Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice: Using Creative Methods to Research Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy

Abstract

Research using creative methods is opening up new ways to deepen our understanding of human experience and offer possibilities to all fields of transactional analysis (TA). This paper shows how creative methods can enrich both transactional analysis research and practice, particularly with reference to unconscious processes and silence. The author provides a brief overview of two types of creative method followed by some of the results obtained from using them in a TA research project. A case vignette is used to illustrate how one of these methods was applied in practice in the hope of showing how creative methods can be useful tools for offering transactional analysis a possible bridge into what Christopher Bollas described as “the unthought known.”

Keywords:

• Transactional analysis
• creative methods
• research methods
• data collection
• narrative
• psychotherapy
• creativity
• silence
• unconscious
• metaphor

Disclosure statement

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emma Haynes

Emma Haynes, PhD, MSc, is a Training and Supervising Transactional Analyst (psychotherapy) working in private practice near Winchester, England, providing training, supervision, and psychotherapy. She specializes in maternal and paternal mental health and developmental trauma. She is also a part-time lecturer at Metanoia Institute, London. Emma can be reached at Wonston Grange, Wonston, Winchester, SO21 3LW, UK; email: [email protected].