Background to 3DTA - an illustrated
guide to transactional analysis
In the late 1950's psychological theory was available only to academics,
medics, psychiatrists and psychologists who had a particular interest
in mental health. Eric Berne, the father of Transactional Analysis,
wanted to make its ideas and principles easily accessible to everyone.
3DTA follows strongly in that tradition.
At the start of Chapter 6 of Berne's Transactional Analysis
in Psychotherapy (The classic Handbook to its principles)
he says: "Structural
diagrams, which are necessarily drawn in two dimensions, would better
represent the situation if they could be three dimensional; or even
if such a thing could be made clinically intelligible, four dimensional.
Nevertheless, they are sufficiently thought provoking features in
the two dimensions".
Since Berne
first published those words, many thoughts have been provoked. They
set me thinking about how much more "thought provoking"
his ideas would have been if he had been able to represent them
in three dimensions as he had wished.
Today, 3D graphic imagery is all around us. 3DTA is an amalgamation
of some basic TA principles and concepts and today’s 3-dimentional
graphic tools. I hope that this CD does justice to Bernes’
concepts and some of the ideas of his fellow thinkers.
3DTA is not a training manual, but a simple guide to some of TA‘s
most important concepts presented in a graphic way. Transactional
Analysis, while basically being two very straight forward words,
does add up to eight syllables! In my experience, the majority of
people raise their eyebrows in confusion at first hearing them.
Clients and friends, often asked me for simple background information
about TA that can "...help us speak the same language".
This CD is a very simple guide to some of the terminology used in
TA…. in 3D!
Who is 3DTA- an illustrated guide… for?
Any one who can read….
It was originally designed for clients. I realised that some clients
were very happy for me to spend our time together with me teaching
them TA which meant they could then avoid doing any of the real
‘work’ of therapy…doing the ‘thinking’
as a means of avoiding the ‘feeling’.
I decided to create something that meant they could take something
home with them and learn what ever they wanted about the principles
we touched on in their own time. It enabled us to speak the same
language….it was something they could use to refer back to
and we could spend our time together doing ‘therapy. (Author
Jules Marshall)
After its initial
launch (unfinished) at the South East TA conference in 2003, and
demonstrations at other TA conferences, the appeal of the CD went
beyond clients. Anyone who is interested in TA, especially in the
area of basic TA knowledge, would find the CD of interest.
3DTA
- for trainees
It was at the UK National conference of the ITA in Reading, 2004,
that requests were made and queries posed by people in Advanced
Training for a similar educational aide. This prompted the creation
of ‘3DTA - for trainees’
This CD will be released in 2004 and will look at subjects a trainee
may find helpful. The basic structure of the CD will be in the form
of a Treatment plan, to assist the therapist/client unit in their
journey towards the desired outcome. It will use various tools such
as
Structural Analysis
Functional Analysis
Game/Racket Analysis
Impasse Resolution
Process Models
Personality Adaptations
Models of Development |
