ABSTRACT
Traditionally, transactional analysts have either not stroked (acknowledged) racket feelings, or have confronted them (Stewart, 2007). This presupposes that the `therapist knows best' and can accurately identify a feeling as a racket or not. In practice this ability to detect in the moment is not so easy, nor is it necessarily helpful to either ignore a feeling or to confront a particular feeling a client may be experiencing. When clients arrive for therapy, they are seeking a safe space where they can explore. When clients are disclosing their feelings, they initially need all of their feelings to be accepted, and for the therapist to understand them ± to understand the client's frame of reference and to begin to see why the client feels the way they do. Once these initial presenting feelings have been empathically accepted, then the client may feel safe enough to explore the underlying feelings.
