Transactional Analysis with Children: Encounter, Presence, and Creativity
Book Details
- Publisher : Routledge
- Published : December 2026
- Cover : Paperback
- Pages : 176
- Category :
Forthcoming - Category 2 :
Child and Adolescent Studies - Catalogue No : 98709
- ISBN 13 : 9781041316381
- ISBN 10 : 1041316380
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This book brings together innovative perspectives and practices from leading experts in the field to explore the unique applications of transactional analysis in child and adolescent therapy, emphasizing relational, creative, and multimodal interventions.
It describes emerging approaches, introducing groundbreaking work from Italian transactional analysts previously unavailable to English-speaking audiences. It first delves into the theoretical underpinnings of transactional analysis with children, including ego states, contracts, and the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of the therapeutic relationship. Following this, it focuses on practical applications, such as the use of play, drawing, and body movement in therapy, as well as innovative techniques like four-handed drawing and projective drawing tests. Each chapter combines conceptual insights with real-world case studies, equipping practitioners with tools to address the complexities of child and adolescent mental health in diverse settings.
This is an essential resource for therapists, educators, and mental health professionals who work with children and wish to deepen their understanding of transactional analysis and its applications with children and young people. It offers practitioners the knowledge and skills to foster meaningful therapeutic relationships and support their clients’ emotional and psychological wellbeing.
Reviews and Endorsements
'Transactional Analysis with Children: Encounter, Presence, and Creativity is a treasure, and not only because it brings a rich and largely unknown body of Italian transactional analysis (TA) thinking into the English-speaking world, though that alone makes its publication significant. What makes this collection truly remarkable is the world it opens. It reminds us that working with children is not a smaller version of adult therapy, it is a different world entirely, with its own language, its own logic, and its own demands on the therapist.
For practitioners working with children – and adolescents – this book answers the questions we carry into every session: how? what? and when? However, this is not just a book about techniques; it is a book about keeping the spark of physis alive, about curiosity, and about the profound respect we owe to those who speak in and through play. This volume of papers gives us permission to slow down, to trust the symbolic, and to meet young people where their inner world actually lives.
As someone who has spent years working at the intersection of transactional analysis, Gestalt play therapy, and creative approaches, I found in these pages both confirmation and challenge – a reminder of what truly matters in this work, and an invitation to explore further.'
Alina Comendant, MSc, PTSTA(P), CTA(P), CTA(E), child and adolescent psychotherapist, trainer and supervisor specialising in transactional analysis and creative therapeutic approaches in Bussum, The Netherlands
'This book fills a huge hole in transactional TA knowledge regarding which most of us are not even aware. It is an exciting, creative, and compelling collection of chapters about working with children – and adolescents – using TA.
It is not only a book of papers about technique; more importantly, it is about philosophy, working relationally with children, and using creative methods to enable going deeper into the inner world of the child. The authors in this volume challenge assumptions about working with children and young people and provide evidence for the depth of work, the influence of script formation in young children, and of creative methods. The book essentially showcases all the fabulous pioneering work being done with children and young people in Italy, a country in which transactional analysts have been at the forefront of new developments with this client group, mostly building on the seminal work of Romanini in the 1980s as well as many subsequent practitioners and authors.
This volume is a must read for all practitioners, not least as those who do not work with children can learn a lot about working with the Child ego state. Pierini and Tudor and have curated a marvellous and moving collection of work that enhances TA for all.'
Mica Douglas, PhD, TSTA(P), psychotherapist and supervisor, Rochester, UK
'Like a symphony orchestra in which where each player performs their part while listening to others, the editors of this volume have creatively and thoughtfully brought together different authors who share their knowledge and experience of working with children in a similar way. Each author, in their own words, reveals the beauty of the child’s inner world and how to connect with it.
This collection of papers is a much-needed contribution to TA, while also offering valuable insights for the wider field of psychotherapy. The authors provide a meaningful integration of theory and techniques from different play therapy modalities, supported by examples from practice. In curating this volume, the editors have opened a very important door for Italian colleagues, some for the first time, to share with the international community deep insights into their decades of dedicated work with children.'
Tatjana Gjurković, MA, CTA(P), TSTA(P), psychologist, Director of Center Proventus, Ama Dablam Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
'We wholeheartedly endorse this exploration into working therapeutically with children through the lens of transactional analysis (TA). This book outlines many TA concepts that help us understand script development in a young child. As child-centred play therapists, we have seen the power of early interventions with protocol and script decisions. The importance of play and the relationship are woven throughout this book, and we welcome and value the contributions to ethics and contracting, both of which are often overlooked when working with children. We are pleased that the contributors have brought forward the view that working with children requires the therapist to have the capacity to work with uncertainty, and bodily felt experiences. Working with children, in play and symbolism, is richly rewarding, and this book will be invaluable for both those already working with children as well as those considering a shift to working with younger clients.'
Natalie Astin CTA (Psychotherapy), child-centred play therapist, trainer and supervisor, and
Frankie Dean CTA (Psychotherapy), child-centred play therapist, trainer and supervisor, Wanaka, Aotearoa New Zealand
Table of Contents
Introduction
Alessandra Pierini and Keith Tudor
1. Theoretical and methodological perspectives of transactional analysis with children
Alessandra Pierini
2. The first encounter (2018)
Dolores Munari Poda
3. Distance and relationships in three-cornered contracts in child therapy (2014)
Alessandra Pierini
4. The precious writing of one’s life. Act I: Drafting the protocol (2018)
Alessandra Pierini
5. Play in transactional-analytic with children (2022)
Sara Filanti
6. Between pencils and colours: Transactional analysis with children and four-hand drawings (2005)
Stefano Morena
7. From gesture to image: Rethinking sand play (2018)
Cinzia Chiesa
8. Body and space in child psychotherapy (2002)
Alessandra Pierini
9. Transactional analysis with children and adolescents: Between technique and creativity (2010)
Stefano Morena
10. Children draw who they are and their relationships: A transactional analysis reading of projective drawing instruments in developmental age (2020)
Sara Filanti
11. Inhabiting the relationship: The (enduring) encounter between the child and the analyst (2014)
Alessandra Pierini
12. Kopionemon: A technique for script work (2018)
Alice Arduin
13. Closing reflections
Alessandra Pierini and Keith Tudor
About the Editor(s)
Alessandra Pierini is a psychologist, psychotherapist, and transactional analysis trainer and supervisor (TSTA-P/O) in the Psychotherapy and Organisational field in both the European Association for Transactional Analysis (EATA) and of the International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA). She is the director of her own TA Institute in Rome, and director of the Physis at, a clinical centre in Rome where she has her private practice, with children, adolescents, parents, and adults. Alessandra is a lecturer at the ‘Cattolica del Sacro Cuore’ University in Rome, where she teaches ‘Organisational Culture and Learning Organisations’. She is editor of an Italian TA Journal, and author of numerous articles and books in the field of psychotherapy.
Keith Tudor is Professor of Psychotherapy at Auckland University of Technology, Aotearoa New Zealand, where he is currently engaged in establishing an entity for research in the psychological therapies. He is the author of over 300 peer-reviewed publications, including 17 books.
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