TA and Spirituality

Kandathil & Kandathil (1997)

“Spirituality is the process by which human beings transcend themselves. For those who believe in
God, spirituality is their experience of this relationship with God. For a humanist, spirituality is a self-
transcending experience with another person. For some it may be the experience of harmony or
oneness with the universe or nature in whatever way we describe it. It takes us beyond ourselves
into a realm wherein “we can experience a union with something larger than ourselves, and in that
union find our greatest peace””

Quoting Buber, and the three spheres in which the world of relation is built: our life with nature, our
life with other people, our life with spiritual beings “In every sphere in its own way, through each
process of becoming that is present to us, we look out toward the fringe of the eternal Thou, in each
we are aware of a breath from the eternal thou, in each Thou we address the eternal Thou”

Autonomy opens the door to the self-transcending experience, and intimacy accompanies self-
transcending individuals as they walk into this sublime land”.

Trautmann (2003)

“psyche” means “the soul, self, also the mind”

Therapy is the process of healing & making whole thus psychotherapy can be understood as the
process of healing the soul/self or mind, and therefore a place where our spiritual selves belong as
much as any other aspect of who we are.

The goal of therapy is increasing awareness or mindfulness and integrating what may have been a
split off sense of a “spiritual self” with the whole of our being.

In the UK TA psychotherapy belongs to the UKCP Humanistic and Integrative College (HIPC)

“The College includes a wide variety of psychotherapy approaches within the humanistic and
integrative tradition. Common values and philosophical assumptions underpin these approaches,
including a belief in one or more of the following:

 the importance of the therapeutic relationship as the medium for change

 the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue and exploration, with emphasis on integration,

respect for difference and an ability to work with diversity

 a spiritual dimension to an individual's life and problems, the self-healing capacity of the
individual and the individual's sovereignty and responsibility

 the centrality of social relationships in setting the framework in which individuals shape their
lives

 the importance of political awareness and an understanding of the individual's experience,

personal beliefs and values in problems of living

 the integration of mind, body, feeling, soul and spirit”

(HIPC website http://www.ukcphipc.co.uk/public/index.php/training accessed 28/12/14)

Material collated from a variety of sources by Barbara Clarkson PTSTA

1
Eric Berne/Petrushka Clarkson Physis

(Berne 1981 (Layman’s Guide) & 1972 (What do you say after you say hello?), Clarkson (1992)

“the self’s natural aspiration for growth and development towards health, transcendent of ego
states” (Clarkson 1992)

Muriel James (1981) Inner Core

3 levels of existence; biological, psychological and inner core. Inner core both personal and universal.
Inner core contains 6 universal urges

 The urge to live

 The urge to be free
 The urge to experience newness
 The urge to make decisions
 The urge to find authentic relationships
 The urge to know the spiritual dimension and to experience transcendence

Idea that crises, personal dilemmas and expression of script beliefs can show where this energy is
blocked and needs opening up (via therapy & other means)

Keith Tudor (2003, 2014) Integrating Adult (the neopsyche)

Argues against Berne’s original description of the Adult ego state as containing what is left when
everything else has been assigned to Parent or Child. Describes Adult ego state as “a pulsating
personality, processing and integrating feelings, attitudes, thoughts and behaviours appropriate to
the here and now….this present centred ego state has the ability and capacity to act
autonomously…….to laugh, have fun and be silly, to learn, to develop and maintain a critical
consciousness, to aspire, to express ambivalence and disappointment, to have a sense of community
feeling, social justice, spirituality and much, much more ” (2014, p31).

Berne’s definition of neopsyche: “an elaborative system connected to the mental-emotional analysis
of the here and now”.

TA as an organismic theory – emphasises the principle that organisms tend towards integration and
wholeness, and any disruption to this can be seen as pathological. Driven towards “self
actualisation”. Organismic theory emphasises the inherent potentiality of the organism for growth.

Berne originally attempted a version of a second order structural model of Adult, including “ethos”
and “pathos” as well as A2. The A2 part was later labelled as “technos” or “logos” by other writers.
Tudor argues for the inclusion of a much broader range of qualities as appropriate here & now
responses to experience – and the integration of archaic experience through its processing in a co-
created therapeutic relationship.

Mellor 2008 Autonomy & Spirituality

Mellor describes a similar model to James. Central to all people is a “universal spark of life” which he
calls the “I-Am”. This exists within and beyond the self, and can transcend beyond the boundary of
the self. However we have learned to develop barriers to transcendence through developing script
(ego state “plus” layer of history) and through distorted connection to our physical body. Autonomy

Material collated from a variety of sources by Barbara Clarkson PTSTA

2
is the process of digesting historical experience and existing without sense of history or distortion in
a transcendent state of connectedness.

Wells 2012 True Nature beyond Life Script

Wells describes script as a set of stories by which we define ourselves and our lives, and which we
forget are just stories and that we are more than what is contained within them. He argues that
script is an illusion, as is the story of “change” that we often want to replace it with. “these stories
are not who we really are, and seldom help us remember the source from which we spring”. Life
script plus collective unconscious (Jung) creates the story of our identity. People who present for
psychotherapy are often “not so much “deciding” to close down their old show, but rather have
exhausted attempts to make it work. This is an entirely natural exhaustion rather than a failure and,
in that sense, entirely to be welcomed…..life confronts us with a level of discomfort that can prompt
us to let go and stop striving”.

“our essential nature was present before the limitations of ego states and script manifested and that
the source of our being is fundamentally loving and peaceful, open and free”

“The structures that we have established and maintained with or scripts provide a certain
confidence and predictability, and their loss stimulates fear and resistance. At the same time,
through our scripts the future can be “known”, an appealing thought in contrast to the possibility of
being confronted with and empty space, a potentially frightening void in which anything may
happen”.

Wells replaces the Adult ego state with a space called “awareness” – “I am here and now” – which is
not an ego state according to Berne’s definition.

Jung (some key ideas) Ego, Shadow, Persona, Archetypes – Integration and Individuation

The journey to becoming is often triggered by loss or breakdown.

The PERSONA: The form the ego takes in order to be in and communicate with the world. Lasts until
external reality or internal prodding from the SHADOW causes it to be called into question. Similar to
concept of "false self"

The SHADOW: The counterpart to the conscious personality. Repressed drives & values that
consciousness rejects. Represents what the personality lacks. What the individual might have been
but has not had a chance to become. What was left behind when choices were made. Projected out
onto environment as psyche cannot accept & attribute these aspects to self.

ARCHETYPES: A figure of the Other, found both outside and within an individual

The GREAT MOTHER: experience of actual mother, plus anima (feminine concept) plus the whole of
the unconscious (from which consciousness is "birthed"). Calls the individual to develop and become
conscious.

What is therapy from a spiritual perspective?

James (1981):

Quotes Buber “the sphere of the between” – “This is where people meet, without the sham of masks
and the Eternal Thou enters in”. Creates the “third self” which is more than and separate to the 2
people concerned, unseen but experienced by both – “a reality that demonstrates the power of the

Material collated from a variety of sources by Barbara Clarkson PTSTA

3
individual and of the universal spirit to seek wholeness and holiness”. “sometimes a third self is
created between two people….the requirement is that each person gives and receives energy from
the inner core spirit….when each is willing to be fully present to the other”.

Wells (2012):

“In TA therapy we can provide a space for curiosity, observation, deep listening, and reflection. We
can also pay close attention to the origins of the script story, its manifestations, and its
reinforcements. By practicing ongoing deep acceptance of our own contracted responses, our own
stories and those of our clients, we can help both ourselves and our clients to open up to a field of
spacious acceptance”.

Mellor (2008):

Process of digesting the historical material and its emotional charge, becoming more aware of our
body processes, more connected to ourselves and others. “The attainment of autonomy is
manifested by the realization of integrity through using three functional capacities – awareness
spontaneity and intimacy – and by ongoing efforts to continue developing all four”. Techniques of
balancing reliving past experiences returning intermittently to grounding in here and now.

Jung (overview):

CENTERING: The ego develops in order to survive our reality. This becomes the focus of our
conscious awareness until challenged by the Shadow as it emerges into consciousness. Ego is
challenged & begins to disintegrate. If we are supported to allow ourselves to respond to this "call"
from the Great Mother, we can allow ourselves to regress into the turmoil that "she" stirs up &
access what is held in the unconscious - the shadow. The Great Mother is both Good and Terrible,
creator and destroyer, and gives power & intensity to our experience of splitting, therefore also
enables re-experiencing of conflicts between ego & shadow

Being in the conflict experience enables internalised experiencing of Shadow rather than projection
outward onto external figures. Gradually what Jung called "symbols" will emerge which form a new
Centre of identity - the SELF.

Ego doesn't disappear but through conflict becomes released from its imaginary state, and allowed
to come into its own reality. Ego and Self become interdependent.

Reading List
Kandathil, G and Kandathil, C (1997) Autonomy: Open Door to Spirituality TAJ 27:1
Trautmann, R.L. (2003) Psychotherapy and Spirituality TAJ 33:1
James, M (1981) TA in the 80's: The Inner Core and the Human Spirit TAJ 11:1
Mellor, K (2008) Autonomy with Integrity TAJ 38: 3
English, F (2006) Unconscious Constraints to Freedom and Responsibility TAJ 36: 2
McKinnon, C. (2012) Shamanism and Spirituality in Therapeutic Practice. Singing Dragon,
London
Tudor, K (2003) in Sills, C & Hargaden, H (eds) (2003) Ego States
Tudor K (2014) in Tudor, K & Summers, G (2014) Co-creative Transactional Analysis, Karnac
Wellings, N & Wilde McCormick, E (Eds) (2000) Transpersonal Psychotherapy, Sage, London
Wells, M (2012) From Fiction to Freedom: Our True Nature beyond Life Script TAJ 42: 2

Material collated from a variety of sources by Barbara Clarkson PTSTA

4