31/03/2026
🌱 As you train to become a TA therapist the question of where you are relating from right now will quietly sit in the background.
Berne’s Life Positions (1962) offer a simple but powerful frame for reflection, and Ernst’s OK Corral (1971) helps bring this to life by mapping the four positions we move through in relation to ourselves and others. From “I’m OK, You’re OK” to the positions we move into when stress, comparison, or old script beliefs take over, the grid gives you a way to notice where you are in the moment.
In the therapy room, the aim is the “I’m OK, You’re OK” stance, where you hold both your own worth and the worth of your client. This is the basis for respect, contact, and growth. Yet the journey through training is rarely smooth. There are days when you look around the room and other students seem more confident, more articulate, or more prepared. In those moments, your script can pull you toward “I’m not OK, You’re OK”. You begin to question yourself, your skills, and whether you are good enough to be in the room at all.
Ernst’s OK Corral offers a useful reflective tool here. Rather than judging yourself for moving out of the “I’m OK, You’re OK” position, you are invited to notice where you have shifted and what script belief might be driving it. Training is not about staying in one position all the time. It is about developing awareness of your movement across the grid and understanding how this shapes the way you meet clients, peers, and tutors.
If the journey feels bumpy, this is often where some of the deepest learning takes place. A couple of useful questions to hold today is:
🌱 Where am I in the OK Corral right now?
🌱 What is my script inviting me to believe about myself and others?
