This page is being updated to add in lots more, including schemes in several more countries – please come back in a few days
TAPACY Award Ceremony in Armenia – 2011
click here to see the video of this, showing examples of students work, including some great pictures to illustrate life positions, role plays and a mime game, and an award ceremony which even in 2011 used an online option to enable a TA Trainer/Supervisor in the UK to act as the Ambassador.
TAPACY in Lincolnshire Schools – 2011
During 2011 Steve Russell of the Lincolnshire’s School Improvement Service organised a TAPACY scheme in three schools, which then came together for an Award Ceremony for 94 students. There was much positive feedback when teachers, pupils and grandparents were interviewed afterwards. Several comments related to how the children were better able to express and cope with feelings; an example was “TA really lets our feelings out. It really helps us understand each other and our teacher – and to celebrate difference”. There were also instances of better relationships where previously there had been conflict; one group of girls described how, prior to doing TAPACY, there used to be 2 distinct groups in the classroom – those who sat in the middle of the classroom and tended to chat a lot and get very little work done – and those on the outer circle who generally got their heads down. During TAPACY this started to change – and now, having completed it, there is no such distinction. What was particularly powerful here was that this description came from the very students who had been part of the inner circle. Very importantly, they also spoke of how, post-TAPACY, students were working with one another in groups that, prior to the project, they simply refused to work with.” One highly significant quote is of a grandmother’s comment to a teacher: “I can’t believe the change – he’s growing up. He will now listen far more to what his mum tells him to do –and will usually do it without the strops (rebellious
behaviour) he used to throw.” Here are some the great examples of the work of the students.
Lincs School Student Work – July 2011 – PDF Download
TAPACP Award Ceremony in Turkey
Güney Erkilic, on the first ever TAPA for Caregivers & Parents in Turkey
Click here to see the video of this first ever TAPACP
I heard about theTAPACP project for the first time in a TA training in İstanbul.
After I learned about the project I decided to go ahead and I made my preparations.
I have chosen TAPACP that aims to improve parental skills. We had a contract with the parents that joined the project.
We shared with them a very enjoyable and productive process during 8 weeks of work. After completing the project, the participants were very satisfied with the change in their parenting skills.
They told me that they are happier and enjoy more being mothers. I observed that our training had therapeutic effects on some of them. After completing the project they came to see me one to one. They had become more courageous about taking new decisions.
For me this process was important to develop new models of teaching TA concepts to ease the learning process of participants. The core TA theory was always helping me to facilitate my teaching. In addition to that during the TAPACP my leadership skills are improved and my theory knowledge is increased.
I also thank to TAPA National Coordinator Turkey Soley Akten and my supervisor Prof. Dr. Füsun AKKOYUN for their support.
S. Güney ERKILIÇ
From Ya-Ying Chen in Taiwan
This is the first time that I taught TA to teenagers which I felt pretty interesting and exciting. On a regular basis, I held a workshop at weekends, the members were the students from high school, aged from 16 to 17. There were 24 persons who attended the workshops. In the learning process, I designed several activities to help the students learn, such as short speech, team discussion, drawing, stroke asking and giving, driver card activity, and body sculpture. Among these activities, they specially loved the functional analysis, stroke and life position, because they can explore and understand themselves better, learning how to interact with others effectively, and use the concept of I am OK; you are OK to deal with their life issues . Looking at the feedback form and photos, I could find the students’ joy and growth in a more positive way. Special thanks to Julie Hay and James Even Chen; without their supervision and checking portfolios, the workshop couldn’t have worked out and gone so well. Finally, I want to say: It’s also a good learning experience to me, to introduce TA to teenagers, so that they can use TA to explore themselves and deal with their issues effectively. I think it’s very meaningful. I am so happy and honored to join in this wonderful family of TAPACY, I look forward to our next cooperation!!
From Marina Pavlovska, who organised the TAPACY in Macedonia
It was a wonderful experience for all of us included in the organisation and realization and for the children too. The feedback from the children was that they learned things for life, and that this gave them great insights on the world and those around them and gave them a tool how to influence positively. I am looking forward for another group.
TAPACY IN ADANA, TURKEY 2013 – by Elif Akar
TAPACY was applied by Elif Akar in Adana in Turkey with the collaboration of moderator AKTEN Soley, Ambassador Prf.dr. Füsun AKKOYUN and ATAD (www.atad.org) in Adana.
The TA concepts were taught in a cycle of 8 sessions to 15 students between 15 March 2013 and May 2013 in Adana Barbaros İMKB Anatolian High School: Configuration Time, Life positions, Conflict resolution, Ego states, Competitive sense( rekabet duygu), Contact message, Permissions.
These concepts were selected to be helping of self-esteem and self-awareness of high school students. Students prepared their own portfolios with works such as poetry, painting, writing, movie , song lyrics which were associated with the concepts of TA they learned.
Moderator Akten Soley and Kudret Sezgin participated in the award ceremony together in Adana in order to review the works of young people and to celebrate at the end of the project. Prof. Julie Hay joined the ceremony via skype.
Photos from Serbia TAPACY Award Ceremony 2013
The photo on the left shows the group with Alekasandra Jovanovic, teacher in the middle, the school principal on the left, and Martina Smolcic, Ambassador and National Co-ordinator third from right (back row)
TAPACY FOR CHILDREN WHO ARE CARERS
This TAPACY scheme in the UK took place in 3 areas of Kent over July and August 2016. 3 groups of young people were taught some TA concepts and then produced portfolios of work to show their understanding of the TA concepts and how they are using what they’ve learned to help them in the future.
The young people were mainly young carers. The project was led by Kelly Donaldson, Head of Young Carer’s service at IMAGO COMMUNITY, who is in training for CTA Psychotherapy.
Among the concepts they covered were strokes, rackets, drivers, contracting, ego-states, transactions, drama triangle and OK corral.
The young people showed their understanding of these concepts by a number of means:
Some of them made masks to demonstrate rackets.
Picture 1 demonstrates the authentic feeling of sadness being covered up by the racket feeling of happiness
Pictures 2 & 3 demonstrate Mad (authentic feeling) covered up by Sad (Racket feeling).
They made clay models for drivers – Picture 4.
To demonstrate ego-states/ transactions they drew pictures and acted out different scenarios – Pictures 5 & 6.
They also acted out scenarios to show the drama triangle and used stories to show the different positions.
In general the young people said they felt better about themselves and communicated better leading to improvements in their relationships. There were some overall changes observed by the teachers of the groups as the sessions went on, for example, both the giving and receiving of positive strokes increased and the types of strokes were moving from conditional to unconditional.
Young carers tend to have a great sense of responsibility as they often spend a lot of time looking after others and don’t have much opportunity to be children and as such there were some common factors observed such as a Be Strong driver, a lot of Parent ego-state and/or the Victim role on the Drama Triangle. As the sessions progressed there was a development towards expressing the Free Child and showing vulnerability by asking for help to get their needs met.
There were individual examples of awareness and changes in behaviour. One group contained 3 siblings who were able to recognise their usual roles on the Drama Triangle and as a result were able to change how they behaved towards each other. A 12 year old girl said she had a Hurry Up driver and realised that sometimes slowing down can help her as she makes mistakes through rushing.
In September the 3 groups came together for a celebration event where 15 young people received the TAPACY award – Picture 7. Kelly reported that it was a fantastic evening and great to get the three groups together.
IMAGO are planning to teach another 3 groups in January 2017.
TA Proficiency Awards launched in the Netherlands
On September 8, 2016 a group of 50 children, ranging in age from 6 to 8 years old, and four of their teachers, were awarded with certificates and badges for having completed the requirements of the TAPACY (TA Proficiency Award for Children & Young People) and TAPATE (the same award for Teachers & Educators) respectively.
This made primary school De Bonte Tol, in Pijnacker, the first school in the Netherlands to have run the TAPA scheme – joining Armenia, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Macedonia, Serbia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey and the UK as places where TAPA has been run (and where in some places it has been extended to parents and caregivers, teaching assistants, and unemployed people.
The project at De Bonte Tol was set up by the school leader, Marina Hoos, who has been studying TA and who commented afterwards that “I am very happy about what the students and teachers achieved. This is the basis for a society in which we live together with respect for everyone’s autonomy and for each other.”
The project ran during the school year 2015-2016 and the pupils and teachers worked with TA4Kids, a curriculum set up for promoting social emotional development. The group learned about OKness, strokes, contracting, script, ego states and transactions. This creative approach used group activities and individual assignments to contribute to increased self-awareness, the ability to cooperate, and the autonomy of the students.
As is usual with a TAPA scheme, the pupils produced portfolios of evidence of what they had learned and how they had applied it in their lives. These were assessed by Gisèle Sarolea, an advanced TA student who volunteered for this and had supervision from Julie Hay TSTA OPE, who project manages the scheme internationally on behalf of the Institute of Developmental TA and makes sure that standards are consistent across different countries. Another volunteer was Alice Timmermans, another advanced TA student who also has much experience within the educational system in the Netherlands, and who served as the Ambassador and handed out the badges and certificates at the Award Ceremony.
The photos show the entire group, of children and teachers, posing happily with their certificates, and an extract from the portfolio of one of the children.
Turkey TAPATE awards
A TAPATE has just been concluded in Istanbul, Turkey. The certificates were presented at an Award Ceremony which took place on 5th June 2017 and was attended by Julie Hay via skype.
UK TAPACY Update – June 2017
At the beginning of this year a small TAPACY project was run by Imago Community. This project was led by Jo Rickword. Six young people met in Tunbridge Wells in Kent for several weeks. They started by making a contract and then went on to learn about ego states, transactions, drivers, strokes and other TA concepts.To demonstrate their understanding and how they may apply their knowledge in the future they produced work for their portfolios using a variety of media including videos, clay models, written work and drawings.
On 30th May the young people were delighted to receive their TAPACY awards. Jo reported that they received some amazing feedback, one boy was particularly grateful for the programme as he has changed how he approaches certain situations and has been thinking about communication and attitude a lot more since.
This brings the total of young people receiving the TAPACY award to 21. IMAGO Community have another two courses planned for later this year and the beginning of 2018.
If you would like to explore how to run a TAPA scheme in your country, whether for children, teachers, parents or anyone else, you can contact us at [email protected]