This weekend I attended a meeting of Transactional Analysts in Lille. More than 300 of us met there. Some were there for almost a week, others only for the weekend.

Such a congress is usually also the occasion for those practicing Transactional Analysis to pass an exam. The idea of these exams is to validate the competence a person acquired in understanding, applying the theory, and awareness of how the theory applies to themselves.

Those who step into this journey may start with a very basic validation of their learning, to then sometimes find themselves on a long and intense journey. An important component of these journeys is a contract with a sponsor who will accompany the journey as well as give their go for the exam. It’s not a journey one can be on alone.

There is a lot of learning to be done on such a journey, probably less one of adding knowledge to one’s knowledge than one of developing an attitude towards life and the support one will provide others using Transactional Analysis as a consultant, educator, therapist, or coach.

One could thus see the exam as an accomplishment, as having arrived where one wanted to arrive. And it is.

However, that’s not all.

It’s also reaching a door one has to go through. It’s one of adopting the role that comes with the new title. It’s through accepting that role that one can become who one imagined to be in that role. The exam validated that one is prepared for a new role and that one can leave the previous role.

The new role comes with new learning that needs to be done, and more importantly, with new experiences one has to make sense of. Suddenly, one is again at the beginning.