Article

Transactional Analysis Journal

2014, Vol. 44(3) 194-207
Avoidance, Vicious Cycles, and ª International Transactional Analysis
Association, 2014
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Experiential Disconfirmation of sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0362153714554207
Script: Two New Theoretical ta.sagepub.com

Concepts and One Mechanism

of Change in the Psychotherapy
of Depression and Anxiety

Mark Widdowson

Abstract
This article presents an argument for the clinical and empirical relevance of case study material.
Drawing on a series of systematic case studies based in Stiles’s (2007) model of theory building, the
author proposes adding the concepts of avoidance and vicious cycles to standard transactional
analysis and offers case material to illustrate the usefulness of doing so. Avoidance and vicious
cycles are proposed as key mechanisms in the maintenance of the client’s problems, specifically
depression and anxiety but also other presenting problems. The article also proposes experiential
disconfirmation as an active change mechanism in transactional analysis therapy whereby the
therapist actively challenges the client’s life script and promotes change at an experiential level.
These concepts forge links between several transactional analysis concepts and provide a unifying
framework for a range of TA therapy approaches.

Keywords
transactional analysis psychotherapy, avoidance, maintaining factors, change mechanisms, theory
building, case study research, depression, anxiety

Theory Building and the Origins of Transactional Analysis

Much of transactional analysis theory, which was developed by members of Eric Berne’s San Fran-
cisco Social Psychiatry Seminars, had its origins in client case material. Clients would bring up
issues in sessions with seminar members, almost all of whom were professionals in the mental health
field, and those clinicians would then present case material to the seminars and collaborate to
develop original transactional analysis theoretical explanations about what was going on for the

Corresponding Author:
Mark Widdowson, Room 317, Mary Seacole Building, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Salford,
Salford M6 6PU, United Kingdom.
Email: m.widdowson@salford.ac.uk

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Widdowson 195

clients and how their problems could be understood. These theories would be tested by members
applying those explanations to other cases to assess the explanatory power of the new theory.

Why Extend Transactional Analysis Theory?

Unfortunately, no therapeutic model is a panacea. Despite its flexibility and capacity to explain a
wide range of phenomena, there are many aspects of intrapsychic and interpersonal process and
behaviors that transactional analysis currently does not adequately address or conceptualize. Each
problem that we encounter as practitioners requires our attention and potentially either confirms
or challenges our theory. Not only do we need to continually develop our theory, but we also need
to continually extend our repertoire of interventions. The theory and practice of transactional anal-
ysis is continuously evolving as a living approach to psychotherapy, counseling, education, and
organizational development.

Theory Building Case Study Research

The ‘‘theory building’’ approach to systematic case study research in psychotherapy has largely been
documented by Stiles (2007). He argues that the level of rich data and detailed analysis that a case study
yields means that this method of research is ideally placed to develop, test or refine theories. The
researcher examines the case and the explanatory theory, ‘‘reconciling it with observations. . . . [and]
eliminating or modifying aspects that do not square with observations and extending the theory as new
phenomena are observed’’ (Stiles, 2010, p. 2). The theory building approach which Stiles takes is a dif-
ferent position to Popper’s (1959) principle of falsifiability. Within falsifiability, if a disconfirming
example is found, the theory is considered to be invalid. With a theory building approach, theories which
are disconfirmed in some way are not necessarily abandoned, but instead are adjusted or amended to
account for the new data or observed phenomenon. This approach lends itself particularly well to case
study research. Each case is likely to have aspects which confirm existing theory, as well as aspects
which either do not fit or are unexplained by this existing theory. (Widdowson, 2013a, pp. 111-112)

The material presented in this article is based on a series of systematic case studies that examined the
process and outcome of brief (16-session) transactional analysis psychotherapy for the treatment of
depression with clients in community-based routine practice. This was conducted as my doctoral
research project (see Widdowson, 2013a). The process of transactional analysis psychotherapy in
these cases was investigated, and several mechanisms were identified that have not been previously
explicitly articulated within the TA literature.

The Starting Point: The Purpose of Homework in Transactional

Analysis Therapy
Documented in each of the case studies I reported on was how the therapists had promoted the use of
homework between sessions to facilitate the client’s change process.

Analysis of the cases suggested that the use of homework was primarily intended to serve two purposes:
firstly, development of self-awareness, and secondly to promote behavioural experimentation to chal-
lenge specific maladaptive patterns. TA therapists traditionally promote active change in their clients and
will negotiate with the client to plan specific actions that they believe will help the client move towards
their overall therapy goals (Stewart, 2007). Analysis of the case studies highlighted an implicit concep-
tualisation that drives this process—namely, the challenging of avoidance. . . . This is of theoretical sig-
nificance because although avoidance is acknowledged in several therapy approaches and has links to
several aspects of TA theory, there is not a specific TA concept relating to avoidance. TA theory would

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196 Transactional Analysis Journal 44(3)

benefit from an explicit conceptualisation of avoidance, thus making a useful extension to existing TA
practice. Avoidance would fit most closely within the concept and taxonomy of passive behaviours
(Schiff et al., 1975). This extension of TA theory could give rise to a clear framework for intervention
related to avoidance that would strengthen the application of TA therapy with this client group. (Wid-
dowson, 2013a, pp. 327-328)

Avoidance was referred to in the cases of Peter, Denise, Tom, and Linda (all in mediator and
moderator factors) (see Widdowson, 2012a, 2012b, 2012c, 2013b).

Avoidance
Avoidance is a chosen (non) activity whereby the individual does not do something (which may be a
behavior, thought, or feeling) in order to avoid some kind of perceived discomfort. Thoughts, feel-
ings, memories, fantasies, interpersonal events, physical sensations, and other internal and external
events and situations all can be avoided. Avoidance can be of present or fantasized future stimuli.

Links to Existing Psychotherapy Theory

Many other theories of therapy include within them the concept of avoidance. From the time of
Freud (1922) and his writings on the pleasure principle, psychodynamic thinking has acknowledged
the existence of avoidance. Within psychodynamic theory, it is assumed that individuals experience
a range of thoughts, feelings, impulses, and fantasies, some of which they feel conflicted about. The
emotions, thoughts, fantasies, and impulses that generate conflict are dynamically repressed by the
unconscious, which employs a range of defense mechanisms to avoid these experiences. Unfortu-
nately, this process creates considerable intrapsychic tension that then results in the development
of a range of symptoms. Within psychodynamic theory, the road to psychological health involves
the gradual integration of these experiences and a reduction in avoidance and the resulting internal
conflict.
A similar process is implicit in the transactional analysis concept of deconfusion, which involves
the identification, allowing, and expression of feelings that were originally repressed (or avoided in
some way) and are still held in some way in the Child ego state. Similarly, the resolution of the script
system (Erskine & Zalcman, 1979; O-Reilly-Knapp & Erskine, 2010) requires the identification and
expression of the feeling(s) that the individual has repressed and that drives the maintenance of the
script system.
In relation to the script system—which might better be characterized as a negative associative
network—the client can be seen to be repressing some affect, which drives the whole system. It
is my experience that in depression, the repressed affect is often positive feelings about the self and
not anger or sadness, as is commonly presumed (see Widdowson, in press). As part of the implicitly
learned associative network, the client will experience anxiety and have some negative fantasies
about what he or she fears will happen if the repressed feeling is allowed and expressed. Thus,
the concept of avoidance is central to understanding and working with the associative network of
the script-in-action and also links to psychodynamic concepts of defense mechanisms and the avoid-
ance of impulses, urges, and feelings that are conflictual or forbidden in some way.
Avoidance has at its heart a positive intention. The desire that fuels avoidance is the drive to
reduce pain, discomfort, and distress. This is a perfectly natural urge, one that is in keeping with
humanistic principles such as physis (Berne, 1972) and the actualizing tendency (Rogers, 1961).
However, the desire to avoid distress also contains an element that may have its origins in
the infant’s or young child’s inability to process and regulate his or her emotions. The infant is
unable to tolerate and manage intense feelings without an external regulating other (Schore,

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2003). To the infant, distress feels intolerable, overwhelming, and dangerous and threatens to anni-
hilate. Through repetition, and in the absence of a good-enough parent (Winnicott, 1965), this per-
ception that distress is overwhelming is likely to become fixated and recorded within the Child ego
state. Magical thinking and the desire for a state of bliss becomes reinforced later by parenting and
societal messages that tell us that distress is somehow wrong rather than a natural state of being.
Distress and pain are unavoidable; we all have to face them throughout our lives.
Avoidance appears similar to the transactional analysis concept of passivity. Schiff (1975) and
her colleagues identified four passive behaviors: doing nothing, overadaptation, agitation, and inca-
pacitation or violence. ‘‘The passive behaviors are the internal as well as the external actions people
employ to avoid autonomous response to stimuli, problems, or options’’ (p. 10). Given this defini-
tion, it appears that avoidance is an overarching concept that connects different passive behaviors at
the level of their purpose or intention. Alternatively, avoidance could be considered a fifth passive
behavior. Somehow, avoidance seems both similar to these behaviors and also different. It is most
similar to doing nothing.

Doing nothing involves a nonresponse to stimuli, problems, or options. Rather than . . . patients’ energy
being channeled into action, it is utilized to inhibit responses. While doing nothing, patients are usually
aware of being uncomfortable and of their own identity, but they do little thinking about what is happen-
ing. (pp. 10-11)

A closer look at avoidance suggests that, indeed, it is different from doing nothing. In particular,
avoidance has the feel of a more active choice, which the individual engages in as an attempt to
reduce some current or near-future discomfort. In other words, when people engage in avoidance,
they tend to consider what they are doing to be helpful or at least desirable in some way. Structurally,
it can be viewed at its most basic level to be a contaminated Adult process (i.e., the individual mis-
takenly believes that his or her actions are based on here-and-now reality) based on an earlier Adult
in the Child (A1) strategy to reduce discomfort.

The Role of Avoidance in Depression and Anxiety

Avoidance is known to be a contributing/maintaining factor and feature of depression and anxiety
disorders (Trew, 2011). For example, the hopelessness, anhedonia, and low mood that characterize
depression predispose depressed individuals to avoiding activities, even though doing so results in a
reduction of positive stimuli that, in turn, maintains the depression. Although avoidance can lead to
short-term relief, it does not solve the underlying problems and can generate new problems or
exacerbate existing ones, thus contributing to maintaining the depression (Jacobson, Martell, &
Dimidjian, 2001; Manos, Kanter, & Busch, 2010; Martell, Addis, & Jacobson, 2001; Trew, 2011).
Depression is also associated with (unsuccessful) attempts to avoid certain thoughts, feelings, and sen-
sations (Cribb, Moulds, & Carter, 2006; Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000; Trew, 2011; Tull & Gratz, 2008).
Furthermore, depression triggers a range of problematic interpersonal behaviors such as avoiding
socializing, failing to resolve interpersonal conflicts, and complaining, all of which contribute to the
erosive effects of depression on relationships (Joiner, 2000). It is believed that avoidance is also con-
nected to negative attentional bias in depression, which results in a self-perpetuating activation of
memories, thoughts, feelings, and ways of interpreting stimuli (Trew, 2011). In transactional analysis
terms, this means that avoidance may sustain the ongoing activation of a depressogenic script system
or, to use the phrase I prefer, a depressive associative network. Also, avoidance seems to require the
use of discounting or, at the very least, a lack of appropriate and accurate Adult information.
The link between avoidance and depression has considerable empirical support and has been sup-
ported by research into therapy strategies that target avoidance. These have been demonstrated to be

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198 Transactional Analysis Journal 44(3)

effective in treating depression (Cuijpers, van Straten, & Warmerdam, 2007). In one study,
depressed clients who had generated therapy goals that were more focused on avoidance (i.e., on
avoiding something or using negatively worded goals) were more symptomatic at the end of therapy
than those who developed goals that were more focused on approach (i.e., on what the individual
would gain or move toward). Researchers have hypothesized that this was because avoidance
set a negative frame of mind that contributed to maintaining depressive symptoms (Wollburg &
Braukhaus, 2010).
Avoidance is often experienced in anxiety disorders and is a key feature of phobias, social anxi-
ety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. A technique central to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
treatment of anxiety disorders is exposure to the feared situation; that is, the therapist invites the cli-
ent to systematically and repeatedly face the feared situation while learning how to manage and reg-
ulate his or her anxiety (Wilamowska et al., 2010).
McCullough Vaillant’s (1996) model of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy and Wachtel’s
(2010) relational model of cyclical psychodynamics also draw on the therapeutic use of exposure to
some feared affect in order to help clients overcome their anxieties around feared emotional experi-
ences by allowing such experiences into their awareness and expanding their capacity for affect reg-
ulation and expression, thereby reducing intrapsychic conflict.
Thus, avoidance is not only a product of a range of problems, but it also sustains them. In the case
examples presented in the following section, we see how the client’s problem or symptom leads to an
urge to avoid some immediate unpleasant experience, even though doing so has consequences that
inadvertently reinforce and exacerbate the problem or symptom.

Vicious Cycles
Each aspect of transactional analysis theory can complement other aspects, all of which can be con-
sidered to hinge on the concept of life script. For example, an individual may use mechanisms of
discounting to reinforce and maintain his or her script. Similarly, people get into games that also
reinforce their script and lead to racket feelings. Individuals have a series of complex and mutually
supporting intrapsychic and interpersonal processes that maintain and entrench their script. A disor-
der or problem can be conceptualized as a wide-ranging system of maladaptive and mutually sup-
porting interpersonal and intrapsychic processes. Clearly, effective therapy involves seeking ways to
disrupt and change these processes and support the client in generating new, healthier, and more
adaptive growth-oriented processes.
One observation from my research was

that the therapists . . . all actively sought to help their clients break patterns of behaviour that might likely
(inadvertently) reinforce their depression. This appears to have been a conscious therapeutic strategy.
However, no direct theoretical concept exists within existing TA literature to act as a theoretical basis
for this intervention approach, although this notion is at least implicitly a part of the method of confron-
tation (Berne, 1966; Schiff et al., 1975; Stewart, 2013; Woollams and Brown, 1979). A theoretical exten-
sion that might accommodate this observation could be described as ‘‘vicious cycles’’. This concept is
similar to one used in behavioural therapy (Garland, Fox, & Williams, 2002; Veale, 2008) [and] cognitive
analytic therapy (Ryle & Kerr, 2002), whereby a client’s symptoms (e.g. depression) lead to a series of
avoidant or maladaptive behaviours or patterns (such as social withdrawal), which in turn reinforce the
symptom (in which, for example, lack of positive experiences reinforces the depression). For Transactional
Analysis, the development of a theory of ‘‘vicious cycles’’ would make a useful practical and heuristic
bridge between concepts of passivity and the script system. (Widdowson, 2013a, p. 328)

Vicious cycles can also be conceptualized as an observable link between discounting and script rein-
forcement. In transactional analysis, script used to be viewed as static and unchanging, although at

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Widdowson 199

Figure 1. A Depression-Social Isolation Vicious Cycle.

this point many transactional analysts have challenged this view (Allen & Allen, 1997; Cornell,
1988; Newton, 2006; Stuthridge, 2010). My own view is that many disorder processes seem to acti-
vate what can be referred to as script deterioration. That is, as the disorder progresses, the person’s
script deteriorates in the direction of greater dysfunction and impairment, and the individual’s prob-
lems become more entrenched. In this sense, the individual is caught in a vicious cycle that both
sustains and worsens his or her problems.
Avoidance is one way that vicious cycles may be instigated. For example, someone feels
depressed so he or she avoids social contact, which results in a reduction in enjoyable experiences
and positive strokes. This leads the person to feel isolated and joyless, which worsens his or her
depression (see Figure 1).
Indeed, many depressive symptoms and processes are an attempt to regulate feelings, although, in
fact, they paradoxically make them worse and reinforce the depression (Greenberg & Watson,
2006). For example, a central aspect of depression is intense self-criticism, which the individual
often thinks is necessary to motivate him or her. This self-criticism undermines self-confidence and
leads to increased hopelessness, which in turns makes the person withdraw and avoid activities. This
then makes him or her feel worse and increases his or her self-criticism (usually this means a self-
critical ego state dialogue). Clients with social anxiety avoid situations in which they have to face
their fear as a way of managing the uncomfortable feelings they would otherwise experience. Doing
so reinforces their script system beliefs (O’Reilly-Knapp & Erskine, 2010) that there is some kind of
danger in the feared situation and that their feelings would be intolerable. The lack of experience in
tolerating, managing, and overcoming their discomfort reinforces their beliefs that they will not be
able to cope and that they are in some way inadequate. This further undermines their confidence and
self-esteem and makes social avoidance more likely in the future. Being stuck in a pattern that is
intended to avoid discomfort actually ends up maintaining the problem, which is a key feature of
many of the issues with which these clients present.

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200 Transactional Analysis Journal 44(3)

Figure 2. Anusha’s Depressed-Comfort Eating Vicious Cycle.

Case Examples
Anusha came to therapy depressed and despondent. Her self-esteem was almost nonexistent. She
was overweight and described how she ‘‘hated being so fat.’’ Because she felt so bad about her
appearance, she would turn to sweets and snack food for comfort. This had a predictable and reli-
ably soothing effect, although it was short lived. Afterward she would be angry at herself for eat-
ing so much, which would lead to an increase in her self-criticism, a lowering of her self-esteem,
and an increase in her distress. Eventually, those feelings would send her back to bingeing again
(see Figure 2).
Laura came to therapy for treatment of her depression. She had a small group of close friends who
had met for dinner and drinks every Friday for several years. Early in therapy she reported how she
had not seen her friends for 2 months because she felt so depressed and could not face going out. She
also believed that she had nothing to offer and that her mood would only bring other people down.
Instead, she stayed at home and felt increasingly isolated. She criticized herself for ‘‘letting her
friends down’’ and for ‘‘being so miserable all the time.’’ These feelings of isolation and self-
criticism then reinforced her negative script beliefs and deprived her of valuable positive strokes.
That meant that her structure, stimulus, and recognition hungers (Berne, 1964) were not being met.
All of this set up a vicious cycle that not only maintained her depression but made it worse (see
Figure 3).
Adam also came to therapy for his depression. Although he made considerable progress, he
struggled with daily arguments with his wife and teenage children. These left him depressed and
despondent. He was often tense and impatient and had strong expectations about how things should
be done. He would arrive home feeling stressed, angry, and irritable and would then start complain-
ing to his family about the house being untidy and so on. Adam would quickly become angry, esca-
late into shouting, and get into an argument. Afterward, he not only felt upset about the argument but
also filled with self-loathing for having started it and for shouting at his family. This, in turn,

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Widdowson 201

Figure 3. Laura’s Vicious Cycle.

reinforced his script beliefs about being ‘‘a bad person.’’ He would then be angry (with himself) and
tense when arriving home the following day, which set the scene for another argument (see
Figure 4).
In therapy, Adam realized that for this pattern to change he had to learn to keep quiet and not be
so quick to complain and shout. This took considerable effort at first, but it quickly paid off. Using
this social control technique (Berne, 1961), the atmosphere at home improved rapidly, and his wife
commented that he had been calmer. Over a few weeks, his home life transformed. Everyone was
much calmer, and his relationships with his wife and children substantially improved. Because his
script beliefs were not getting daily reinforcement, his gains in therapy were quicker and deeper than
they had been.

Addressing Vicious Cycles

These case examples illustrate the vicious cycle in action but not necessarily what interventions were
used by the therapist to interrupt these script-based patterns. In these cases, the therapist initiated a
collaborative discussion with the client that was intended to identify and elaborate on the key aspects
of his or her vicious cycle. The initial aim was to assist the person in developing greater self-
awareness about the operation of these cycles in his or her life and the role they played in main-
taining his or her problems. Each point in the vicious cycle provides an opportunity to interrupt the
pattern in whatever way the client finds most agreeable. What may appear to be simple or
superficial changes in behavior can have quite a substantial impact (e.g., as was the case with
Adam).
The three examples just described show how each client engaged in behavior that was intended to
reduce discomfort but that actually contributed to the maintenance of his or her problem. I

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202 Transactional Analysis Journal 44(3)

Figure 4. Adam’s Angry-Depressed Vicious Cycle.

recommend that transactional analysis practitioners work with clients to identify vicious cycles that
may be maintaining their problem. The work can then focus on how the person can break these pat-
terns and find ways of problem solving. It is important to note that often breaking up such vicious
cycles will initially generate discomfort but that pushing through it will generally result in improve-
ment. Vicious cycles can often be identified by asking clients if there is anything they avoid doing as
a result of their symptoms or what they generally do to manage their symptoms. As the client
describes his or her coping strategy, the therapist can ask if it is a short-term or long-term coping
strategy, that is, whether it relieves discomfort only in the short term or results in any kind of lasting
benefit. It can also be useful to ask if there might be any negative, longer-term consequences of that
approach. Clients will often understand quickly that their coping strategy is only a short-term solu-
tion. Such realizations need to be handled sensitively because they can be problematic, especially for
individuals with depression who are often self-critical and prone to self-blame. In such cases, it can
help to give the client positive strokes for coming up with a short-term strategy and then guide his or
her thinking to make sense of the overall vicious cycle the strategy sets up and generate positive
alternative behaviors that break the pattern.

The Principle of Systematic Experiential Disconfirmation

TA therapists tend to pay close attention to the client’s life script and its manifestations. The therapists in
the three best outcome cases from the research (see Widdowson, 2012a, b, c) all actively and deliberately
managed the therapy to avoid inadvertently reinforcing the client’s life script in the therapy process.
Instead, the therapists appeared to focus on challenging their client’s life script. The evidence here sug-
gests the therapists were working with an implicit principle that could be described as ‘‘systematic
experiential disconfirmation’’. This is a process which has not previously been articulated in TA theory
and constitutes a proposed additional extension to TA practice as a therapeutic strategy. In practice,

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experiential disconfirmation appears to integrate cognitive, affective, behavioural and relational aspects
within a perspective informed by TA developmental theory. For the clients in (the) study, interpersonal
learning and changes in their ways of communicating and relating to others were important parts of their
change process. (Widdowson, 2013a, p. 329)

The process of systematic experiential disconfirmation was particularly clear in the cases of Denise
(Widdowson, 2012b) and Alastair (Widdowson, 2014). The therapists in each case identified key
aspects of the client’s life script early in the therapy and then sought to draw the client’s attention
toward experiences that disconfirmed their script expectations and also avoided unhelpful script
reenactments in a systematic manner throughout the therapy.
Systematic experiential disconfirmation goes beyond simply not stroking the client’s script and
encompasses several key features: Transactional analysis therapy (1) should be systematic, (2) is
most effective when it is experiential, and 3) should seek to repeatedly and systematically discon-
firm the client’s script at both explicit and implicit levels. My view is that relearning and retranscrib-
ing problematic implicit memories are significant change mechanisms. Indeed, the life script can be
seen as a series of problematic implicit memories and the subsequent elaboration of them in the indi-
vidual’s psyche. As transactional analysts, we believe that our interpersonal transactions form our
intrapsychic structure, and our intrapsychic structure forms our interpersonal transactions. These are
not mutually exclusive systems but are continually interacting and influencing each other; a change
in one system effects a change in the other. I also propose that transactional analysis therapy is at its
most effective when the principle of systematic experiential disconfirmation is implemented in the
context of sustained moderate levels of emotional arousal.

Links to Other Aspects of Transactional Analysis Theory

Systematic experiential disconfirmation is not the same as the antithesis intervention described by
Berne (1964), which was often a decisive statement that was intended to challenge the client’s game
and, ultimately, his or her script. This might be likened to a spell breaker in a fairy tale. In my expe-
rience, while they might be dramatic or have some immediate potency, antithesis interventions are
all too often short lived in their effectiveness. A more systematic and experiential approach is usu-
ally needed for substantial, lasting change.
The cathexis approach to transactional analysis (Schiff, 1975) actively used confrontation to chal-
lenge the client’s script. While confrontation can be a valid and sometimes appropriate therapeutic
intervention, its use can also be experienced as harsh. Or it may be unproductive because the client
may (at least at some level) hear the confrontation but discount it due to fear of moving out of script.
Alternatively, if there is no experience available to back up the confrontation, the client may disbe-
lieve it and therefore discount or minimize it in some way. The use of systematic experiential dis-
confirmation provides an alternative to confrontation that is more palatable to clients and may be
experienced as having greater potency because of its immediacy.
Woollams and Brown (1979) referred to ‘‘script disruption’’ (p. 237) whereby the therapist
repeatedly interrupts the client’s script process type (e.g., until, almost, after, always, never) (Berne,
1972). In their treatment sequence, they also proposed a stage of relearning that involved the client
doing, thinking, or feeling something that directly challenged his or her script and thus invited him or
her into greater discomfort temporarily (I. Stewart, personal communication, 21 August 2013).
For disconfirmation to take place effectively, the therapist must ensure that the client has suffi-
cient protection and permission (Crossman, 1966) to move out of his or her script. In doing so, the
therapist provides an experience (either in a therapy session or prompted by work in a session) that
demonstrates to the client’s Child ego state that it is both safe and productive to move out of script.
As is common in transactional analysis therapy, the therapist strokes the client for each movement

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204 Transactional Analysis Journal 44(3)

out of script (Steiner, 1974; Stewart, 2013), thus reinforcing the person’s change. Furthermore, the
client’s script will contain a series of expectations about how he or she and others will react in rela-
tionships. The therapist can then seek to provide alternative experiences for the client, avoid acting
in ways that might confirm the client’s script, and/or invite the client to interpret experiences in a
way that is at odds with his or her script expectations. This has similarities to the corrective emo-
tional experience method proposed by Alexander, French, and Bacon (1946).
Within systematic experiential disconfirmation, the client’s attention is drawn toward some expe-
rience that disconfirms one or more aspects of his or her script. This is not, however, a solely cog-
nitive process but rather combines observation, attention, cognition, and moderate levels of affective
arousal with reflection and (co)construction of new meaning based on the experience. For example,
the methods developed by Goulding and Goulding (1979) were highly experiential in nature. Their
work involved stimulating emotions by the use of heighteners (McNeel, 1976) and inviting clients to
generate new meaning in a combined cognitive-affective process. After a redecision had taken place,
the Gouldings would invite clients to make a contract that would reinforce and anchor their change
(Goulding & Goulding, 1979).
Recently, the relational approach to transactional analysis (Hargaden & Sills, 2002) has become
popular, with adherents seeking to stimulate, intensify, and interpersonally process transference phe-
nomena and engage clients in a process of mutual understanding script enactments. Little (2013)
discussed the importance of the therapist participating as both an old object and a new object for the
client.
The redecision and relational approaches to transactional analysis therapy are linked by a com-
mon change mechanism: experiential disconfirmation of the client’s script. It is possible that both
methods can be combined to create a therapeutic arena that emphasizes experiential change in a
manner similar to switching between therapeutic modes of action as proposed by Stark (2000). Thus,
systematic experiential disconfirmation is proposed as a unifying mechanism of change across many
different approaches and interventions within transactional analysis.

Conclusion
This article proposes several additions to transactional analysis theory that can act as unifying prin-
ciples to highlight client process (avoidance), factors that maintain problems (vicious cycles), and a
process and mechanism of change (systematic experiential disconfirmation). Although these models
may suggest a simple behavioral approach to psychotherapy, I suggest that they can provide a frame-
work for deep, lasting change. Specifically, the desirability of experiential change has been empha-
sized. The material presented in this article has been drawn from case study research using Stiles’s
(2007) theory-building approach. Further research that examines the validity of these proposed the-
oretical extensions to transactional analysis theory is warranted. Psychotherapy process research that
investigates the key change mechanisms operating within a particular therapeutic approach has
much to offer and can assist us in our quest to promote client change more effectively and efficiently.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or pub-
lication of this article.

Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Author Biography

Mark Widdowson, PhD, MSc, ECP, FHEA, is a Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst
(psychotherapy) and a UKCP-registered psychotherapist. He is the author of Transactional Analy-
sis: 100 Key Points (Routledge) and is an active psychotherapy researcher. He is also a lecturer in
counseling and psychotherapy at the University of Salford. Mark can be reached at Room 317, Mary
Seacole Building, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Salford, Salford M6
6PU, United Kingdom; email: m.widdowson@salford.ac.uk.

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