This unique book, incorporating both theory and practice, provides an invaluable guide to the assessment of dreams in transactional analysis (TA). Grounded in the latest neuroscientific research, it offers both neophyte and experienced TA practitioners a pathway to incorporate a client’s dreams within individual and group therapy, exploring key issues including trauma, dissociation and nightmares, dreams of change and transformation, dreams of healing, and transference and countertransference in dreams. It will support therapists through the very first steps toward the analysis of more complex interpersonal dynamics and dream analysis in a group setting. Also discussing the direction of future research in the area, as well as an overview of an experiment on dream analysis during the recent pandemic, this will be key reading for anyone working in the field.

Tangolo and Massi offer a complete manual for transactional analysis (TA)-based group therapy. Group Therapy in Transactional Analysis demonstrates the evolution of TA as a relational psychodynamic therapy rich in clinical experiences both within individual and group settings. The authors outline how to select clients, which setting to provide, how to establish contracts, and which techniques to use during group sessions. The book includes a full assessment of research and theory, clearly demonstrating efficacy and taking into account neuroscientific studies on intersubjectivity and the social brain. This is combined with a practical approach which supports therapists from the very first steps to the analysis of more complex interpersonal dynamics and dream analysis in a group setting. Finally, future research directions are discussed, together with an overview of an experiment on online groups in the time of coronavirus. This foundational text will be a key reference for therapists in training and professionals new to the principles of transactional analysis. It will also be of interest to students on psychotherapy training and clinical psychology courses.

This book represents a synthesis of more than thirty years dedicated to the spreading and teaching of transactional analysis, and will be useful to students, directors and professors of the schools of transactional analysis, and also to therapists of other schools, providing an up-to-date and complete idea of the current state of the analytic transactional methodology. The handbook describes the epistemological and methodological roots for a well-grounded psychotherapy with transactional analysis (TA): differences among method, methodology, therapeutic plan, and strategy and technique are all illustrated. TA is presented as a phenomenological branch of modern relational psychoanalysis. Transference and counter-transference are reconsidered in a Bernean perspective. The four strategic phases of alliance, decontamination, deconfusion, and relearning are presented, together with the well-known techniques of the eight Bernean therapeutic operations, two and three-chairs work, redecision technique, and dream-work.

Working with dreams in therapy can help clients establish a focus and reach core issues quickly, and can play an important clinical role in both brief and long-term therapeutic relationships. This accessible volume integrates the latest research on sleep and dreaming with a cognitive-experiential psychotherapeutic perspective, providing a comprehensive guide to dream interpretation. In clear, jargon-free prose, elucidated by extensive case material, the author presents a three-stage model of dream interpretation based on the premises that dreams reflect waking life, that their meaning is best understood in a collaborative effort between client and therapist, and that both cognitions and emotions are important in this process. An Appendix contains a reproducible, self-guided manual on dream interpretation featuring step-by-step instructions and worksheets. This Appendix is an ideal resource for therapists to use with clients.

The main values and principles of Transactional Analysis, in its original psychodynamic matrix, become a concrete experience in this book thanks to the accurate description of the daily practice of a long-experienced therapist: Anna Emanuela Tangolo. Analyzing several cases, the author examines the clinical tools of Berne's group therapy and the analysis of dreams, without however neglecting other important aspects such as preparing the setting or leading an interview. Particular relevance is given to the therapeutic relationship, seen as the interweaving of an experience in order to send stimuli to the patient so as to re-structure his or her intrapsychic world through rigorous and precise inputs, analysable in linguistic sequences. This book is meant not only for those who study psychotherapy, but also for anyone who wants to learn about clinical TA and its functioning.

This monograph focuses on a systemic approach to dream interpretation and the unique importance of the initial dream. The first dream reported in a psychoanalytic therapy session poignantly encapsulates the major issues that the patient brings to the treatment. These dreams 'herald' the trajectory of the treatment and can be interpreted in the service of psychodynamic diagnosis and prognosis.The book melds aspects of Jungian dream analysis, with neo-Freudian analytic thought, current neurobiological concepts, and Buddhist psychology, to yield a rich and powerful understanding of how dreams symbolize the multifaceted aspects of the psyche. Multiple examples of initial dreams are discussed in detail, with suggestions for how they can inform the analytic stance and serve as objects for analysis over the course of a treatment.

In this fascinating and robust volume, the editors have compiled a collection of articles that provides an account of their individual theoretical journeys as they trace the evolution of relational transactional analysis. They re-examine the term ‘relational’, offering the reader a multiplicity of ways in which to conceptualise the theory of transactional analysis from a truly pluralistic perspective. This collection of 14 stunning articles from the Transactional Analytic Journal, written over a period of nearly three decades, traces the evolutionary process of a way of thinking that incorporates both theoretical innovations and advanced methodological ideas. Central to the themes of this book is a theoretical understanding of the bidirectionality of the relational unconscious, alongside a methodology that not always, but most often, demands a two-person methodology in which the therapist’s subjectivity comes under scrutiny. Uniquely useful as a research tool for psychotherapists interested in the most up to date psychological theories, this book offers a perspective on relational theory that is both respectful and critical. It will be of enormously useful to the trainee, the researcher, the clinician and the supervisor and will help inform the development of a clinical dialectical mind.