10.A The TPO Questions – eata handbook

10.A — The TPO Questions

(Former 13.10.A)

EATA Handbook 2025 | Please answer the following questions in preparation for your TPO at the TEW.

A. Personal Factors

What is your motivation in becoming a PCTA TS/PTSTA?

Describe your professional life, psychological motivation, the economic implications and your enthusiasm for transactional analysis.

How does being a PCTA TS/PTSTA fit into your mid and long-range professional life planning?

What are your plans for the next five or ten years?

B. Professional Factors

Write about your own experience of being a trainee. Say something about its length; intensity; the range of TA taught; its integration with other theories; supervision; self-experience; personal growth; the personal style of your trainer(s); ethical issues; cultural diversity; attachment and separation and your exam experience

How will this experience influence your own outline for a curriculum?

Describe your theoretical understanding of the teaching and learning process and say how you would apply this to the aims, content and methodology of your own training program. Include your understanding of adult learning and curriculum theory and provide references for this.

C. Curriculum and Teaching

In what context will you start training?

Will you train alone or in co-operation with others? If in co-operation, say with whom. Make clear what your particular contribution will be.

Who will participate in your training program?

How will you select participants and what will your selection procedures be?

What will your criteria be for taking a trainee into contractual training?

Provide an overview of the curriculum and subjects you think should be taught in a complete training program, leading to trainees becoming transactional analysts.

Give a detailed time structure for the training program, including the organization of the training days / seminars, special workshops, therapy marathons, supervision units, etc.

Describe the methods you will use for teaching TA, including comments on your general and specific theory and practice. Say how you will lead experiential learning and encourage personal growth.

How will you evaluate the level of your trainees at different stages of training? Include your ideas on: basic competence; entering in examination group; preparation for examination.

How will you make sure that your methods fit the educational level of your trainees and how will you take into account the training stages of development of your trainees?

D. Exams

Describe your ideas about evaluation and about guiding your candidates through to the exam.

Give examples of a good examination experience and describe what you would change in the exam process and what you could do to prepare yourself for being a good examiner.

E. Supervision

Demonstrate your theoretical understanding of supervision and describe your ideas and method of doing supervision

F. Therapy

Describe your ideas about the role of personal therapy within the training program. You might include comments on: criteria and requirements for personal growth; the advantages and disadvantages of multiple personal relationships; possible ethical problems arising from the above.

G. Research

Outline your ideas about the relationship between research and TA theory and practice. What TA research has had most significance for you, and how will you integrate research into your training program?

H. Fields of TA Practice

How will you ensure that the four separate fields of TA practice are accounted for in your training and teaching?