Northside Training

Saying the right thing is no guarantee you'll get the reaction you expected. Transactional Analysis is a model for understanding why, and it does it in a way that's refreshingly easy to get your head around.

The two-day TA101 covers the core ideas that practitioners, coaches and organisations build their work on. It's not just theory, either - you'll be trying these ideas out on situations that participants relate to, each in their own way. You'll learn the key concepts, but what tends to stay with people is something else: seeing both themselves and others differently by the end of it.

Whether you're exploring a career move, wanting insight on relationships, or just curious where this might take you, expect a few of those moments where things make a lot more sense.

TA101 - the official introduction course to TA - also the starting point if you are wanting to take it further.
11 & 12 July, North West Leeds, £215.

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If you are looking for part time training in TA psychotherapy - check out Physis Scotland - they are based in Edinburgh so accessible via main transport routes.

Are you in the position where your work matters to you - you're good at it, confident in your role - but you also have a sense that something isn't quite right?

That was Carol's experience for years. She moved through several caring and frontline roles, trained as a nurse in her 40s, and still felt something missing. It wasn't until she began working with a Transactional Analysis therapist during a period of burnout that things started to make sense - not because she'd finally found "the" career, but because TA gave her language for something she'd been sensing all along.

If that 'something missing' feeling is familiar to you - give Carol's story a read - it may help you to explore a new path. As Carol says "Choosing to try something new, challenging, and deeply meaningful has been one of the most profound decisions I have made."

Link in first comment for full blog 👇

If you are a couples therapist, or interested in working with couples and relationships, this Wednesday's session looks at what happens when old, distorted beliefs get tangled up in how a couple sees each other - and how to help untangle them.

Brad Mclean's own integrative TA model works with this directly: separating out what's actually true in the present relationship from what's been carried in from somewhere else, and helping each partner's Adult come back online to do that sorting. Clinical illustrations throughout, so the application is clear.

For practitioners with an existing relationship to TA theory who want to see it tested against the real complexity of couples work.
Wednesday, 10.30am - online via Zoom. £12.
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A new special issue of the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration explores dimensional approaches to personality disorders and their implications for . The guest editors write, "Together, these papers emphasize the significant and potentially far-reaching implications of dimensional models for diagnosing, treating, and researching PDs."

Explore the issue, featuring a free-to-read introduction and multiple open access articles: https://bit.ly/4uEmQzi

If you've been meaning to do the TA101 at some point, or are starting Foundation in the autumn and just haven't got round to booking it yet, here's everything you need in one place.

What: TA101 - Introduction to Transactional Analysis, with Andy Williams TSTA
When: 11 & 12 July 2026, 9.30am - 4.30pm
Where: North West Leeds
Cost: £215, including lunch and refreshments

It's a two-day in-person course covering the key concepts of TA: ego states, transactions, life positions, scripts, games etc. taught with a focus on application as well as theory - where we'll be asking questions like: where does what you see in the model show up in your own work, life and conversations?

The TA101 is the official internationally recognised entry point if you ever want to go further with TA, whether that's more CPD with us in future or training elsewhere.

Spaces are open for 11 & 12 July. Full details and booking via the link in the comments.

Collaboration, not correction.

This was Michael Balint's whole premise when he started running clinical groups in the 1950s. The type of group where one person brings a piece of clinical work, the group asks a few clarifying questions, and the other members explore and think it through as a group, on their behalf.

Brad McLean writes in our latest blog about what that collaborative, peer-led exploration actually looks like in practice, and why it can feel both unfamiliar and like a genuine relief if you're used to supervision built around problem-solving and the 1 to 1 relationship.

He's also running a free 30-minute online introduction for anyone curious about Balint groups but unsure what to expect.
Read the full piece for more details, link in comments.

You know that moment when you get a glimpse of what is going on beneath a perfectly ordinary conversation and then it slips away. It could be the hidden meaning in the words themselves, or the tone that grates slightly, or your own response to the conversation.

Transactional Analysis is a model that can help us notice and understand the underlying threads to conversations, our reactions, our history all add into the mix that can make a normal conversation be something else.

Its a model of communication and human relating that is used in therapy, organisations and a whole range of other settings. The good thing is that its concepts are accessible for anyone and can give us insight into personal lives as well as work situations.

The TA101 is a 2 day introduction covering the key areas - ego states, transactions, life positions, scripts, games - but the focus throughout is applying to real life and real people by asking questions like 'Where does this show up in your own conversations, your own reactions, your own history?'

It's also, for some people, the start of something longer. The TA101 is the internationally recognised entry point if you ever want to go further with TA, whether that's more CPD with us down the line or the first step toward fuller training elsewhere.

The next course is on 11 & 12 July, North West Leeds. Full details via link in the first comment.

If you are considering expanding your work to include couples therapy, it can take some time to find a model that works for you. In many forms of couples therapy, like 1 to 1 therapy, the therapist is an active participant and the therapeutic relationship is a key factor in session.

Imago Relationship Therapy is one model that takes a different approach. Rather than becoming the central relationship in the room, the therapist helps partners become more present, curious and connected with each other. In essence, the emphasis shifts from interpretation to facilitation.

From:
"Let me help you understand why you're feeling that."

To:
"Can you help your partner understand what you're experiencing?"

Imago focuses on creating the conditions for meaningful dialogue and helping partners listen in ways they may never have experienced before. The underlying philosophy is that when couples begin to feel heard, understood and validated by each other, something powerful happens. The relationship itself becomes the place where healing and growth can occur. You don't carry the relationship - you help the couple learn how to carry it together.

What might change in your practice if you focused less on interpretation and more on facilitating connection?