Thiruvananthapuram to Host 49th National Conference on Transactional Analysis

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
As many as 200 enthusiasts of transactional analysis (TA) will converge for five days of brainstorming next week to further explore the scope of the psychological tool to counter rising marital disharmony, suicides and use of narcotic drugs among the youth.

The 49th National Conference on ‘Autonomy through TA & Triology’ will be held in the city during December 7-11, seeking to better human lives through the path of ‘Awareness, Spontaneity & Intimacy for Autonomy’, organisers said.

The event, which is being convened by the Institute of Counselling & Transactional Analysis (ICTA) Kochi, and hosted by TA Community, Thiruvananthapuram, will be inaugurated by Aswathy Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi of the erstwhile Travancore royal family.

The conclave expects to impart a new dimension to TA through its exploration of a possible link between psychology, Indian philosophy and spirituality, according to ICTA President Prakash Chandy.

TA is a humanistic psychological approach developed by Canada-born US psychiatrist Dr. Eric Berne in the 1950s with the objective of simplifying psychiatric treatments with less consumption of time as well. Fr. George Kandathil, who learned TA from Dr. Berne’s foremost disciples Muriel James and Claude Steiner, brought the tool to India in the early 1970s. The International Transactional Analysis Association defines TA as “a theory of personality and a systematic psychotherapy for personal growth and personal change.”

Chandy pointed out that the problems of an individual can be analysed by just observing his/her transactions.

“We interact with the world through transactions, which may be words, activity or some simple gesture. An analysis of different problems around our daily life can enable us to note that most of our difficulties originate from some transaction with another party,” he said. “TA is a subject that treats transactions scientifically. It teaches us on how we can control our transactions to produce win-win situations. Coming out of a difficult situation by using our transactions is one of the main areas of such an analysis.”

The conference will feature paper presentations on four channels: counselling, psychotherapy, education and organisation. In addition, there will be sessions for paper and poster presentations.

The event will begin with two days of ‘pre-conference’ from December 7, holding classes for 101, the basic degree in TA. The main conference will be from December 8 to 11.

TA finds direct application in the fields of counselling, psychotherapy, organisation and education. It helps people to gain self-awareness, improve interpersonal relations, better HR management, improve salesmanship, make better teachers and, in fact, improve performance for an individual in his/her area of involvement.

Conducted with a vision of individual growth aimed at ushering in social change, the conference is a platform to learn, teach and practice the way of human growth and change for good. It is also useful for any industry — be it medicine, coaching, education, media, or art. Likewise, it helps a businessperson in managing situations through self-awareness, and making informed decisions based on the here-and-now.