Transactional Analysis Coaching

Distinctive Features

Karen Pratt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000339741
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Industrial & Organizational Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This important book distils the essence of developmental Transactional Analysis (TA) frameworks that are most useful to bring alive professional coaching competencies. Karen Pratt offers clear outlines of TA frameworks as well as describing how they are applied in coaching, with snippets of coaching conversations as illustrations of the theory in practice.

Pratt highlights key TA frameworks in enough detail to be easily grasped but with a focus on application in coaching and other developmental conversations. A TA approach powerfully guides coaches in their listening and questioning. TA is not used as a coaching 'technique'– it offers psychological understanding of human beings and the meaning they make of who they are in the world. Such awareness is key for both professionals and clients in meaningful partnerships for development.

Transactional Analysis Coaching will be key reading for professionals working within present-centered contracts for change– coaches, trainers, facilitators, supervisors, teachers, mentors and managers – seeking to understand how TA can impact their development. It will be of great interest to coaches in training and will provide a useful resource for clients in their ongoing development.

Part 1

TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS KEY CONCEPTS

1

Contracting

1.1Introduction

This chapter describes the three areas of contracting (Berne, 1966) that need to be considered in professional engagements. The concept of ensuring an equal distance on the psychological level of the contracting (Micholt, 1992) stresses the importance of all role players in an organisational, multiparty contract seeking clarity on the more hidden or assumed aspects of the work in order to prevent potential collusion between some of the role players. Initial contracting at the start of a coaching contract, as well as in each session, is essential for ethical and powerful coaching.

1.2Three areas of contracting

Navigating the discussion to get maximum clarity and buy-in from all parties is key to a successful coaching contract. Thinking about contracting as an iceberg model – with the first area being most obvious and above the surface, the second area being somewhat under the surface and the third level most deeply under the surface – gives a powerful framework for directing the areas of focus and discussion in setting up all role players for a robust and effective coaching intervention. The importance of open and thorough contracting provides a container of emotional and psychological safety and protection for all concerned.

1.2.1Area 1 – Administrative

This is the most obvious level of the discussion. The areas discussed here include the overall focus of the coaching, role players who might need to be involved, duration, fees, cancellation policy, and so on. This is usually contained in a written and signed contract document.

1.2.2Area 2 – Roles and Responsibilities

This might have begun to be discussed in Area 1, and it needs to be explored in greater detail. Some of the questions that might be raised and discussed are the following: a description of what coaching is and where the boundaries are between coaching, consulting, mentoring or therapy; an inquiry into what the coachee expects from coaching; an explanation of the coach’s philosophy of learning, change and their model of coaching; a discussion about the responsibilities of the coach and the coachee, making it clear that the coach is responsible for the coaching process but the coachee is responsible to do her own thinking and exploring of new ways of making sense of who she is and how she shows up in the world. Issues of confidentiality need to be explicitly agreed between all parties.

1.2.3Area 3 – Psychological clarity

Although coaching is not therapy, it is present-centred psychological work. In the patterns of communication between two people (see Chapter 5), there is always an explicit level (what one says) but also a hidden level (what one really means), and the outcome of an interaction is most powerfully impacted by the unsaid, assumed, hidden level. In a multiparty contract, it is important to ensure that all parties have clarity on what is expected. Hidden agendas held by one party but not shared with all parties will sabotage the work.

Once the initial expectations and assumptions between all the parties are clarified, the coach and coachee deepen this conversation. Some of the aspects might include determining how the coachee learns best (e.g., do they learn primarily through experimentation or by gathering facts?), how they might get in their own way and what they would want to do if that happens, and how they would want the coach to be with them in terms of challenge and support. This is also the time to check any potential biases. An example might be to openly explore how it is from both sides if, for example, a mature white gay woman is contracted to coach a young black straight man. Might there be hidden assumptions about age, gender, sexual orientation and racial differences that would need to be respectfully and openly explored? Hidden biases on either side inevitably impact the coaching work.

Although these three areas of contracting are key at th...