Connexus Institute

We are super happy to say that Amanda Wilson has passed her viva and become and is awarded our NCPS-Accredited Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling.

Many thanks to Emma Robotham-Tame and Oli Hamilton for their care and support during Amanda's viva process.

Congratulations, Amanda. We're super pleased for you 🎉

And if you've been wondering whether counsellor training might be yours to begin, this is what the other side of it looks like.

You know that argument. The one that starts the same way, takes the same turns, and lands in the same place, almost word for word, every time.

Transactional Analysis has a name for this: a game. Not in a dismissive sense. Berne used the word to describe interactions that follow a script both people somehow know by heart, with a payoff at the end that neither would consciously choose, but that both, in some way, are getting. That's the part that tends to stop people in their tracks when they first hear it. Both players.

The predictability is actually the clue. When an argument feels uncanny in its familiarity, when you could almost recite the other person's lines before they say them, it's worth wondering what the pattern is doing, and for whom.

Once you have the concept, you start noticing it. Not just in the difficult relationships, but in the ordinary ones too. The bit where things always snag. The moment the tone shifts in a way that feels almost inevitable.

More on the thinking behind this at connexusinstitute.com.

Has this pattern ever come up for you, in your own life or in the room with clients? We'd be interested to hear what you notice.

There's a question that comes up a lot for psychotherapy trainees, and it doesn't have a tidy answer: how much do you need to understand about diagnosis before you can work responsibly alongside those who use it?

Psychotherapy training tends to emphasise the relational, the contextual, the human story behind the presenting difficulty. Diagnostic frameworks sit differently in that world. Some practitioners find them useful shorthand. Others are more cautious about what gets lost in the translation.

But the question isn't really whether you agree with the medical model. It's whether you understand it well enough to work with clients who've been shaped by it, referred through it, or let down by it.

Patrick Brook's Mental Health Familiarisation Training looks at exactly this kind of tension, including how to work alongside other professionals and what the UK mental health system actually looks like from the inside.

Find out more at https://www.connexusinstitute.com/our-courses/professional-development-courses/course/opening-the-doors-to-the-asylum-65/

A big congratulations to Maxine Spencer, who has passed her viva and completed the Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling at Connexus Institute.

This is an NCPS-accredited Level 6 qualification, and it represents three years of study, a written case study, and a viva examination. It is a real achievement, and we are proud to share it.

Thank you too to Maxine's examiners, Emma Robotham-Tame and Kathryn Roe.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to train in Transactional analysis, this is it. Maybe it is the nudge you have been waiting for?

It's a penultimate weekend here at Connexus Institute - the penultimate one of the year for our Stage Two (b) 3rd-year students before they move into the 4th year in September, and the penultimate weekend of the current Diploma in Supervision course. Huge thanks to all the tutors this weekend and skills assessors: Liz Bingham, Patrick Brook, Alana Burton Kieran Mac Feely, Carol Pearson, Carole Stilwell & Anita Webster

Anita and Patrick's next supervision course starts in October 2026.

Check out all we have to offer on our website.

A quick snapshot of some of our weekday foundation year students, caught just before they headed back into class.

It's easy to forget that training doesn't only happen in evenings and weekends. Our Foundation weekday option suits a lot of people, and it's always good to see that group building something together over the course of the year.

If you've been wondering whether foundation year training might fit around your life, you can find out more at https://www.connexusinstitute.com/our-courses/psychotherapy-counselling-training/course/stage-one-foundation-in-transactional-analysis-theory-13/

Are you thinking about training? We'd love to hear where you're at.

There's a friendship most of us have had at some point: the one where you're always on duty. Listening, steadying, propping things up. And you keep showing up, because that's what you do, because it feels kind, because walking away feels worse.

Transactional Analysis has a name for the pattern underneath it. The Drama Triangle maps three roles we slide between, Rescuer, Persecutor and Victim, and none of them are quite as they appear on the surface. The Rescuer position feels generous, and often genuinely is. But it carries a quiet assumption about the other person's helplessness. And it has a payoff for the person doing the rescuing too: feeling needed, feeling good, having somewhere to put your attention that isn't your own life.

The seat is comfortable, until it isn't. At some point the unthanked helper tips into resentment or martyrdom, and the roles rotate. That weary, faintly used feeling is the tell. Not a sign the friendship is failing, but a sign that a triangle has been turning.

The move isn't to cut someone off in a flush of self-protection. It's quieter than that: noticing which corner you keep landing in, recognising the pull to rescue as something that belongs to you, and wondering what a more level, honest exchange might actually look like. That's usually where the real friendship starts.

Find out more about the ideas we work with at connexusinstitute.com

Has this pattern ever shown up in your own friendships or your work with clients? We'd love to hear what you notice.

There's a moment in a conversation where something shifts, and you can't quite put your finger on why. Someone withdraws. A small comment lands harder than it should. A pattern you've seen a hundred times plays out again, almost as if it was scripted.

Transactional Analysis gives you a way of understanding those moments. Not as abstract theory, but as something you can actually see happening, in real time, in ordinary life.

The TA 101 is a two-day introduction to TA, running most months here in Brighton and Hove. It's an internationally recognised course in its own right, and it's also the starting point for anyone thinking about further training in counselling or psychotherapy. But plenty of people come simply because they want to understand themselves and the people around them a little better. That's more than enough reason.

It's the kind of course that tends to make people look back at their relationships, their working life, even their childhood, and think: oh. That makes sense now.

If you're curious, you can find out more and register at connexusinstitute.com/ta101.

We'd love to hear from you, too. Is there a pattern in your own conversations or relationships that you've always wondered about? Share it in the comments.

We're pleased to share that Bridging into Organisational Work Using TA is now open for expressions of interest.

This is a twelve-day professional diploma, running across six two-day modules in Hove from January to July 2027, led by Vanessa Williams, MBA, CTA (O), TSTA (O).

It's designed for experienced therapeutic practitioners with a grounding in TA who are drawn to organisational work but aren't sure how to make the move. Coaching, consultancy, facilitation, leadership development, training. There's a wide field out there, and this programme offers a structured, supported way in.

Vanessa brings her own extensive background in executive coaching, OD and leadership development to the teaching, alongside her experience as a TSTA (O).

If this has been on your mind, it might be worth a look.

Find out more at https://www.connexusinstitute.com/our-courses/professional-development-courses/course/bridging-into-organisational-work-using-ta/

We are so proud at Connexus of having such an inspirational tutor team - educators with significant clinical specialism. Many thanks to Justine James and .burgess.56 for your holding of our weekend Foundation Year groups - the penultimate weekend for them for this year. Huge thanks to Helena Hargaden for being the guest tutor for one of our 4th year groups this weekend and THEIR penultimate weekend.