Psychotherapy
I am Susan Eccles and attended both St. Leonards and Mayfield (1961‐68) and went on to study Classics at Bristol University. I have been working as a counsellor and then a psychotherapist since 1990.
Psychotherapy derives its name from the amalgamation of the Greek word ‘psyche’ meaning spirit/soul or the life energy, if you like, of the person, and ‘therapeia’ meaning handmaiden or 'in service..of…..'
So this is what I aim to do; to help people have a better understanding of themselves and hence then others. There are many models and orientations of psychotherapy but I think they are all in agreement that it can be described as 'an intentional interpersonal relationship used by trained psychotherapists to aid a client in the issues of living. It aims to increase an individual's sense of their own wellbeing’.
The main models in which I have trained and qualified, and which I practise, are Person Centred therapy and Transactional Analysis.
As a child I was always interested in how things worked, and when I went to St. Leonards there was Mother Stephen, or Steph as we knew her – to ‘later generations’ she was known as Sister Frances. It was she who inspired my interest in Latin with its compact language structure and syntax, which to me just clarified English Grammar. I loved its logic.
So when I discovered ‘therapy’ in the early ‘80’s it was ‘how it worked’ that intrigued me. I decided I wanted to train, but where to start was difficult, as apart from psychoanalysis, other forms of therapy were largely unknown in the public arena. However I came across a therapist who recommended Metanoia in Ealing, so it was there that I went and completed a training in Person Centred Counselling.
Carl Rogers was the founder and instigator of Person Centred Counselling who believed that people heal themselves within a certain type of relationship which involves respect, empathy and honesty on the part of the therapist/counsellor. He moved away from the medical model where the patient was someone who was treated and ‘done to’, towards the notion that people know how to heal themselves. As he says (Rogers 1967) ‘if I can provide a certain type of relationship the other will discover within himself the capacity to use that relationship for growth; and change and personal development will occur’.
58
“ ”
And so why did I study Transactional Analysis? Much as I follow Rogers and his philosophy regarding human beings, and also feel he is ‘right’, I felt I needed more, so in the late nineties I started a TA training. What I like about TA is it offers the practitioner a comprehensive and structured ‘map’ of how to make sense of a person’s internal world and how they behave. How a person seems or presents may not be who they are!!
So what is TA? Transactional Analysis is a theory of personality and a
systemic psychotherapy for personal growth and change’. (Stewart & Joines 1987)
It was Eric Bernewho started developing TA during the Second World War. He was a psychiatrist and a humane, albeit a rebellious doctor, who wanted his patients to get well. If they were not brain damaged or under the influence of drugs why were they not behaving in functional and appropriate ways? Berne fell out with the current psychoanalytic thinking and ways of practising because he sought ‘cure’ and change rather than ‘progress’ which involved being in psychoanalysis four or five times a week; like Carl Rogers, Berne believed that it was the person who held the answers within him/herself, not the medical expert or psychoanalyst.
So he decided to develop his own theories and methods, the aim of which was to ‘cure’ his patients. From the very start Berne believed in clear simple language and clear communication, and the name Transactional Analysis is derived from analysing how people communicate and transact. This can also be used in teaching and organisations.
But TA is also much more. Not only does it provide a theory and models of communication it also provides theories and models of child development and psychopathology – Berne was a psychiatrist of course!!
He also believed that therapy was, if you like, a living organism. He taught, shared and used his ways of being and thinking with his registrars and his patients.
HOW A PERSON SEEMS OR PRESENTS MAY NOT BE WHO THEY ARE!!
So TA today is very much alive, and is also a community, as were Berne’s colleagues and patients. Practitioners, and interested parties are all encouraged, as in the spirit of Berne, who was a prolific writer as well as a teacher, doctor and healer etc., to develop and initiate new theories to explain how we are.
And aren’t we so interesting and yet so complicated !! And to end I have also completed a training in Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR) which was developed by Frances Shapiro in the late eighties as a method to process trauma, and traumatic incidents, but can also be used for anyone experiencing psychological difficulties. But I’ll leave you to find out about that.
OC
Bibliography Rogers, C.R. (1961) On Becoming a Person, Houghton Mifflin. Stewart, I. and Joines, V. (1987) TA Today Lifespace Publishing Nottingham and Chapel Hill.
Susan Eccles (née Craib) Class of 1968
The Old Cornelian SUMMER 2017
EricBerne
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
