Transactional analysis (TA) is a psychological approach which can be used in psychotherapy and counselling, as well as educational and organisational development settings. TA was developed in the 1960s by Dr. Eric Berne and his colleagues in San Francisco, and is still continuing to evolve and develop.
TA is based on a concept called ‘Life Script’, which is the implicit set of rules we develop about how life is based on our early experiences and decisions. The other central concept in TA is Ego States, which offers a way of making sense of our internal experiences and sense of self. The three key philosophical assumptions underlying TA are that 1) all people are OK, 2) everyone has the capacity to think, and 3) people decide their own destiny, and these decisions can be changed.
TA is rich with other models about interpersonal relationships and communication. It is an evidence-based psychotherapy that has demonstrated its effectiveness in numerous research projects.