ABSTRACT

A key component of effective supervision is our willingness to engage with new frameworks, to investigate them 'in the round' with our supervisees, jointly applying them to develop new understandings. Transactional Analysis (TA) began in the early 1960s, when Eric Berne set out to create a psychology that could be easily understood and which emphasised the mutuality between practitioner and client. From the beginning, he used diagrams to explain the concepts, expressing them in simple, everyday language. TA explores the observable interactions and the modes of behaviour that derived from the egostates by monitoring and diagnosing interactions. This chapter talks about 'parallel process' and psychological games, or at least invitations to engage in games. The drama triangle is a highly effective way of looking at what may be happening; the winners' triangle is a good way of changing the parallel into a positive; and, finally, the social roles triangle enables to focus on the underlying intention or need.