Diane explores some of the TA tools that can be useful in exploring and working with diversity; in particular Pearl Drego’s work on the Cultural Parent and various approaches to Cultural Scripting.
Participants gain an understanding of the concepts of Cultural Parent and Cultural Scripting, together with some experience of reflecting how cultural patterns have impacted their own lives. Participants discuss how they might apply this learning to their professional context.
I chose to review these two books together because they landed in my life in quick succession and also because the authors seemed to me to be inspired by the same impulses: a childlike wonder at the age and indestructibility of the old laws (“gods”) that have shaped us; a delight in the extraordinary creativity of life and an amazement at the unimaginable diversity and individuality that emerges as life goes on re-creating itself. They also share a desire to help us find modern meanings for ourselves and the universe in which we live, free of the tyranny of dogma or fear. Both are superb, even poetic, writers who have read vastly and are able to synthesise their knowledge so that they serve as excellent guides as we journey in their footsteps.
Two excellent articles on race and racism by William Gumede (2015) and Buhle Zuma (2015), published in the South African newspaper the Mail & Guardian, prompted me to add a third voice to the discussion: a white female perspective. An edited version of the article here was published by the Mail & Guardian on 23 January 2015 under the headline “Blacks Gave Whites the Gift of Freedom: South Africans Need to Work with Each Other to Resolve Our Collective Guilt and Innocence.”
This article examines how the author uses Sandplay and Family Constellation approaches to enable clients to access non verbal and preconscious material easily and creatively. It offers a brief account of the development and principles of Sandplay and Family Constellation and how the author uses these in practice and how she understand the process in terms of TA theory.
It is suggested that the integration of these three approaches allows for the clients’ integration of different neural networks and ego states. Questions are raised as to which self (selves) are active in the sandplay and what role physis may play in this creative process.
Diane first of all introduced the goddesses to us. Basing her approach on Jean Bolen’s Goddesses in Everywoman, she concentrated on the eight major goddesses from Greek mythology. She emphasized that these represent archetypal psychic ‘types’ or ‘forces’ which are encountered in various forms of the Feminine Dianevine in other cultures too. An extraorDianenary openness of mind and feeling is noticeable in our group. We listen to the ancient, evocative stories by means of which Diane helps us to recognise the goddesses – their powers and their shortcomings. I cannot but feel aware of the special connectedness that can exist between women when we are given the power to share ourselves and support one another. And I marvel at Diane’s own powers as a workshop facilitator. Her surface working style is impeccably professional – rational and controlled – but from within there come feelings of trust, enjoyment of the task at hand and fearlessness towards it, creating a perfect sanctuary space for the participants.
We write our ‘contracts’ to ourselves: What do we wish to achieve by the end of the workshop? By means of a clever exercise we glimpse both positive and problematic aspects of ourselves. The each of us chooses a goddess whose spirit we wish to explore in action. There are earrings, beads, scarves, skirts and make-up with which we play in earnest. We choose from innumerable objects strewn about the house to make ‘altars’ to our chosen deity and, still in our costumes, we write and then enact an invocation to her.
This is true work: we are working on ourselves. Emotions and desires surface naturally, easily in the form of flushes, tummy gurgles, laughter and tears. All too human as I am, I might have had Difficulty imagining it – but as each of us shares vulnerabilities, each comes away strengthened and refreshed.
We absorb ourselves in creating collages from magazine cut outs – we use images that express our personal vision of the goddess to mirror our interiors. We speak ourselves, sharing our works of art with the other women listening attentively. We visit the goddesses in a mind exercise, presenting them with gifts and receiving gifts in return. The goddesses have become our friends.
When I drive home after the workshop, familiar architecture, the sky, the mountain – all looked Different, as if I had been away for a long time. I have little doubt that the other participants felt similarly renewed.
The Feminine Divine is alive! In this workshop we were given the opportunity to awaken our best Friend and Partner – our Self. May She remain forever near and beloved.
I am very excited to be presenting this workshop again after several years. So many people have asked when I am doing another one ..well now I am. See “workshops” for details
September 27th-29th 2013. Only 10 places, so book early!
During January 2013, Joanna Beazly Richards TSTA visitied South Africa and I had the privlege of organising two trainings in Cape Town which she generously offered at low or no cost.
The first was hosted by FAMSA and was a training in how Joanna combines TA, the latest brain research, the approaches of Babette Rothschild and others in her work with people who have been traumatised. This was primarily for social workers, psychologists and therapists and stressed the need to avoid re-traumatisation in working with people, as well as manging the effects of secondary trauma.
The second was a basic introduction to trauma – what it is, its effects and how to recognise and manage it outside of a therapuetic setting. This was for community workers and was hosted by Mothers Unite, an NGO working in Seawinds.
Both workshops were excellent and were very much appreciated by those who attended.
This article, originally published in the Cape Times, was reprinted in The Script in anticipation of the opening of the TA World Conference in South Africa in 2008 by Nozizwe Madlala Routledge. It explores the Quaker concept of “speaking truth to power” within the South African context and history.
The author suggests that in the face of the current global crises that threaten the human species, transactional analysts need to assess their theoretical tools for understanding social development and their ability to contribute usefully to social change. She offers that transactional analysis cannot claim to be a social psychology in the fullest sense and that Clare Graves’s theory of psychosocial development (popularized by Beck and Cowan in their 1996 book (Spiral Dynamics) may provide some of what is missing in TA theory. She suggests that there is a high level of compatibility between Spiral Dynamics and transactional analysis because both have a developmental perspective and share many concepts. Illustrations based on the author’s work show how integrating these two theories enriches the possibilities of working with individuals and groups by allowing therapists and or developmental practitioners and their clients a deeper appreciation of their social context and cultural frame of reference. Finally, the author asks the challenging question of how humans, as a species, will respond to the current threats they face: Will they progress or regress developmentally?
The article presents the Comparative Script System – a chart which synthesises the major theories in T A: Classical School and the racket system; Redecision School and Cathexis School. It offers a tool which presents all of these within a systemic framework. The Comparative Script System (CSS) provides an overview of how these theories overlap and complement each other. It also provides an opportunity for detailed focus on specific aspects of the self reinforcing system by which an individual maintains his or her script.
