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Transactional Analysis: Influences of Childhood on Adult Life

I would like to introduce a therapy modality called Transactional Analysis (TA) that has been close to my heart. I have been using TA to help clients to explore their adverse child experiences and how these have influenced and affected us as adults:

The Three key factors of TA are life scripts, drivers and injunctions.

Life scripts come from how we view the world as children, building a story for ourselves to carry through life.

Injunctions are messages we are given by our parents and other significant figures in our childhood, which then influence how we live our lives.

Drivers represent a type of survival mechanisms – mental strategies that we develop to counterbalance injunctions.

The analogy of someone in deep water

Injunctions are lead weights tied around our ankles, pulling us downwards, while drivers come in the form of helium-filled balloons to which we are clinging; these drivers counteract the downward pull by supporting us upwards.

Drivers - be perfect, be strong, hurry up, try hard, be pleasing

Injunctions - Don’t exist, don’t be you, don’t be a child, don’t grow up, don’t succeed, don’t be important, don’t be close, don’t belong, don’t be well, don’t be sane, don’t think, don’t feel.

These are crucial factors to explore using transactional analysis because most of our current thinking/perspectives, behavior patterns and how we perceive emotions/feelings are correlated with our past childhood experiences.

To know them in depth, book a session with me.

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