This article presents a transactional analysis model of trauma located within a relational paradigm. It proposes that the Adult ego state enables us to form a narrative self or coherent sense of identity. Trauma interferes with this integrative capacity, creating excluded ego states and a disorganized self. The child's experience of abusive caregivers is internalized in a series of toxic Parent/ Child ego states. This inner world shapes the child's view of the world outside, leading to patterns of transferential enactment that reinforce a traumatic script. Therapy is concerned with developing the Adult capacity to create a coherent narrative that allows the client to move from enacting to reflecting.
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