In this editorial of 1998 the theme is one of growth and change. Most of the articles are about how far people have come on their therapeutic joumey. Also the development of the Institute is an integral part of that. Since last years edition Bob has got married to Stephanie and Tom and Megan Burton have had a beautiful baby son called Dillon. The training program has trebled and there are now sixty-five trainees in TA at the Institute. We also have twelve therapists working in private practice at the Institute, whilst I have taken up the post as new editor of the ITA News and have made some changes to its presentation and layout.
What does change really mean? Does it mean something very basic like a hairstyle or some new clothes? Does it mean changing a job or a complete career or simply moving house? For us as therapists it means a great deal. For we are aware that each of us have some very fundamental issues within ourselves to change in order to become the person we want to be and then to go on to lead others on a path of change.
For me change has meant a whole remould of my internal structure. All the things I believed in and recognised to be solid and true for me twenty years or more ago, no longer apply. I have changed a whole way of being since I started on the path of psychotherapy. If you were to speak to those who knew me in my nursing days all those years ago would they describe me as the same person or a complete stranger? When I look back at the person I was, that person is a stranger to me. There are however things that would always be the same about me, my eye colour, my hair, except as it changes to grey, and my sense of humour, which has served me well over the years. In my younger days most of my humour was self-scathing, known in psychotherapy as Gallows humour, this is when we laugh about things that are tragic and unfunny, and many of us spend most of our lives doing that. We can however retain our sense of humour without putting others down or discounting our own painful experiences in order to protect ourselves from the pain of the past. So many of the old comedians used others as the butt of their humour or their own hurtful experiences to gain a laugh and of course, to gain contacts and hold with them, their audience.
In childhood we look to those we are dependent upon to protect and care for us. Unfortunately for many that protection and care is chaotic and insecure. When we are traumatised as children, and the trauma doesn't always need to be big, just repetitive, we begin a process of building our own defences. In TA we call this Script, in this we make major decisions about who we are in relation to others and how we are going to be from then on. Our defences become a protection to the real self inside; we may build an adapted self, finding ways of getting through life. Many of these ways are basically who we really are, others are shackles that restrict our way in the world. These shackles are the aspects of us that we can change. So many people that come to therapy ask me "Is it possible to change?" My answer would always be yes, a long as you are motivated. There is an old joke that you may have heard in different forms. Question: How many therapists does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: One, as long as it wants to change. We have to want to change, we need to look inward and outward for what needs to change in us, then work towards it. If we look to others to change in order that we might feel better, then nothing really changes; we just go on searching for the parent we never had or the 'holding' environment that we didn't experience.
Throughout the joumal you will see stories and events in peoples lives that demonstrate change and growth through therapy. We at the Institute promote the whole philosophy that if we change then those around us change in response and like a domino effect, the process goes on.
June Brereton, Editor