When is a recurring relational pattern a psychological game – and when is it an enactment or
re-enactment?
During this advanced training day, we will explore what happens when anxiety, projection and script become alive within the therapeutic relationship. Particular attention will be given to the therapist’s own participation in the relational process and to developing our ability to distinguish between different relational dynamics – because different understandings may call for very different therapeutic responses.
In this advanced training day, we will explore the processes underlying recurring relational patterns. Drawing on Transactional Analysis, we will deepen our understanding of the connections between self-image, anxiety, projection, script and psychological games.
Chang and James describe how projection can function as a way of managing inner conflict and the anxiety that arises when feelings, needs or impulses threaten an established self-image. Projection may then contribute to relational patterns that reinforce both psychological games and script.
But is everything that is repeated within the therapeutic relationship necessarily a psychological game?
Here we broaden the perspective by introducing the concepts of enactment and re-enactment. Drawing on Edward T. Novak’s article Are Games, Enactments, and Reenactments Similar? No, Yes, It Depends, we will explore both the similarities and the clinically important differences between these processes.
When the Relationship Becomes Part of the Therapeutic Material
In a psychological game, we often encounter a familiar relational pattern moving towards a predictable outcome and reinforcing an already established view of self, others or the world.
In an enactment, attention shifts towards what is unconsciously being created between client and therapist. Both contribute to and are affected by the relational process, and the therapist’s own feelings and responses – countertransference – may become an important source of information about what is being enacted in the relationship.
In a re-enactment, earlier traumatic experiences may become activated so strongly that it becomes difficult to distinguish past from present. The therapist may then be experienced as if they were a person from the client’s past, without the process necessarily being cocreated in the same way as in an enactment.
During the Day We Will Explore
• the relationship between self-image, inner conflict, anxiety and projection
• the role of projection in script and psychological games
• similarities and differences between games, enactments and re-enactments
• how earlier relational experiences may become alive in the present relationship
• transference and countertransference as aspects of the therapeutic process
• the therapist’s own contribution to what emerges in the relationship
• trauma and dissociation in relation to re-enactment
• how different understandings of what is happening may lead to different therapeutic interventions
• clinical vignettes and collaborative case analysis.
A Central Question Throughout the Day Will Be:
How do I know what is happening right now?
Is the client moving into a familiar psychological game?
Are we becoming involved in an enactment in which something previously unformulated is beginning to become available for experience?
Or has something in the present situation activated an earlier trauma that the client is now reliving within the here-and-now relationship?
A central theme will be developing our ability to distinguish between these different processes and to consider how our clinical understanding influences the way we respond.
Learning Format
The day combines theory, clinical examples, reflection and small-group work. We will work with clinical vignettes and explore how the same situation may be understood from several different perspectives.
The aim is not simply to arrive at the one “correct” interpretation. Rather, it is to develop our capacity to remain clinically curious, reflect on what is happening within and between client and therapist, and distinguish between different relational processes before choosing an intervention.
Who Is This Training For?
This advanced training day is designed for participants who already have a good working knowledge of Transactional Analysis and wish to deepen their understanding of the more complex processes that may emerge in therapeutic work and other professional relationships.
It is particularly relevant for those working in psychotherapy, counselling, coaching, supervision or other professional helping relationships who want to develop their capacity to use both what the client tells them and what actually emerges within the relationship as valuable clinical information.