Posters

Nikos Tsogkas is an integrative counsellor (BACP reg.), influenced by the TA principles. In 2019, he participated in the two-day TA101 course at Physis Scotland in Edinburgh and he holds the TA101 verification certification by UKATA. He also holds an MSc by Research in Counselling Studies from the University of Edinburgh and he is currently a part-time PhD candidate at the department of Counselling, Psychotherapy and Applied Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. In addition, he currently works as a trainee Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP) within the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) at the Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust.

In his book, What Do You Say After You Say Hello?, Eric Berne noted that “…death is not an act, not even an event, for the one who dies. It is both for those who survive. What it can be, and should be, is a transaction.”. Even though the founder of Transactional Analysis (TA) experienced significant losses in his life, paradoxically, he has not included extensive material related to grief in his clinical writing.

The aim of this poster is to present a systematic literature review on TA for grief. This systematic literature review was conducted within the context of my PhD research that explores TA for grief as experienced both by TA therapists in their practice and bereaved clients in TA sessions. The clear search strategy and the transparency of methods used will be illustrated, aiming at identifying the total of the publications related to TA for grief. The results of the systematic literature review demonstrated, among others, that there is scarce publication related to TA for grief while the majority of the authors indicated the need for both theoretical discussions and research studies in this field. All the included papers made a worthwhile contribution to the TA community and the field of counselling and psychotherapy, albeit not being research-minded.

In addition to the systematic literature review, a summary of my PhD research will be provided, including the research aims and questions involved. As regards the data collection and analysis phases, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), as well as focus groups and individual interviews, were selected as methodology and methods, respectively. IPA aims at exploring the participants’ lived experience through their stories and their subjective perspective while making sense of the explored phenomenon. Through focus groups and/or individual interviews, Transactional Analysts may have the opportunity to reflect upon their practice, strengths and areas for further consideration. In addition, the clients’ lived experience of TA grief counselling will be explored, and their voices will be heard. Thus, TA for grief will be discussed to a deeper level.