ABSTRACT
Berne used a metaphor of a stack of pennies to represent the development of the psyche, with a new penny being added to the stack each day. Berne invited the reader to imagine that trauma, adverse childhood experiences and such like would cause a bent penny to be added to the stack. It is reasonable to assume that clients will have ‘splinters’ in several of these domains, if not all, and that these will be intrinsically connected to their script. For example, most disorders involve negative affectivity to some extent or another. Efforts to help promote emotional regulation will help shift a client's overall mood. By looking for and identifying multiple splinters, the therapist can construct a comprehensive treatment plan that reflects the complexity and interactive nature of a client's process and presentation, and which systematically addresses their script and supports the emergence and activation of their physis, their intrinsic drive towards health and growth.
