I am a qualified counsellor (PG Dip.Couns.) and UKCP trainee in advanced clinical psychotherapy training at Transactional Analysis Cymru.
I work with Individuals and Couples over the age of seventeen.
Transactional Analysis (TA) is elegant, tried and tested.
TA is a model of psychotherapy developed from the original principles of Eric Berne.
TA has remained a vital and vibrant resource to assist people in discovering the root of their thoughts and behaviours and reflect on the usefulness of those ways of thinking and being in their lives today.
My job as a therapist is to assist you to discover what is happening out of your awareness, when you are on 'autopilot' if you will, and bring it into your conscious thought.
With my support, you will look at what you instinctively think and believe about yourself and others. Some of the things you discover will be helpful, others less so.
I will assist you in strengthening your resources, learning new skills and ways of thinking. You will grow in emotional literacy and learn resilience and self-care techniques.
Transactional Analysts are interested in your transactions with other people and with yourself. What stories have you told yourself to explain your life, choices, recurring relationships, successes, and failures? Where did you get these ideas? Are they helpful to you? Are they true? What has happened to you that caused you to make these decisions and embrace your beliefs about yourself, about others?
Using the TA principles of starting from the understanding that you and I are equally capable of thinking and considering, I will present the TA models in everyday language. You and I will work together to apply them to your life. These models will help you consider situations and make decisions long after we stop working together.
A crucial TA principle is Contracting: you and I must agree on what you want to work on – long- and short-term goals. We can change and modify the Contract as we go along; I'll suggest a direction for our work; you will raise topics as they arise in your life. By Contracting as we go, we avoid the idea that the therapist is 'all-knowing' and the client to be 'instructed.' Instead, you and I have a shared endeavour in which we are both invested.
I have benefited hugely from TA counselling and psychotherapy myself and I am regularly impressed by the way that TA brings about understanding and change in my client's perceptions of their situation, leading to growth and greater autonomy.
Together we will explore the story of your life so far, your hopes for your future. Do you feel stuck? Is something holding you back from seeking out your longed-for future? Perhaps you experience recurring patterns of behaviour, yours or other people's, which are unhelpful, stifling? Do you want to change something but don't know how? Or what to change?
You are not alone; many people, me included, have benefited from the opportunity to unravel and consider what goes on in our heads. We will consider your assumptions about yourself or others, your ideas about 'proper' ways of being, and your inherited beliefs. While many of these things will be very useful to you, there will be some you might want to replace or update with new information. When you begin to see yourself clearly, you can consider your relationships in a different light; this, in turn, allows you to choose how best to use your personal resources, work out what you need in a situation, and access it.
Sadly, I am not a Fairy Godmother; I cannot wave a wand and 'fix' your situation. If only! Therapy takes commitment from both you and me, both of time and effort. I hope that the relationship you and I will build as we work together will be one of respect and curiosity, using kindness and good humour as resilience tools to help us forge a new path. I like to be flexible and creative in how we go about investigating and discovering your options as we advance, using the natural world as inspiration as much as possible.
Transactional Analysis (TA) is an excellent framework for exploring and evaluating how we want to be in the world. The TA models will help you find a way forward to live from a place of congruence and authenticity, where you can operate from a stance of respecting and taking responsibility for yourself while considering your impact on others. These skills will enable you to develop relationships with depth and intimacy. Using TA, my aim is to help you enjoy genuine, deep connections with those you love, but particularly my hope for you is that you will accept, love and harness your full, quirky, interesting, unique self - your ideas, energy, and creativity. Mind, body and spirit. To live from a place where you 'flow' - where you can know, "I am free to be me".
