Article
Alice in Writerland: Writing as
a Therapeutic Tool and a Way
to Understand Adolescent Needs
Transactional Analysis Journal
2014, Vol. 44(2) 142-152
ª International Transactional Analysis
Association, 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0362153714541950
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Cetta Berardo
Abstract
This article describes counseling work with a 15-year-old girl who suffered from relational disorders
and learning difficulties. Creative writing was used to build a relationship in a play setting, first as a
way to identify the girl’s needs and second as a working tool. The author outlines the two techniques
that allowed her to help her client gain awareness of existing in the world, the resources she
possessed, and her ability to use them in her relationships with others.
Keywords
creative writing, counseling, atelier, symbiosis, discounting, free associations, racketeering, contract,
emotional nodes, collage
Introducing Alice: Transactional Analytic Diagnostic Elements
Alice, age 15, was in the first year of secondary school and had a number of problems and fears. She
was referred to me by her school for counseling to help her settle into her new environment. Alice
was diagnosed at the local child neuropsychiatric service as having relational disorders, a pathological symbiotic relationship with her mother, and learning difficulties at school. Her school attendance was problematic and irregular.
Alice came to her first session accompanied by her mother. It emerged that theirs was a relationship between incomplete persons ‘‘who find illusory completeness by placing in common their
active parts, mutually disavowing the inactive ones’’ (Montuschi, 1983, p. 66; see also Schiff
1975). The mechanism used to maintain the symbiosis was discounting, which was fueled by games
and rackets (Mellor & Schiff, 1975; Schiff, 1975; Schiff & Schiff, 1971). Alice was continually discounted and consequently discounted herself (‘‘I’m not capable of . . . ’’). Her mother substituted her
own doing and thinking for Alice’s in every action and thought and tended to Alice’s needs either by
distorting them or by failing to consider them altogether. From her Child ego state, Alice manipulated her mother ‘‘to obtain the gratification of her needs and wishes without reaching the awareness
that she could meet them directly’’ (Moiso & Novellino, 1982, pp. 85-86). It became clear that theirs
was a heavily dysfunctional relationship.
Corresponding Author:
Cetta Berardo, via Rubatera 12, 12030 Manta, Italy.
Email: [email protected]
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Alice displayed a double contamination, experiencing Parent prejudices and Child beliefs as real
facts: prejudices such as the Parent contamination ‘‘Society today is violent’’ and beliefs such as the
Child contamination ‘‘I can’t understand anything in Italian’’ or ‘‘I was born wrong!’’
The passive behaviors enacted by Alice involved either abstaining by doing nothing or sulking or
becoming incapacitated (Schiff & Schiff, 1971). These ways of behaving (doing/not doing) were
linked to what Montuschi (1997) referred to as the ‘‘doing and being’’ pair: ‘‘Passivity and inaction
are a symptom of a lack of motivational tension for living and committing oneself to giving a meaning to one’s existence’’ (p. 61).
Both Alice and her mother were racketeers, and racketeering was their way of structuring time.
English explained that racketeering behavior can be summed up in interminable complementary
dyadic transactions between a racketeer and his or her partner (English, 1971, 1972, 1976; see also
Berne, 1964). Two dialogues recurred between Alice and her mother. In the first, Alice assumed
the defenseless racketeer role (Type 1a) (English, 1972), setting out from her Child ego state to
seek a response from her mother’s Parent ego state (and sometimes becoming a Type 1b rebel
racketeer). For example, Alice arrived at a session sulking, did not say hello, and seemed to be
continuing a dialogue with her mother. Alice: ‘‘I am sick and tired.’’ Mother: ‘‘Why?’’ Alice:
‘‘I can’t stand my schoolmates any more.’’ Mother: ‘‘You are right.’’ Alice: ‘‘They are always
after me.’’ Mother: ‘‘It’s true.’’ Alice: ‘‘Even the teachers are a nightmare. You should go and talk
to them.’’ Mother: ‘‘How?’’
In a second dialogue, mother took up the role of pseudo-helpful racketeer (Type 2a). Mother: ‘‘Do
you want some juice? I’ll go get it.’’ Alice: ‘‘Yes.’’ Mother: ‘‘Do you want some cookies too?’’
Alice: ‘‘Yes.’’ Mother: ‘‘Do you have your notebook? And the cards and the pencils? Is it all in
order?’’ Alice: ‘‘Yeeess’’ with a bothered tone. The dialogue stopped when mother left the consulting room without realizing how irritated Alice was.
It is easy for a racketeer of the first type and another of the second to be complementary, argued
English (1976), inasmuch as both are motivated to maintain their complementary racketeering behavior: ‘‘The racket may be an internal or external process that leads to a parasitic feeling or presupposes one’’ (Woollams & Brown, 1978, p. 117). For Alice, the parasitic feeling was fear that, in turn,
covered up anger, both fear and anger being functional for maintaining her existential position
(‘‘Everyone is against me’’). Her mother sought gratitude, then went on to accumulate frustration
(‘‘If it weren’t for me’’; ‘‘I’m only trying to help you’’) (Berne, 1972; English, 1971).
From Alice’s words emerged her fear of moving within the world, which she saw as full of dangers and dangerous people. She would have liked to live in an orderly, organized society in which the
death penalty existed. She transmitted her family’s values and ideology. Berne referred to this as the
‘‘family parade,’’ that is, injunctions, patterns, and controls that are passed down through the generations (Berne, 1972, p. 318; see also James & Jongeward, 1971/1996).
On the paternal axis, Alice’s great-grandfather was an army officer and her grandfather a general,
while her father is a lawyer. Their value world is connected with the idea of social order, legality,
and observing rules. Her mother is a math teacher and her sister an architecture student. For them
order is the rationalization of spaces and the rational explanation of actions. From one generation
to the next, tricks of the trade have been transmitted whose guiding idea has been ‘‘Be a person
of order.’’ The explicit message is ‘‘Stick up for yourself’’ and the further message is ‘‘Don’t be
a failure, you’ve got to be the best.’’ In Alice’s family, where everyone has an academic degree,
anyone who does not follow this script is considered different, a black sheep. He or she is viewed
as failing to live up to expectations.
On the one hand, there was the father’s discounting judgment (‘‘I’m not going to buy you a computer because you wouldn’t know how to use it anyway’’ and ‘‘You never understand anything’’).
On the other, there was the mother’s unrealistic expectations that denied Alice’s learning difficulties
(‘‘After secondary school, Alice will go on to university’’). In Alice the injunctions Don’t Exist and
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Don’t Exist As You Are were covered up by her being ashamed to exist and ‘‘being trapped, condemned to being derided, unable to react and not having feelings of her own’’ (Montuschi, Attanasio
Romanini, & Fornaro, 2009, p. 50). The trap took the form of symbiotic relationships with others, of
not existing as she was.
In general, the signs of this malaise are tangible, in silence or anger, in a sense of emptiness and
disorientation, and sometimes in infancy or adolescence in learning disorders in which difficulty in
paying attention and concentrating is manifest. These signs are an expression of an emotive reaction,
of an adaptation to affective deprivation that has never been put into words (Montuschi et al., 2009,
p. 158; see also Gabbard, 1995). As Carotenuto (2003) argued, ‘‘Those who have never developed a
well-integrated identity contained in clear boundaries tend to lead their life by always looking for
someone to complete them’’ (p. 236).
Alice was a confused adolescent, more confused than others her age. She reminded me of a dialogue in Lewis Carroll’s (1866) Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: ‘‘ ‘Who are you?’ said the Caterpillar.’’ Alice: ‘‘ ‘I-I hardly know, sir, just at present’ ’’ (p. 53). ‘‘ ‘What size do you want to be?’ it
asked. ‘Oh, I’m not particular as to size,’ Alice hastily replied. ‘Are you content now?’ said the
Caterpillar. ‘Well, I should like to be a little larger, sir, if you wouldn’t mind,’ said Alice’’ (p. 59).
Like all adolescents, Alice was living through a phase of mutation (Dolto, 1988), uncertainty
(Bauman, 2000), fragility, and vulnerability (Casoni, 2006). Keeping account of her behavioral and
social diagnosis, Levin’s (1980, 1982) cycle of development provided useful indications for choosing how to act with her and what her stage-related needs and relevant permissions were. Alice was
still at the 12-year-old stage of development; her need was to gain experience in doing things (without the effort of incorporating all the mental structures). The corresponding permissions included
‘‘you can do it,’’ ‘‘you can work out your own way of doing things,’’ ‘‘trust your sensations and feelings,’’ ‘‘it is OK to do things your own way,’’ and ‘‘you can have different opinions from me.’’
According to Piaget’s (1964) cognitive development stages, Alice lacked abstract reasoning of the
hypothetical-deductive type.
Contracts
The contract formulated for the work with Alice was multifaceted (Berne, 1966; English, 1975)
insofar as it was important to keep account of the network of relationships in which Alice was a part:
school, parents, and schoolmates, all of whom ‘‘have an unspoken affective value that influences the
relationship’’ (Sichem, 1991, p. 147; see also Poda, 2003b). More specifically, since she was still in
school, the four areas indicated by Holloway and Holloway (1973) were useful in establishing the
contract:
The problems to be addressed with Alice: abstaining and self-discounting, which affected the
ways I chose for stimulating her in our work together
Setting the goals to be achieved: awareness of existing
Defining the changes needed to achieve the goals: decontamination, bringing her to the Adult
ego state, freeing her Free Child
Identifying the obstacles that might get in the way: re-creating symbiosis
With the school staff, I defined the boundaries of my intervention and agreed on its duration,
timetable, and location. Together we defined Alice’s educational needs. With Alice’s parents, I
agreed on the duration and timetable and defined my own role. I presented the work plan and
explained what I intended. We agreed on educational guidelines that were attuned with those of the
school. With Alice, I first informed her of the timetable, and then we agreed on what she needed for
the work ahead, including materials such as colored paper, felt-tip pens, pencils, and a pen. I
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established small, negotiable elements, asking ‘‘Are you happy to do it this way?’’ ‘‘Shall we share a
play experience?’’ (Poda, 2003b). As Hargaden and Sills (2002) wrote, ‘‘It is important that therapist
and client have a shared idea of why they are in the consulting room together’’ (p. 32; see also Berne,
1966).
Work Plan and Method
My work plan consisted of two elements: what I intended to do and what I did. On a relational level,
since I am certified as an educational transactional analyst rather than a clinician, I was not qualified
to work directly on the symbiotic relationship between Alice and her mother. Instead, I offered a
different type of relationship to Alice, one based on acceptance, acknowledging each person’s
uniqueness (Hillman, 1996, p. 124), and personal respect (Berne, 1962; Romanini, 1990/2008b).
In the wearisome task of structuring their identity, adolescents ‘‘look most fervently for men and
ideas to have faith in, which also means men and ideas in whose service it would seem worth while
to prove oneself trustworthy’’ (Erikson, 1968, pp. 128-129).
Alice needed to be accepted the way she was, with her limitations, difficulties, and rhythms.
‘‘Adolescents need space and time. Between brusque accelerations and going back to playing with
dolls, time becomes a mysterious entity, solar and drab, or only and defensively asleep’’ (Poda,
2003a, p. 30). I worked on acknowledgment as per Berne’s (1964) comment that ‘‘if you are not
stroked your spinal cord will shrivel up’’ (p. 15; see also Berne, 1970; Steiner, 1971, 1974). Strokes
should be chosen based on the client’s needs at a given moment. Romanini (1989/2008a) suggested
that ‘‘we should first work with acceptance of the patient’s adapted Child, then direct strokes to the
remerging qualities of the natural Child, and then use Adult-Adult strokes promptly to reshape any
distortions of reality that have emerged’’ (p. 405). Strokes are ‘‘centered on restoring the ‘permission
to exist,’ ‘being oneself,’ and enjoying expressing one’s feelings verbally and nonverbally with
respect for oneself and the other’’ (p. 406).
It is essential to create a play space in which the client and therapist can work together fluidly, a
setting that I call an atelier. This term is borrowed from Arno Stern (1970), founder in 1949 of the
Closlieu in Paris and in 1986 of the Institut de Recerche en Sémiologie de l’Expression. Etymologically, the idea of an atelier refers to a shop with tools, a place where artists meet and work, creating
together a growth experience in a climate of freedom. Stern provided me with operating cues. I
recognized that the space in which I work with clients such as Alice must contain stimulating tools
and a wide palette of colors that provide a rich environment. Adolescents need to be free to use the
colors, expressing themselves according to how fast or slow they work and what resources they bring
to the process. They need to make enriching experiments. Poda (2012) suggested that such a place
must be available ‘‘for zusammenmusizieren, [where it is possible to] make music together, identifying, stressing, and giving color to the specific pitch of each instrument, not heeding conventional
codes’’ (p. 195).
Work in kindergartens in Reggio Emilia in the 1970s under the coordination of Loris Malaguzzi
(1995) consolidated the idea that the setting becomes a location for art making, one in which techne
(technique) and creativity meet. These terms are often used by English (1977). For her, a therapist
(counselor) should also have artistic skills as well as a refined technique and a good disposition. In
an atelier, two forms of creativity meet: One consists of triggering (activating one’s resources for
promoting creativity) and the other of identifying (acknowledging and recognizing oneself, activating one’s resources). Adolescents are in the phase of constructing and defining themselves, and the
creative dimension we wish to stimulate is oriented in that direction.
The atmosphere of the setting helps to foster intimacy, with the client’s emotions and experiences
as the main focus of the relationship (Hargaden & Sills, 2002; Poda, 2012). The setting must also
provide security so as ‘‘to reassure the patient’s Child that the therapist is powerful enough to accept
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Transactional Analysis Journal 44(2)
and elaborate together with her/him what she/he has failed to solve during childhood’’ (Novellino,
2004, p. 151; see also Crossman, 1966). In this space, Alice and I were on equal terms, both of us
apprentices: we in the here and now (Summers & Tudor, 2000).
The Process
I worked with Alice on creative writing, which was useful for me first as a way to understand her
needs and second as a working tool with which to create openings and lead to choices. Existing
through writing served as a means of achieving self-awareness and self-affirmation. I chose this
mode of working because I think that it is a powerful tool for accompanying confused adolescents
like Alice. The main features of the model I used derive from work that was widely applied in the
United States in the 1970s by John Gardner and Raymond Carver. Creative writing is, by nature, free
writing with a great many permissions. It is not linked to results but is a work in progress that can be
changed and does not need to be finished. It begins with sensory stimulation to free emotions and
transform them. It appreciates each person’s resources and creates the best conditions for expressing
them. It assumes the permission to have fun in writing and to be oneself, that is, to leave signs or
traces of oneself on paper. As Ferrari (1994) argued, writing in these conditions ‘‘represents the
unceasing motion of our thoughts that congeal and materialize, our aimless suffering or enjoying
or wishing that takes form and reality, that objectifies and clusters in the well-ranged and closed
space of words and sentences’’ (p. 9). This takes place in two stages: In the first stage the mind
is free to roam without boundaries inside fantastic worlds; in the second, ideas are chosen, analyzed,
and selected.
In counseling adolescents, I use this technique as a form of stimulation and positive reinforcement in order to develop their creativity and ability to fantasize. It also improves their selfawareness because writing one’s emotions or stories helps one to focus on one’s internal world and
produce associations that facilitate the development of awareness. It is a way of communicating
because it connects the writer’s thoughts, emotions, and feelings with those of the reader through
an empathic bridge that starts from the writer’s skills and arrives at the reader’s interpretations and
elaborations (Dynes, 1988).
This leads to the sharing of ideas and emotions, interactions between two persons that are fundamental for building the therapeutic relationship (Hargaden & Sills, 2002) and for creating affective
attunement (D. N. Stern, 1985/1987). Figure 1 summarizes the process.
Writing as Seeing Needs
Alice wrote about herself and in the process became more self-assured. For example, here is the
report she wrote in our third session about a trip to New York with her family.
Great!!! We ate in a restaurant in the air, in a skyscraper. I kept feeling sick, but it was great. There was so
much to see. We saw lots of shops. My mother wouldn’t let me see, she kept telling me off. My sister too.
She was frightened. ‘‘Don’t stop, you’ll get lost, walk close to us.’’ But I didn’t get lost, I’m not stupid; I
walked faster while they were slow. My sister always wants to boss me around. Before we set off my
father went to play tennis and hurt himself. He shouldn’t have gone to play.
In Healing Fiction, Hillman (1983) wrote:
Patients use their stories in different ways. Some tell stories as entertainments to while, or wile, away the
hour, others are reporters. Others are prosecuting attorneys building a plaint. Occasionally a tale becomes
wholly metaphorical in which every aspect of what-I-saw yesterday . . . all refer as well to figures within
the patient’s psyche and their interplay. (pp. 14-15)
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Interaction with the
other
Self-confidence
Development of
resources
Permission
Acknowledgments
Figure 1. Phases of the Process.
What was Alice’s way of telling her tale? She was both a reporter and a protagonist, moving confidently through the text. She was not led but led herself, she was curious, she saw. She projected her
fears onto others. She was in the Critical Parent state toward her father and in the Free Child state
when she expressed joy and curiosity about novelties in the environment.
I analyzed this text starting with some indicators, such as verbs and words with emotional and
sensory content (what Luborsky, 1984, called emotional nodes) concerning the self, wishes, needs,
and others. I also identified me/others oppositions and her feeling adequate or inadequate (Malagoli
Togliatti & Cotugno, 1998). Some words became significant. I have highlighted them here with my
understanding of their meaning and significance.
Restaurant in the air: This brought to mind Poda’s (2003a) comments that ‘‘around [the age of]
12 is a blank moment, an absence, a void, a vertigo’’ (p. 53). ‘‘It is the fear of being swallowed
up, the void that opens up between ‘when I was a child’ and ‘now that I’m not yet an adult,’ it’s
the nonplace inhabited by children and no-longer-children’’ (p. 75).
Sickness: Alice’s feeling in the world, her feeling inadequate
I’m not stupid: anger, rebellion
She wants to boss me around: discounting of Alice by the family context
He shouldn’t have gone to play: she plays the critical Parent
In Alice’s account, actions and movement prevailed, with verbs outweighing nouns. The actions
were inversely proportional to her staticity, her nondoing in real life. Warning signals of her needs
emerged, including her need to be respected as a person, to be autonomous, to be making and able to
make choices with a zigzag rhythm that included bouts of enthusiasm and suffering, of light and
shade, her mood wavering between a state of exaltation and a state of anxiety (Dolto, 1988; Poda,
2003a).
Writing as a Working Tool
I followed a course designed to convey trust and empowerment through permissions that led to a
choice of doing and of what to do. I used the techniques described in the following sections.
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Transactional Analysis Journal 44(2)
• Articles on the
same subject
from different
papers
Alice chooses
Cut and paste
• Different texts,
different stories
Alice breaks up
and
recomposes
• Alice composes the
story she wants, how
she wants it
Alice sees her
text
Figure 2. Passages in Alice’s Work.
Cut and paste: A collage of sentences. This is an imitative technique involving assembling different
materials to make a picture that derives from Cubist papiers collés. It served to dispel fear and enabled
Alice to make something of her own. She picked articles on the same subject from a number
of daily newspapers and cut out headlines and sentences of her choice, asking me to collaborate
and motivating her choices. She then pasted them onto a sheet of paper to form another article
complete with meaning and logic. By choosing and arranging the material, Alice created a
different text all her own.
Alice filled the paper with her collage, defining boundaries and beginning to ‘‘see’’ her work
through a gradual process from ‘‘what’’ to ‘‘how’’: doing – being able to do. Alice acquired selfconfidence: ‘‘I can do.’’ Alice let me see the final product and I praised it. Gardner taught that identity cannot be built for the simple fact that ‘‘one exists’’ and that every time we speak we say ‘‘I.’’
Identity is built on recognition by the other (Gardner, 1991; Romanini, 1990/2008b).
Figure 2 shows the stages of our work, which indicates how Alice worked autonomously, was
stimulated and became active, physically producing and seeing her account.
Free associations. Listening to pieces of music she had brought, Alice wrote down what the music
suggested to her: emotions, images, and actions, with words freely expressed. The permissions that
were important in this process included ‘‘write what you want,’’ ‘‘write how you want,’’ and ‘‘write
as much as you want.’’ As Metzger (1992) wrote, ‘‘When we allow ourselves to write spontaneously,
unexpected associations, connections, and relationships occur. We begin to see the network of
meaning among things. . . . It is as if things begin to highlight each other, to evoke each other’’
(p. 35). Alice revealed her emotions, associated feelings to moods, and connected them to actions
and spaces.
Figure 3 shows the steps in this process: what Alice felt when listening to music, her moods, what
she did while listening to the music and what she would have liked to do, where she moved or would
have liked to move. She fantasized moving in real and fantastic spaces: a field, her home, the sky.
She moved from an actual plane to a metaphorical one.
Alice created connections on paper. The link between words led to brief thoughts, the subsequent
choice to thoughts that were dominant (or relevant) over more marginal ones. Alice composed a network of meanings that heralded a possible network of relationships. She filled the sheet of paper and
expanded in space. Writing can be a way of achieving self-awareness and self-affirmation: ‘‘To
write is, above all else, to construct a self. Only secondly is it to . . . create characters or to communicate with others’’ (Metzger, 1992, p. 14).
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•
•
•
•
•
sadness
joy
calm
serenity
harmony
feelings and
emotions
actions
•
•
•
•
•
•
listening
ening
crying
embracing
relaxing
jumping
moving
•
•
•
•
sea-sky-meadow
my bedroom
living room
"I'm a bird in a flock"
images
Figure 3. Associations and Thoughts.
From the transactional analysis point of view, the writing exercise was a tool to energize Alice’s
three ego states. The Child ego state was stimulated by the pleasure of choosing words while
immersed in her spontaneous emotional experiences. Alice activated the creative drive (or Passia
motivator), which, according to English (1992, 2008), encourages curiosity, enjoyment, and love
of risk and is responsible for other important elements such as fantasy, the desire for freedom,
rhythm, responsiveness to music, the need to experience ideas, and dreams.
Alice’s Adult ego state was exercised by the operating choices that allowed her to construct a
short text. Her value system emerged through the Parent ego state that reflected on the text and established a hierarchy of thoughts. Writing became a choice: of the contents to address, the logical order
in which to arrange them, and the words with which to identify and define the contents. Alice filled
spaces, from a blank page to a full one. For her it meant passing from a condition of inadequacy (‘‘I
don’t know how to’’) to a condition of adequacy and power.
In Figure 4 we see how blank and full pages represented Alice’s new way of perceiving herself
and relating to the world.
Alice first explored her internal space (‘‘what I want to write’’), the one that gives peace (Erikson,
1958; Winnicott, 1965), and then external space, real and symbolic (‘‘I want to be a bird and fly’’). In
this external space she existed as a person and was related to others.
She needed to share her text and was pleased when her relatives and family members read it.
When classmates read what she wrote it provided a way of comparing herself with others, of
achieving a piece of her own identity. ‘‘Acquiring self-awareness through the reactions expressed
by others meant realizing what one is for others or discovering aspects of oneself that previously
could not be displayed in relation to the interpersonal context’’ (Carotenuto, 2003, p. 238). Showing one’s writing to others is an important act of separation, a moment in which a person, recognizing her or his own object, makes a choice about what is proper for the Adult ego state. It is a
way of experiencing ‘‘if I separate myself, I broaden the horizon and entrust a part of myself to
others consciously and autonomously.’’ Alice moved from adaptation to autonomy in how she
faced and experienced situations.
From the initial moment, when she chose what to do to please me (Adapted Child), she moved
through an important passage into a second phase in which she consciously chose where to change
her way of thinking, feeling, and behaving: from the duty of performance to the pleasure of experience. Choice (in adaptation) became aware choice through self-confidence and the acquisition of
security.
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Transactional Analysis Journal 44(2)
BLANK
Impotent
not feeling
adequate
FULL
being adequate
having power
Relationships
from symbolic space
to real space
Being in the world
from internal
space to external
space
Figure 4. Alice Sees Herself and Alice Sees Others.
Conclusion
I have explained how creative writing can be a useful tool for working with confused adolescents
such as Alice. I used it both for understanding her needs through analyzing her use of meaningful
words and as a tool for creating a different way of relating in a play setting that I call an atelier.
Writing as a way of going from a blank page to a full one represented for Alice not only a way
of expressing her emotions but also a way to acquire self-confidence and see herself. ‘‘I’m small and
I’m becoming smaller. . . . No, I’m growing, I’m rising higher. The text is short, then longer; I can
modify it as I please.’’ The drama of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll, 1866), the drama of
adolescence, may become a playful way of seeing oneself. Writing allowed Alice to be seen by others when she entrusted her text to me and other readers and provided a way to relate with all of us on
a level playing field.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication
of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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Author Biography
Cetta Berardo is a Certified Transactional Analyst (education) who works as a counselor with
adolescents. She is also a writer and has published several articles in Italian transactional analysis
journals. She can be reached at via Rubatera 12, 12030 Manta, Italy; email: [email protected].
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