An investigation into the factors that influence the perceived experiences and outcomes for students training in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy in the UK and USA

Abstract

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) (Smith, 1995) was applied to data from 21 out of 50 participants who had shared their training experiences during semi-structured interviews. Subjects were chosen from trainees and trainers in the USA and UK, to include ‘generations’ from those trained by transactional analysis originator Dr Eric Berne through to recently qualified transactional analysis psychotherapists, and including some who had ceased training before qualifying.Results suggest that TA psychotherapy training is experienced by some as a transformational, life enhancing and reparative experience that culminates in a satisfying and rewarding career, whilst for others it is perceived as an abusive, punitive and punishing experience, bringing disillusionment, disappointment and dissatisfaction. The main contributing factors were the students’ personal belief systems, motivations for undertaking the training, and relationships with the trainer, peers and the profession as a whole. Analysis of the themes suggested that subsequent anxieties raised by participants concerned lack of information, inconsistencies in training offered by different establishments, reasons for trainees entering training and trainers’ reasons for accepting them, and the significant time and resource requirements of the training. The paper includes recommendations aimed at making the training experience one that upholds the basic philosophical principles and values of TA, and promotes, develops and enhances TA psychotherapy training.

An Effective Training Model of Applied Basic Transactional Analysis Module to Improve Problem-solving Skill on Parent–Child Relationship in Indonesia

“…A study conducted by McQuaid revealed that the reason for training participants who did not complete the activities was due to heavy workload, less enthusiasm, poor life script, financial problems, and less support [11]. The drop-out rate, which was more than 10% had been an issue for the power of our study.…”

“…TA knowledge may help the students discover and explore their self-potency to be more creative and particularly, it was recommended as an approach in the educational system for the students [17]. Training on TA may also help the students to increase individual quality, enhance the quality of their motivation to participate in the training program and to improve the quality of the relationship between the trainer and peer-groups [11,14]. Moreover, TA can also be used as a theoretical and methodological guideline in establishing a diagnosis and understanding social interaction, which can be helpful for understanding communication problems found in social interaction [23].…”

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Therapists’ Experience of Working Through the COVID-19 Global Emergency using Transactional Analysis

“…This is in turn is analysed by the researcher creating a double hermeneutic (McLeod, 2011;Pietkiewicz and Smith, 2012;Smith, Flowers and Larkin, 2009). McQuaid (2015) makes the point that this correlates with the TA concept of script (Berne, 1972) in that each individual's life script is unique to them and may not "necessarily make sense to someone else as they have a different Script and view life through an alternative frame of reference" (Schiff, 1975;cited by McQuaid, 2015, p.32).…”

Research into professional outcomes for psychotherapists trained at a centre for psychotherapy and transactional analysis in Italy

“…Since then, a search for 'profession' in Ohlsson's (2010) 'Big List', where he listed details of TA research studies, generated entries only in terms of the biographical details of authors. A similar search in the online International Journal of Transactional Analysis Research leads only to an article by McQuaid (2015) which focuses on the experiences of students during training.…”