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How I discovered TA

My name is Rebecca Davies, and I am the Founder, Director, and Core Trainer at Somata.​

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My journey into Transactional Analysis (TA) began long before I started my professional training. When I was seven years old, my mother trained as a TA psychotherapist, and as a result I was introduced to many of the core concepts from a young age. I still remember the puzzled expression on my primary school teacher’s face when I arrived with TA for Tots as my reading book.

 

By the age of sixteen, my party trick was diagnosing my friends’ personality adaptations.​In my mid-twenties, I began my own training in Transactional Analysis. At the time, I was unsure whether I wanted to become a practising psychotherapist or simply undertake the Foundation Year for personal development.

 

However, after the very first training weekend, it became clear that this was going to be far more than a personal endeavour. I was captivated by the opportunity to understand myself and others more deeply, and by the possibility of supporting growth, healing, and change through the therapeutic relationship.

Why I love TA

When I decided to train further in psychotherapy, I was perhaps not entirely unbiased—I chose Transactional Analysis because it was already a model I knew and loved. However, over the years, as I have explored and trained in other approaches, I have become even more convinced that it was the right choice.

Transactional Analysis offers a clear, accessible, and comprehensive framework for understanding human beings and working therapeutically. It provides a strong foundation upon which other theories and approaches can be integrated, allowing therapists to develop their practice in ways that reflect their own interests and professional journey.

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Eric Berne developed TA with the intention of making psychological concepts understandable and useful to the people who needed them most. As a result, TA is approachable for beginners and accessible to clients, while also containing a depth and sophistication that can support a lifetime of study and practice.

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For me, TA offered the ideal balance between an interest in unconscious processes and a commitment to understanding observable patterns of behaviour and relationships. It is an approach that seeks not only to understand why people think, feel, and act as they do, but also to support meaningful and lasting change.

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Since Berne's original work, generations of TA practitioners have expanded and developed the theory, giving rise to a rich range of schools and perspectives within TA itself. This diversity provides therapists with a broad and flexible toolkit, enabling them to work creatively and responsively with the unique needs of each client.

Discovering the body 

Six years later, I achieved my Certified Transactional Analyst (CTA) qualification in the field of psychotherapy and became a UKCP-accredited psychotherapist. As my practice developed, I began exploring additional modalities. While I valued TA’s rich theoretical foundations and the many perspectives it offers for understanding clients, I increasingly felt drawn towards approaches that worked more directly with the body. I sensed that paying closer attention to embodied experience was an important part of the therapeutic process, but I was unsure how to integrate this into my work.

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This led me to undertake my first formal training in body psychotherapy. The integration of embodied practice with TA theory immediately resonated with me and filled a gap I had previously experienced in my therapeutic work. From there, I continued to deepen my knowledge through training in a range of trauma-informed and embodied approaches, alongside discovering the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB).

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Coined by Dr Daniel Siegel in the 1990s, Interpersonal Neurobiology explores how the mind, brain, body, and relationships interact to shape human experience. The combination of neuroscience, embodied practice, and Transactional Analysis has been transformative for me, both personally and professionally. It provided a framework that brought together many of the ideas I was passionate about and inspired me to share these insights with others.

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Becoming a trainer

This passion eventually led me to qualify as a supervisor and trainer. Over many years, I have supported therapists at different stages of their professional development and have designed and delivered numerous training programmes in Interpersonal Neurobiology, trauma-informed practice, embodied psychotherapy, polyvagal theory, and related fields.

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For me, Transactional Analysis provides the foundation into which these other approaches can be meaningfully integrated. Its clarity, depth, and relational focus offer a powerful framework for understanding human experience, while embodied and neuroscience-informed approaches enrich and expand the ways we work therapeutically.

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From the beginning of my own training, I imagined one day being in the position of my trainers, passing on this valuable knowledge to others who wanted to make a meaningful difference in people's lives. Somata has been decades in the making, bringing together my experience as a psychotherapist, supervisor, trainer, and lifelong learner.

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Today, I feel privileged to work in this field, supporting students through their development as therapists. Somata combines the depth of Transactional Analysis with contemporary understanding from trauma-informed, embodied, and neuroscience-based approaches, creating a training environment that is both academically rigorous and deeply human.

My qualifications

  • Accredited Dance of Awareness Therapist (2024)

  • PTSTA(P) (2020)

  • Diploma in Supervision (2018)

  • Certificate in Body Psychotherapy (2018)

  • Certified Transactional Analyst (2017)

  • Diploma in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy (2016)

  • Certificate in couples work (2015)

  • Certificate in working with substance misuse (2014)

  • Diploma in Trauma (2015)

  • Foundation Certificate in Transactional Analysis (2013)

  • Certificate in Counselling (2012)

  • Certificate TA101

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Overview of some of my experience

  • Clinical Core Tutor at a highly respected training institute, holding groups of up to 20 students for a year at a time.

  • Extensive experience of marking counselling and psychotherapy essays.

  • Assistant tutor on UKCP trainings. 

  • Forteen years of clinical psychotherapeutic practice.

  • Many years facilitating ongoing therapy groups and group therapy marathons.

  • UKATA diploma examiner.

  • Examiner for UKCP written and oral exams.

  • Volunteer counsellor for the Charity Criminal Reduction Initiative.

  • Volunteer counsellor for the Charity Patched.

  • Volunteer couple’s counsellor for the Charity Patched.

  • Member of the UKATA Conference Committee.

  • Mental Health Familiarisation Placement.

  • EATA Language Coordinator.

  • Chair of UKATA Exam Committee.

  • Written Exam Coordinator UKATA.

  • A reviewer for the Transactional Analysis Journal. 

  • And more...

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