Transactional Analysis Podcast

In this special episode of the Transactional Analysis Podcast, hosts John Fleming and Matt Taylor are joined by Aya Konoike, an organisational development and DEI consultant based in Kamakura, Japan, and a Shugendo practitioner of over thirteen years - to introduce Contemplative TA: a somatic, experiential integration of Shugendo, Zen and transactional analysis.
Built from Aya’s own practice, Contemplative TA sets out to reconnect what modern, individualist life tends to split apart, mind from body, self from other, people from the natural world. It’s learned somatically rather than cognitively, through movement and ritual as much as reflection, and grounded in a distinctly Japanese understanding of presence, nature and connection.
It’s a warm, wide-ranging and often moving conversation about what transactional analysis still offers a fast, commodifying world.
You’ll hear them explore:
Aya's own journey into discovering TA
An exploration of Contemplative TA: a somatic, experiential integration of Shugendo, Zen and TA, built around the integrating Adult and "negative capability"
Presence as connection to your resources, and the Japanese idea of "ba"
Shugendo, and Aya's own training and experience
Why "contemplative" needn't mean "still," and what that opens up
How Aya's view of nature parts ways with eco-TA: not using nature to grow ourselves, but remembering we already belong to it
"Worldly" versus "global" (after Henry Mintzberg)
TA as a "catalyst" between a capitalist world and ancient wisdom
Japanese references mentioned in the episode
- Shugendo: 修験道
- Dewa Sanzan: 出羽三山
- Ba: 場
- Uketamo: うけたもう
- Shinto: 神道
Literature mentioned
Barrow & Marshall (2023), Transactional Analysis Journal 53(1)
Guest Information
Aya Konoike (PTSTA-O)
Aya Konoike is an organisational development and DEI consultant based in Kamakura, Japan, working with both Japanese and international companies on diversity, equity and inclusion, workplace transformation and organisational culture change. Alongside this she facilitates management training and leadership development programmes, and offers one-to-one counselling. She is also a Sendatsu (senior guide) in Shugendo, supporting practitioners who travel from abroad to undertake training.
A practitioner of Zen for around twenty years and of Shugendo for over thirteen, she has drawn these traditions together with TA to create Contemplative TA -a somatic, experiential approach built around presence, connection to the natural world, and the cultivation of the integrating Adult.
Email: konoike@six-eight.jp
Website: https://six-eight.jp/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayak-sixeight/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ritzcats/
Support The TA Podcast
Want to help keep the podcast accessible for everyone? Join our community of supporters:
 https://www.patreon.com/TransactionalAnalysisPodcast
Or leave us a review if you enjoyed this episode.  Leaving a review allows more people to discover the podcast. Simply scroll down to ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts and click: write a review.
Your support makes it all possible. Thank you.
Follow Us On Social Media:
Instagram: @ta_podcast
Facebook: podcast.ta
TikTok: @ta_podcast
LinkedIn: ta-podcast
Website: https://www.tapodcast.com
Email: info@tapodcast.com
Thank You To Our Partners
This podcast is brought to you in partnership with the United Kingdom Association for Transactional Analysis. We’re proud to have the UK Association for Transactional Analysis (UKATA) as our Patronage Partner. UKATA is a vibrant professional body committed to supporting the growth and ethical practice of Transactional Analysis in the UK and beyond. They support practitioners, trainees, and the public through professional standards, events, and access to TA education. Learn more: www.uka4ta.co.uk
We are also supported by our wonderful Patreon supporters.

Support the show

In this episode of the Transactional Analysis Podcast, hosts John Fleming and Matt Taylor are joined by Dr. Valerie Batts, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Founding Director, Interim Board Chair, VISIONS and a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (TSTA-P) who has spent over fifty years applying TA as a lens on power, culture, and social change.
Valerie traces her path into TA from a young student activist in 1973, where she helped incarcerated young men learn “I’m OK, You’re OK,” ego states and games as a way of interrupting the negative messages they carried about themselves and about the system.
That experience set the course for a rich career spent applying a cultural lens and a power analysis to the work of clinicians, clients, educators, and organisations.
In this episode, Valerie draws on these experiences which make for a rich, powerful exploration of power, oppression and social justice.
You’ll hear them explore:
How Valerie first encountered TA in 1973, teaching “I’m OK, You’re OK” to incarcerated young men and what it revealed about power and equity
Valerie’s thoughts around TA through a political and social activism lens
The VISIONS model and its four interlocking levels: personal, interpersonal, institutional (systemic), and cultural
“Modern oppression” read through TA: child-Adult contamination, early decisions and the dance of privilege and lack of privilege
Why the discounting of TA may mirror a wider discounting of mental health.
How pathologising a person’s script can itself be a form of oppression 
Righteous anger as an alternative to violence and culture as the water a fish cannot see
What TA still offers in challenging, polarised times and how to keep the work alive and relevant 
Guest Information
Dr. Valerie Batts (TSTA-P) is the founding Director and a senior consultant at VISIONS-Inc. (Vigorous Interventions in Ongoing Natural Settings), the organisation she co-founded in 1984. In that role she provides coaching and supervision to leaders across companies, local government, and faith-based institutions. She also maintains a small private psychotherapy practice focused on supporting clients who have historically not had access to effective, culturally responsive mental health care, and she chairs the board of an emerging community-based gun-violence interruption programme in the rural North Carolina community where she lives - work that builds on a career-long commitment to criminal justice reform.
A Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst, Valerie first encountered TA in 1973 as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, mentored by her first TA trainer, Josephine Bowens Lewis. Her work focuses on helping others recognise, understand, appreciate, and use similarities and differences at four interlocking levels — the personal, interpersonal, systemic (institutional), and cultural - and her particular area of expertise is applying a cultural lens and a power analysis to TA practice.
Link to Website: https://www.visions-inc.org
Support The TA Podcast
Want to help keep the podcast accessible for everyone? Join our community of supporters:
https://www.patreon.com/TransactionalAnalysisPodcast
Or leave us a review if you enjoyed this episode — leaving a review allows more people to discover the podcast. Simply scroll down to ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts and click: write a review.
Your support makes it all possible. Thank you.
Follow Us On Social Media:
Instagram: @ta_podcast
Facebook: podcast.ta
TikTok: @ta_podcast
LinkedIn: ta-podcast
Website
https://www.tapodcast.com
Email
info@tapodcast.com
Thank You To Our Partners
This podcast is brought to you in partnership with the United Kingdom Association for Transactional Analysis. We’re proud to have the UK Association for Transactional Analysis (UKATA) as our Patronage Partner. UKATA is a vibrant professional body committed to supporting the growth and ethical practice of Transactional Analysis in the UK and beyond. They support practitioners, trainees, and the public through professional standards, events, and access to TA education. Learn more: www.uka4ta.co.uk
We are also supported by the European Association for Transactional Analysis, and our wonderful Patreon supporters.
Support the show

In this episode of the Transactional Analysis Podcast, hosts John Fleming and Matt Taylor speak with Graeme Summers and Keith Tudor, the co-developers of Co-Creative Transactional Analysis (TA) and recipients of the 2020 Eric Berne Memorial Award for this contribution to TA. 
In this conversation, they trace the origins of Co-Creative TA - from shared questions in training, to years of tussling over theory, to a framework that has shaped how practitioners across psychotherapy, education, coaching, and organisational work understand the heart of TA.
You'll hear them explore:
What Co-Creative TA is and what it is deliberately not
The three principles: we-ness, shared responsibility, and present-centred development
How social constructivism and field theory informed their re-reading of Berne
Why health psychology (psychosanology) matters as much as pathology in TA practice
The difference between transactional analysis and transactional design
The integrating adult and why Graeme now wants to talk about the ‘disintegrating Adult’ too
Why Co-Creative TA is a meta-perspective rather than a school, and what that means for trainees and practitioners
Disclaimer: In this episode, Graeme and Keith are expressing their personal opinions and is not speaking on behalf of any company or organisation.
Guest Information
Keith Tudor
Keith Tudor TSTA(Psychotherapy, CTA(Psychotherapy) is Professor of Psychotherapy  at Auckland University of Technology in Aotearoa New Zealand, where he is also co-Lead of Moana Nui Psychological Therapies Research Group. A Certified and Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst in psychotherapy, Keith has worked in and around TA for over 40 years, with more than 100 publications on TA to his name. He maintains a thriving private practice and works across the TA and person-centred worlds as a therapist, supervisor, trainer, and educator.
Graeme Summers
Graeme Summers is an executive coach who has worked at London Business School for over 21 years, partnering with senior leaders at the intersection of psychology and leadership effectiveness. A co-developer of Co-Creative Transactional Analysis, Graeme is a certified Transactional Analyst (Psychotherapy) who, prior to his coaching career, worked as a TA psychotherapist and served as Director of Training at the Counselling and Psychotherapy Training Institute in Edinburgh.
Link to Website: https://www.co-creativity.com
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graemesummers/
Support The TA Podcast
Want to help keep the podcast accessible for everyone? Join our community of supporters:
https://www.patreon.com/TransactionalAnalysisPodcast
Your support makes it all possible. Thank you.
Follow Us On Social Media:
Instagram: @ta_podcast
Facebook: podcast.ta
TikTok: @ta_podcast
LinkedIn: ta-podcast
Website
https://www.tapodcast.com
Email
info@tapodcast.com
Thank You To Our Partners
This podcast is brought to you in partnership with the United Kingdom Association for Transactional Analysis. We’re proud to have the UK Association for Transactional Analysis (UKATA) as our Patronage Partner. Learn more: www.uka4ta.co.uk
We are also supported by the European Association for Transactional Analysis, and our wonderful Patreon supporters.
Support the show

In this episode of the Transactional Analysis Podcast, hosts James Longwell and Parul Arora speak with Lorena Adami (CTA-C), a Transactional Analyst in the counselling field based in Italy, about her integration of cinema, storytelling, and TA.
Lorena shares how her background in cinema and media led her to develop what she calls “CineCounselling”, sparked in part by noticing the shared language of script in both film and TA. 
Together, they explore how metaphor, scenes, characters, and shared cultural reference points can support clients and groups to find words, create distance when needed, and expand perception in the counselling context.
You’ll hear them explore:
How Lorena connects movie script and life script 
The concept of what Lorena calls “CineCounselling”
Why cinema can offer a symbolic language when a client can’t yet find words
Using film to create the right distance to speak about self through story
A group example using a movie to explore the free child, creativity, and expression with students
Lorena’s view of TA counselling as empowerment for the client
How movie scenes can make TA concepts more accessible
Guest Information
Lorena Adami (CTA-C) is a Transactional Analyst in the counselling field, based in Italy. She works in private practice and also supports people and groups across educational, organisational, and non-profit contexts through experiential learning, training, and consultancy.
Her approach integrates Film Studies, Transactional Analysis, and Spirituality & Management, using narrative and cinematic language to foster reflection, communication, and relational learning. She is developing CineCounseling, a flexible and co-creative model that uses film and storytelling to explore emotions, relationships, and new perspectives within groups and systems.
Website: https://msha.ke/lorenaadami#about
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorena-adami-counselling/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/la_cinecounselor/
Support Us 
Want to help keep the podcast accessible for everyone?Join our community of supporters: patreon.com/TransactionalAnalysisPodcast
Or leave us a review if you enjoyed this episode - leaving a review allows more people to discover the podcast - scroll down to ratings and reviews on apple podcasts and click: write a review.
Your support makes it all possible. Thank you.
Follow Us On Social Media:
Instagram: @ta_podcast
Facebook: podcast.ta
TikTok: @ta_podcast
Linkedin: ta-podcast
Connect With Us
website: www.tapodcast.com
email: info@tapodcast.com 
Thank You To Our Partners
This podcast is brought to you in partnership with the United Kingdom Association for Transactional Analysis. We’re proud to have the UK Association for Transactional Analysis (UKATA as our Patronage Partner. UKATA is a vibrant professional body committed to supporting the growth and ethical practice of Transactional Analysis in the UK and beyond.
They support practitioners, trainees, and the public through professional standards, events, and access to TA education. Learn more: www.uka4ta.co.uk
We are also supported by the European Association for Transactional Analysis, and our wonderful Patreon supporters.
Support the show

In this episode of the Transactional Analysis Podcast, hosts John Fleming and Joshua Okunlola speak with Rosemary Napper, an Organisational Training & Supervising Transactional Analyst (TSTA-O) also qualified in the Counselling and Education fields, whose work has shaped how many practitioners understand TA in workplaces, systems, and organisational life.
This rich conversation explores what TA really offers organisational practitioners beyond ego states, games, and scripts  and why the system itself must be understood as the client, not the individual.
Drawing on decades of practice, training, and deep study of Berne’s organisational writings, Rosemary opens up a perspective on TA that is systemic, cultural, and profoundly relevant
You’ll hear them explore:
Why conflict in organisations is almost never individual issues
How structures + system dynamics co-create the character (culture) of a system
What Berne actually wrote about organisations
How culture becomes introjected into people’s Parent and Child ego states
How organisational games form, evolve, and repeat over decades
The ethical pitfalls of individualising systemic problems
The difference between coaching, counselling, psychotherapy, and organisational TA and why it matters
What it really takes to create culture change within organisations

Guest Information
Rosemary Napper is a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst (Organisational), also qualified in the Counselling and Education fields. She originally trained in psychotherapy and now has over 30 years’ experience working with organisations and complex systems.
Rosemary is the Director of TA Works, where she works as a writer, trainer and supervisor across the counselling, educational and organisational fields of TA. Her work focuses on the cultures of systems and the inter-cultural dynamics that shape organisational life. She has also spent decades studying Berne’s original organisational writings and leads a three-year advanced Organisational TA training programme.
Support Us 
Would you like to help keep the podcast accessible for everyone? Join our community of supporters: patreon.com/TransactionalAnalysisPodcast
Or leave us a review if you enjoyed this episode - leaving a review allows more people to discover the podcast - scroll down to ratings and reviews on apple podcasts and click: write a review.
Your support makes it all possible. Thank you.
Follow Us On Social Media:
Instagram: @ta_podcast
Facebook: podcast.ta
TikTok: @ta_podcast
Linkedin: ta-podcast
Connect With Us
www.tapodcast.com
info@tapodcast.com 
Thank You To Our Partners
This podcast is brought to you in partnership with the United Kingdom Association for Transactional Analysis. We’re proud to have the UK Association for Transactional Analysis (UKATA as our Patronage Partner. UKATA is a vibrant professional body committed to supporting the growth and ethical practice of Transactional Analysis in the UK and beyond.
They support practitioners, trainees, and the public through professional standards, events, and access to TA education. Learn more at: www.uka4ta.co.uk
We are also supported by the European Association for Transactional Analysis, and our wonderful Patreon supporters.
Support the show