This important book distils the essence of developmental TA frameworks that are most useful to bring alive professional coaching competencies. Karen Pratt offers clear outlines of TA frameworks as well as describing how they are applied in coaching, with snippets of coaching conversations as illustrations of the theory in practice.
"There are few books which bridge the gap between Transactional Analysis (TA) and coaching in a way that shows how these two approaches to human development are complementary and mutually enriching. This book, one of its kind, does just that. It shows how coaching can be a form of applied TA, and it shows how TA can explain what makes coaching work - and how coaches can use TA models and approaches to raise the standard of their practice.
From a TA perspective, the author introduces a model and then indicates how models are interrelated, for example the positions of the Drama Triangle are related to ego states and also to the I'm OK, You're OK framework. She brings in recent developments of the original theories, such as the Mindful Adult, the Permission Wheel, the Use of Power and Working with Diversity. All these are related to the practice of coaching.
From a coaching perspective, the author shows how a coach would hear these models in a coaching session, and gives examples of how a coach could usefully respond. She also shows how a coach could introduce a TA concept to a client and invite the client to self-analyse or to co-create their coaching process based on the model. As TA is the analysis of what happens between two (or more) people, the coach themself will be able to use the material to reflect on their sessions, and to plan their own further development.
This book is a welcome and refreshing addition to a tried and tested school of psychology, and to the emerging understanding of how to help people change." - Colin Brett PCC, TSTA(O), MA, MSc, MA, MAPPCP Director, Coaching Development Ltd.
