ICDTA - the International Centre for

Developmental Transactional Analysis

ICDTA is an international network of trainers, supervisors, trainees, students and other interested parties who want to contribute to the following aims: 

1. Maintenance and ongoing development of high professional standards in the application of developmental transactional analysis internationally
2. Public awareness of the existence and benefits of various levels of qualifications and awards that confirm competence of application of developmental transactional analysis
3. Accessibility to a diverse range of individuals who wish to develop and confirm their competence by attaining practitioner or vocational awards or professional qualifications in developmental transactional analysis

ICDTA trainers are now part of the team running the new MSc Professional Studies (Developmental Transactional Analysis) - click here for details

 The following statement is included in the interests of openness and transparency.  ICDTA is run under the sponsorship of Psychological Intelligence Ltd and the leadership of Julie Hay.   This allows us to avoid the costs of separate websites, bank accounts, etc, to explore options for partnerships with universities, and to co-operate with other organisations which share our aims.  More importantly, it allows us to provide services and qualifications as a business rather than be subject to the difficulties of operating under the control of committees, where members may have no direct involvement with the work, where decisions may be overly influenced by the need for consensus, and where decision making may take a long time!  

ICDTA operates the TAlent – a fictional monetary unit that works by charging those in economically-advantaged countries, organisations and/or occupations at levels that allow us to offer discounted rates to those in economically-disadvantaged countries, organisations and/or occupations.   

Developmental TA (DTA) refers to those approaches to TA that are focused on helping people to develop themselves rather than on curing pathology.   

For those already familiar with TA qualifications, it is the fields currently called organisational, educational and counselling as opposed to psychotherapy.  There are a number of key features of DTA, some of which are of course shared with PTA and others which differentiate the two broad approaches.   

The shared principles include our commitment to behaving in non-discriminatory ways that respect diversity in all its forms, the use of contracting so that we work with clients rather than on them, our underlying philosophy around okayness, adherence to codes of ethics and professional practices, and our openness to analysing ourselves and using supervision in order to maintain continuous professional and personal development. 

In addition, we all refer to the same TA theories, albeit that we vary in which ones we prefer to apply most often, the theoretical depth we go into, and the non-TA theories we choose to use alongside or combined with TA.  We thus have a strong shared heritage which keeps us together as a TA community.  This is important because it allows us to learn from each other.  Applying similar concepts in different situations generates much of value to us all. 

See the note below for more explanation of the origins of DTA. 

Membership of ICDTA is currently free and by invitation only.  Please contact us, without obligation on either side,  if you share our aims and want to become involved.  You can telephone Julie Hay on +44 (0) 7836 375188 or Skype her on juliehay or download, complete, save and email back the ICDTA Membership Enquiry Form accessed below and we will respond. 

Membership categories are linked to qualifications and awards and are currently:

Teaching and/or Supervising Member – certified as (P)TSTA, (P)TTA or (P)TSA with E, O or C by ITAA, EATA or WPATA

Master Professional Member - certified as CTA E, O or C by ITAA, EATA or WPATA

Master Professional Member & Supervisor – as MPM plus attained ICDTA Supervisor Qualification

Advanced Professional Member - attained ICDTA Diploma in DTA

Professional Member – attained ICDTA Certificate in DTA

Student Professional Member –  in signed contract for Certificate or Diploma with ICDTA or for CTA O, E or C with ITAA, EATA or WPATA

Practitioner Member – attained ICDTA Practitioner Award

Student Practitioner Member – in contract for ICDTA Practitioner Award

Vocational Member –  attained ICDTA Vocational Award

Associate Member – for anyone who shares the ICDTA aims and codes of practice 

(See Qualifications for an explanation of terminology and initials). 

Qualifications and Awards 

The International, European and Western Pacific TA Associations already operate qualifications for people to become Certified Transactional Analysts and then Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analysts, both within the four currently specified fields of application.  ICDTA supports and also supplements these qualifications. 

ICDTA Professional Qualifications - these include a  Certificate and a Diploma in DTA that are also the equivalent of 25% and 50% of the CTA requirements.  Designed for those who intend to practice professionally with DTA as their basic approach, they may be awarded as a ‘general’ DTA or applicants may specialise e.g. Certificate in DTA Coaching, Diploma in DTA Consulting.  Click on Qualifications for details.

ICDSV Supervisor Qualification – this option is available to those who have attained either the ICDTA Master Professional Qualification or the CTA from ITAA, EATA or WPATA, or an equivalent qualification. Click on ICDSV for details.

ICDTA Practitioner Award – for those who are already qualified in one of the ‘helping professions’ such as coaching, teaching, training, social work, etc but want to confirm their competence at incorporating DTA into their practice – but are not seeking full qualification as a DTA Professional.  Click on Qualifications for details. 

ICDTA Vocational Award – for those not seeking professional qualification in TA, ICDTA offers an award that confirms their understanding and application of DTA within their own vocational context.  This is suitable for anyone who has learnt some TA and is applying it in their work – such as managers, customer staff, social workers, teachers, teachers assistants, engineers, IT professionals, coaches, mentors – and any others where people contact is involved.  Click on  DTAVA for details.

ICDTA Trainer/Supervisor Members 

ICDTA was launched from January 2009.  Currently the following Teaching & Supervising Members have joined.

In addition to their home countries, these teaching members are providing ongoing DTA training and access to qualifications in Ukraine, Poland, Turkey and Armenia.  Contact us if you want to explore options for other countries. 

A note from Julie Hay about DTA 

The term ‘developmental transactional analysis’ was first used in print in 1995 within the title of my book Donkey Bridges for Developmental TA, Sherwood Publishing.  In 2006 it became the title of a chapter I wrote in Growth and Change for Organizations that was edited by Günther Mohr and Thomas Steinert and published by the International TA Association. 

I coined the term ‘developmental’ to distinguish the TA applications that address growth and development rather than ‘cure’.  When different fields of TA application were first introduced, they were referred to as ‘special fields’; these later became separated into organisational, educational and counselling.  Therapeutic application was known then as the ‘clinical’ field and is now called psychotherapy. 

It always seemed to me that the three special fields had a lot in common with each other, and were distinct from psychotherapy in similar ways. The essence seemed to be that we all worked with an emphasis on functioning in the here-and-now and keeping out of transference whereas therapists worked with regression and actually used transference as a way to help clients.  I do not mean that developmental TA clients never regress or go into transference; I mean that we work to invite them back into the here-and-now rather than working directly with those phenomena.  And we need to be just as aware of the phenomena as psychotherapists in order to work in this way – we are all similarly liable to the pull of such dynamics.  

It is not the intention to have only two fields.  Instead, I think we have two broad approaches that each contain a wide range of applications.  From the fields within DTA, educational could in turn be subdivided into, for example, teaching children or teaching adults, or working in schools compared to working with refugees, or focussing on life skills or parenting skills or citizenship skills, and so on.  Organisational TA requires different skill sets depending on whether the professional is operating as an organisational consultant or trainer or facilitator or mediator, and so on.  The current counselling field describes work that might be undertaken by a coach or a mentor, or indeed a consultant, as well as by a counsellor.  The psychotherapy field is also extensive – therapists might specialise in working with children, or adults, or the elderly, with addictions, with domestic violence, with victims of torture, with individuals or with family systems – so again lots of variety of application.

 To join us in this exciting initiative, check out:

ICDTA Member Enquiry Form or

ICDTA Professional Qualification Enquiry Form

ICDTA Practitioner Award Enquiry Form

ICDTA Vocational Award Enquiry Form

Or just send an email with your questions through the Contact us link, or  phone Julie Hay on +44 (0) 7836 375 188 or Skype her on juliehay

© 2009 A D International, Wildhill, Broadoak End, Hertford SG14 2JA,UK. Tel: +44 (0) 01992 550246   e-mail: enquiries@adinternational.com