TA is a psychological theory of human development, personality and communication. Originated by Eric Berne MD in the 1950s, it was subsequently developed by others and is still alive and evolving. Eric Berne, seeking a more effective way to treat his patients, combined the best of psychoanalytic ideas with ideas from behaviourism, humanistic psychology and the brain research of the time. His theory integrates these various approaches in a simple, elegant body of knowledge that is easy to understand and yet very profound. He believed passionately that everyone is “OK” – valuable and able to think, solve problems and understand their own lives. He saw the goal of psychotherapy as liberating people from limiting “scripts” and offering a route to spontaneity, awareness and intimacy.

Today many people talk about the “inner child” yet not many of them know that it was Eric Berne and TA that put this Child part of ourselves so effectively in the limelight. The TA theory of ego states not only talks about the inner Child, but also the Parent and the Adult. Most people can relate to this immediately, recognising from their own experience the inner dialogue between these different parts of themselves and how the use them to communicate with others. Read more...