Transactional Analysis Life Script Explained (TA)

In the school of psychotherapy called transactional analysis or TA the life script is an unconscious life plan made in early childhood. TA was developed by Eric Berne. A key feature of the life script is that it is decisional. This means that it is based on certain “decisions” that you make in early childhood about yourself, others and the world around you. For example,

☐ I’m unloveable
☐ I will never be good enough
☐ Other people are selfish
☐ Other people are better than me
☐ Life has no meaning
☐ Life is difficult

🔵 CHAPTERS

0:00 What is the life script?
0:41 Life script example
1:30 How does your life script develop?
2:55 How to discover your core script beliefs
3:55 How do you discover your life script?

🔵 TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

I personally recommend the following Transactional Analysis books:

☐ TA Today by Ian Stewart and Vann Jones. Please click on the link to buy from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3DoWrge
☐ Transactional Analysis 100 Key Points and Techniques by Mark Widdowson. Please click on the link to buy from Amazon: https://amzn.to/409yaER
☐ Transactional Analysis for Depression by Mark Widdowson. Please click on the link to buy from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3JhI15w

🔵 LIFE SCRIPT EXAMPLE

Let’s look at an example of the life script in action. At the end a long day at work colleagues are saying goodbye to each other but Joanne is momentarily ignored. Quite unconsciously Joanne then gets in touch with her beliefs about not belonging and feeling rejected. She then feels anxious and tearful and rushes home without speaking to anybody. As she walks away, she remembers events at school when other children hid from her in the playground. And so the feedback loop closes and reinforces Joannes script belief about not belonging and being rejected. Joannes Life script has a deep and unconscious effect on how she lives her live as an adult. Her script affects the decisions she makes, how she see herself, how she behaves and how she sees others.

🔵 HOW DOES THE LIFE SCRIPT DEVELOP?

From your earliest days you received verbal and non-verbal messages from your parents, caregivers or significant people in your life. From these messages you formed conclusions about yourself, others and the world. By the time you’re four years old you unconsciously decided the essential plot line of you life script. At seven years old the main details have been completed. And by the time you’re about twelve you have refined your story. Remember young children don’t think like an adult so script decisions are made on the basis of a child’s special way of thinking and feeling. It developed from your Child ego state. For this reason script decisions usually appear illogical and overgeneralised.

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🔵 ABOUT TERESA LEWIS

Teresa Lewis is the founder and Director of Lewis Psychology and a Senior Accredited psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP Snr. Accred). Qualified in 1995, Teresa has been providing counselling and psychotherapy treatment for nearly 30 years. Teresa holds a masters degree in counselling and psychotherapy and is a qualified EMDR Practitioner having completed training accredited with EMDR Europe. Teresa is also a qualified adult educator and an accredited Mindfulness teacher As a recognised expert in her field Teresa is frequently asked to conduct editorial reviews and endorse counselling and psychotherapy books for international publishing houses.

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