MEETING GROWTH WITH A RADICAL, YET GRACEFUL SPIRIT – An Interview with Trudi Newton

Interviewer: Diana Diaconu. Co-interviewer: Alexandra Gheorghe
July, 2016

BIO

Trudi has been involved in the TA community as a teacher, supervisor, writer, researcher and consultant. Her commitment to developing an understanding and an effective approach to education has concretized in a set of significant TA theories, articles, and books. (She was co-author of “TACTICS: Transactional Analysis Concepts for All Trainers, Teacher and Tutors”, written together with R. Napper, and “Improving Behavior and Raising Self-esteem in the Classroom”, elaborated with E. Bradshaw and G. Barrow. With G. Barrow, she also wrote “Walking the Talk”, a book addressed mainly to teachers and other specialists in education.)

Trudi has brought her work to various different places of the world, such as South Africa and Russia, where she has designed a four-year training program for educators and school psychologists in St. Petersburg.

She was also a vice president of the International Association of Transactional Analysis (ITAA) and Chair of the Training and Certification Council of Transactional Analysis.

VIDEO NO. 1: “Rising Up To the Challenge of Doing Things Differently”

• On the experience of finding one’s own way as a student: “I wanted to work with people, not micro-organisms”.
• Putting forward a shift of paradigm: from the social worker, as “a soft policeman” towards supporting people from a place of collaboration and equal power.
• A case of radical thinking in social work: emphasizing the key role of group and community.

VIDEO NO. 2: “Looking Outside, as a Resource for Growth”

• Literature as a valuable influence in the work of the transactional analyst.
• Rebeliousness, Resilience, and Radicalism, as factors involved in change.
• Designing change through the enticing discourse between the humanistic approach and the progressive model of education.

REFERENCES:

/// Berne, E. (1972). What Do You Say After You Say Hello?: The Psychology of Human Destiny. New York: Grove Press.

/// Darwin, Ch. (1859). On the Origin of Species. London: John Murray.

/// Newton. T. (2014). Learning Imagoes Update. Transactional Analysis Journal, 44 (1): 31-40.

/// Steiner, C. (1974). Scripts People Live. New York: Grove Press.