T.A.C.A. Association (International Transactional Analysts for Childhood and Adolescence), which is a Study and Research Group on Psychotherapy and Counselling.

People who work with children and adolescents have the need and desire to meet each other, to study, think and talk together. In Lavarone, many teachers, counsellors, therapists, educators, pediatricians, psychologists and psychiatrists shared thoughts, experiences, and books, with energy, creativity and motivation. “It was impossible not to pay attention”, was one of the participants’ comment.

The speakers presented their works in the field of prevention and care, the participants asked questions, expressed their reflections and networked. Dolores Munari Poda, citing Paul Klee, pointed out that the work of those who have to deal with children is genesis, evolution, essence; this inevitably implies the development of an aptitude toward intellectually honest and humble research.

Since its foundation, ITACA’s purpose has been:

• To promote, study in depth, integrate and spread Transactional Analysis with children and adolescents, both in its practical and theoretical applications in the clinical, counselling and educational fields.

• To promote, study in depth, integrate and spread Transactional Analysis between all adults that live or work with children and adolescents.

• To become a place to exchange information between people who, at different levels (in practice or through re-search in the clinical, educational or social fields), deal with children and adolescents that live permanently or temporarily in Italy, with parents of any origin, culture and language.

• To be a place where to meet, train and educate, open to all institutions, both public and private, involved in the fields of school, health-care and public administration, that deal with childhood and adolescence. (Art. 2, ITACA statute)

These days in Lavarone have shown that all these purposes are not over-ambitious: encounter is possible, research is necessary and Transactional Analysis is alive.The African proverb quoted by Dolores Munari Poda to close the seminar illustrates ITACA’s spirit: If you want to run, then go by yourself; if you want to go far, go with others.

The seminar has been a mirror of the times: important themes and possible new branches of research have been identified in the field of prevention of psychic distress and its treatment.The desire to collaborate with each other between workers of different areas and fields of applications, involving also workers from other European countries, has become clear.

We concluded by opening to the métissage between the different orientations’ development theories.“I.T.A.C.A. will continue its commitment offering space to differences and new thoughts, because Every difference is precious and must be treasured”1, as Margaret Mead and Berne’s philosophy reminds us.Transactional Analysis in the age of development is a boundary therapy, a precious and exclusive encounter.

It is also a natural bridge between many different kinds of knowledge.

1 Mead M., Sex and Temperament, William Morrow & C., NY, 1935, 1950, 1963, Blackberry Winter, Copyright 1972.

1�N°104, June 2012 EATA Newsletter

To meet a child means to work on his developing script, to know his world and his struggle to be in the world. It means to respect him, his origins, his dreams.

“There is hope, I think, for the human adventure to be considered as a whole and for the human knowledge, pur-sued respecting life, to bring life”, Mead wrote in 1972. Words we endorse, knowing the strong risks that children and adolescents have been exposed to in the past and present.

The innovative aspect of our commitment to research and clinical practice is that we draw on the whole theoretic corpus of Transactional Analysis, as it was originally proposed by Eric Berne, but enriched, with regards to the work with children, by subsequent contributions, and integrated with the recent discoveries of neuroscience and of Infant Observation.

The Study Group is open to all the people who care about children, about their present and their future; to those Ita-lian and foreign Associations (not only the ones that work with Transactional Analysis), interested in studying the different ways of taking care of children. It tries to be a place for peace, encounter and dialogue also for those who work with adults, because “Every grown-up owns a child heart.” (Dolores Munari Poda, www.versoitaca.org)

The Fifth Seminar, that will take place between the 24th and the 26th August 2012, proceeds in this di-rection. It will be entitled “Teacher, pedagogist, psychologist, psychoanalist, transactional analyst. Fanita English: an open work.”

The event will take place in Lavarone like all the previous ones. Lavarone is a place on the mountains of the Italian region of Trentino, where Freud spent several summer holidays. English translation provided.

Cristina Capoferri, [email protected] www.versoitaca.org

Agenda of EATA General Assembly onJuly 11th 2012 at 19.00 pm in Bucharest

1. Welcomes and presentation of officers and delegates2. Vote: Approval of the minutes: General Assembly 2011 in Bilbao3. President’s report4. Treasurer’s report5. Vote: Acceptance of the accounts and vote to give release to the Council and officers6. Vote: Proposal for changes in the statutes (see EATA homepage www.eatanews.org)7. Award: GoldMedal8. Award: COC SilverMedal for examiners9. Miscellaneous10. Good bye’s Sabine Klingenberg EATA President

EATA General Assembly

14EATA Newsletter N°104, June 2012

The thinking of an European ITAA fan and EATA member from Slovenia

Connection to the ITAA and EATA ia about connection to people. Perhaps a connection to TA is the same as a connection to the people who »do« transactional anlysis. I want to thank all of the people who are part of this.TA is a big idea. I attended my first congress in Zagreb (Croatia- former Yugoslavia) in 1989 or perhaps a bit later. It was fantastic being part of it at that time for me, and i dare to say for many of us there.

An in depth analysis is required to understand why ITAA, at least in Europe, is no longer regarded as very signifi-cant in what it offers members – at least not as significant as EATA.. There are some clear and rational reasons for this, such as ITAA is not the association in Europe which oversees most of our training. We don‘t so often meet the elders of TA these days who were identified with the ITAA. The USA is regarded as the home territory of the iTAA and that is a long way from Europe. There are very good teachers in Europe, as there are all over the world.

So what‘s the problem? The problem really lies in the psychological distance one feels in relation to the ITAA. Some of these feelings are archaic. Since we entered a new era of globalism it means easy internet connections and cheap phone bills for more and more of us. This brings a new potential for the ITAA as it decreases the distance and the feeling of being distant.

In a recent Skype conversation with the ITAA president John Heath it was possible for me to connect easily: I didn‘t have to have a ticket for San Fracisco to meet him and nor did he have to leave his home in England. But we solved the problem and said hello.

I continue by sharing some of my thoughts and by recognising that there is a uniqueness in the ITAA association which we can probably never replace in the future. Its historical identity gives it enormous potential because it is explicitly »worldwide«, and it embraces all forms of TA theory and practice, unlike any other TA association. Its mission is to hold every individual all over the world as OK and to reach out to them through the medium of TA.The ITAA is not just an association, it also embodies a message which illuminates our basic ethic and the episte-mology of Okness. The ITAA really does stand up for and represent TA‘s big idea.

»It is OK to connect globally« could be a nice title for one of our future conferences I think. It is OK to be a mem-ber of a national association or an EATA affiliated association, but mostly these associations are not themselves part of the ITAA any longer.

That‘s a pity I think. It may well change nothing at the social level for us all to be associated with the ITAA but it would make a big difference in our sense of identity and in the decision making that comes out of the sense of who we are and who we belong with. It could resolve some of the impasses that exist between various organisational power bases, particularly the ITAA and EATA and consequentialy same identity confusion we may feel sometimes about.

I am therefore sending this unequivocal message to all members of both of those eminent organisations as well as to other great TA organisations around the word. Many of you probably already know it. Let‘s stick together. Let‘s let the ITAA hold that for us all wherever we live and whatever kind of TA we practice.

Healing organisational functioning is about healing people… There‘s no better way to do this than by building connection.

There is more to be said of course. But that, in its simplest form, is the beginning I offer.

Martin Bertok TSTA-psychotherapy

Individual letters, representing personal points of view

1�N°104, June 2012 EATA Newsletter

Individual letters, representing personal points of view

Alchemy and Physis: A Reflection of my Journey to the Oral CTA ExamOne year ago a violent intrusive foreigner forced its way into my seemingly settled world; Christchurch, New Zealand suffered a second devastating earthquake, the first occurred in September 2010. No one in our city was unaffected on 22nd February 2011, 185 people were killed and the central business district was severely damaged, it is still walled off today as buildings continue to be demolished.

On 22nd February 2012 I was at my briefing for the oral exam in Rome, and on the 23rd February I sat my oral exam. The previous year at this time I was organizing a water supply, food, a power source and sanitation, I had no running water, no power and no sewage system for five days in my cosmopolitan city. I never dreamed that I would be in Rome one year later in an exam that offered me nourishment, a container to share my inner contents and an energy that warmed me in our mutual exchange together.

In my CTA written examination I wrote about the therapeutic relationship using the analogy of a lava lamp. This analogy also fits with my experience of my oral examination. A lava lamp requires specific elements to function; a container, exact proportions of alcohol and water, oils and a source of energy (electricity). The alcohol and water (therapist and client) are mixed in exact proportions to enable oil formations to raise taking shape (the uncon-scious) using an energy source (chemistry /attraction) held in a container (psychotherapeutic frame).

New Zealand and Italy mixed well with four examiners and me, the proportions were exact. There was an energy present, enthusiasm and interest to be together. This was held by the container in the form of the CTA handbook, the exam supervisor, who warmly held the exam process, and a venue hosted by transactional analysts who gave generously of their time. All of these elements enabled shapes to take form as our transactions together in the exam room gave life to content and process in our brief relationship together.

Something that struck me in the briefing for the exam was that the briefing content mirrored that of my mock oral exam in Christchurch and I was reassured to have that congruence. I thank my trainer and supervisor for her tho-rough preparation with me. I was feeling particularly anxious at the start of the briefing because I knew I couldn’t ‘pop’ home to get any forgotten items! One feature of the exam board that I felt added value to my experience was having a CTA who had passed her exam within the last year. The wisdom and experience of the three examiners at TSTA level complemented the fresh experience and wisdom of the examiner at CTA level as the four worked together as a team sharing their strengths.

My experience as a CTA examinee was not simply a process of booking a flight to a destination in the hope of re-ceiving a qualification, it was so much more. Over the years my journey involved finding my own way to ‘be’ as a psychotherapist and this challenged me at various times. I realised that I needed an anchor to stay with this process and I found it early in my training through my reading of past TAJs where I discovered to my delight Novellino and Steiner’s letters (TAJ 2005). Here is a beautiful example of difference and commitment to self. I held onto these men’s differences to begin to build my own separateness as a transactional analyst. My personal psychoanalytic experience has contributed significantly to my learning as a psychotherapist just as Berne’s experience as a psy-choanalytic patient contributed to his learning, experience and beliefs on being in the world.

When I saw the 2012 calendar for exams I knew where I needed to go; Rome. I am thankful to those who work to produce the TAJ as I have available to me a wealth of information and access to local and international authors’ work. It is here that I was to discover Italian authors’ work produced in English for me to digest.

Thank you to the transactional analysts of Italy, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, and India who attended the exams and who were so willing to connect with me, your warmth remains with me,

Con affetto, Vicky Peterson, CTA(P), Christchurch, New Zealand

1�EATA Newsletter N°104, June 2012

Exam successes

Congratulations to the successful candidates and a warm welcome to our newly certified colleagues.

Turin, Special exams23rd March 2012

CTA-PMassimo EandiFederica ArpiccoAlessia PiccoBarbara De MarchiSilvia Maggi

Congratulations!

CTA Caragnano Désirée (P)Chandran Sashi (C)Cioffi Valeria (P)Peterson Vicky (P)Bernardini Agnese (P)Vitali De Bonda Flaminia (P)Bernardo Maria Concetta (E)Miglionico Renia (P)Messineo Pamela (P)Douglas Ellie (P)Covelli Elisabetta (E)

TSTAAnna Emanuela Tangolo TSTA -PPatrizia Vinella TSTA -CMark Head TSTA -PMay Senior-johnson TSTA -P

TTARoberta Sanseverino TTA-P

Rome, Italy22 - 23 February 2012

2012 Harrogate, UK, 12th - 15th April 2012

CTA Marian Gittins CTA-PMary Goldstein CTA-PSheri Barke-Asuni CTA-PSusan Curtis Jones CTA-PJanet Fengerous CTA-PRachel Curtis CTA-PAnthony Prendergast CTA-P Graham Keating CTA-PHarry Gerth CTA-O

TSTA Gabriele Frohme TSTA-P, Germany Elena Soboleva TTA-P, Russia

TEvW successes

The TEW is an evaluative process designed to evaluate Provisional Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analysts (PTSTA‘s) as CTA supervisors and teachers in their field. The following members passed successfully their TEvW and now are CTA trainers. Congratulations!

BudapestDec, 2-4, 2009

Dörthe Verres, GermanyDr. Sigrun Ritzenfeldt-Turner, GermanyUli Helm, Germany

BarcelonaDec. 1-3, 2010

Emilio Riccioli, ItalyIolanda Angelucci, ItalyRita Inglese, ItalyMargot Ruprecht, Switzerland Ulrike Sell, GermanyLaurie Joan Hawkes, France

LisboaDec. 3-5, 2011

Roos Ikelaar, NetherlandsBettina Banse, GermanyUlrike Marwedel, GermanyRaffaela Barbon, ItalyDr. Klaus Sejkora, Austria

1�N°104, June 2012 EATA Newsletter

Exam Calendar

Exam Exam Date 2012 LocationTEW July 4 / 6th Bucharest, RomaniaCTA / TSTA July 10 / 11th Bucharest, RomaniaCTA / TSTA November 8 / 9th FranceTEW November 13 / 15th Rösrath near Cologne, GermanyCTA / TSTA November 15 / 16th Rösrath near Cologne, GermanyTEvW – For CTA trainer December 2 / 4th Thessaloniki, GreeceTEW * December 6 / 8th Thessaloniki, Greece

Dates for 2012 and Venues of COC oral TA examinations and TEW‘s

*only for the participants of the TPW in Budapest 2009

Exam Exam Date 2013 LocationTEW March 24 / 26th Nice, FranceCTA / TSTA July 2 / 3rd Oslo, NorwayTEW July 8 / 10th Oslo, NorwayTEvW – For CTA trainer December 1 / 3rd Catania (Sicily), ItalyTEW * December 6 / 8th Catania (Sicily), Italy

Dates for 2013 and Venues of COC oral TA examinations and TEW‘s

*only for the participants of the TPW in Barcelona 2010

Conferences

November 12 / 13th 2012 EATA 2nd TA Research Conference Venue - Putteridge Bury Conference Centre, Luton, England

27th October 2012 International EATA-ColloquiumEsslingen/N (region of Stuttgart), Germany Script and and the contribution of Transactional Analysis to a healthy development of children and young people All CTAs, PTSTAs and TSTAs are invited to participate! Presentations byRosemary Napper, TSTA-E, UK Trudi Newton, TSTA-E, UK Agnès le Guernic, TSTA- E, France Gudrun Jecht-Hennig, TSTA-P, Germany

EATA Conference 2013 will take place in Oslo, NorwayJuly 4th - 6th, 2013