Dr Ian Stewart | 1940-2024
When Ian Stewart died on 17th September we lost a giant in the world of TA. His teaching, his engagement in TA training and accreditation and his writing promoted the reputation, popularity, clarity and effectiveness of TA throughout the world. His book TA Today, co-authored with Vann Joines, was translated into more than 15 languages, and in more than 37 years it has brought TA to millions of people. His other books: TA Counselling in Action (2007) and Developing TA Counselling (1996) have been key practical TA workbooks in the Classical TA School, and his book on Eric Berne: Key figures in Counselling and Psychotherapy (1992) is one of the best accounts of Eric Berne and his life. Ian’s gift as a teacher and as a writer was his clarity of thought expressed in crisp, uncluttered language. He always spoke and wrote with transparency and honesty.
Having met and worked with the Gouldings, Ian passed on their techniques and methods to generations of Transactional Analysts, and he was frequently heard quoting Bob Goulding’s forceful, famous words “What do you want to change?”. Ian’s Redecision workshops are what most TA people will remember with great enthusiasm, but it was his emphasis on Contracting that so many Transactional Analysts remember and have probably introjected!
During the forty years that I knew and worked with Ian, I admired his brilliant mind, his focus on excellence and the rigour that he brought to all work and teaching. When I first met Ian in the mid 70’s he was a young Economics lecturer at the University of Nottingham. He attended a workshop on TA that I presented to university staff and was eager to learn more, so he joined my TA groups, and early TA training programme (NECTA). Very soon he qualified as a NECTA TA therapist and trainer and taught Adult Education classes with me at the university. However, it was his decision to take the EATA CTA qualification, that was the critical influence on me and my career, because I felt that that I couldn’t let him be more qualified than me, so I decided to take the exams with him! We did our CTA’s and TEW together in Villars in 1984 (sponsored by Margaret Turpin) and then took our TSTA exams together in 1990 (with Emily Ruppert as our Principal Supervisor).
It was on the train coming home from Villars that we decided to start a new training institute together which was at first called TA Central England before becoming The Berne Institute in 1994. Together we ensured that TA training would be recognised by universities for Masters level accreditation. We were both university teachers committed to academic excellence, professional integrity and adult education. We were also both staunchly independent, only children and very different from each other with markedly different personalities and ways of working. Ian was the thoughtful, reflective details-man while I was an exuberant, creative and a feelings-woman. How could we work together if we were so different? I know that colleagues and trainees in the TA world thought we were a strange, unlikely partnership. We were not friends as such, not in the conventional sense for sure, but we shared the same principles, respected our differences and worked side-by-side presenting training and workshops together at The Berne Institute and at conferences all over the world for nearly 40 years. We had a very special professional Adult working relationship of mutual respect that became a secure base for all our trainees and gave them permission to be unique and not be moulded into any one way of being a Transactional Analyst.
Ian was very active in the TA community and TA organisations. He has been Chair of COC and a Supervising Examiner, and in 1998 he was awarded the EATA Gold Medal for outstanding service to the TA community. Ian wrote one of the first EATA training Handbooks – an outstanding gift to our accreditation process – and he always fought hard in every committee to protect high standards and ensure that all procedures and assessment methods were perfectly clear and transparent. He also vehemently argued against over-regulation.
Ian was also a gifted musician. He would open The Berne Institute Conference party playing his bagpipes (loudly!) and play his accordion and guitar and sing jaunty ballads to us with a twinkle in his eye. This quite formal, reserved man transformed when he drank his ale, donned his bells, and danced the Morris! Ian was kind, gentle and principled and although he would often retreat from people, by disappearing off to the pub with his newspaper and craft beer, his contact was always friendly and respectful. For so many people he modelled “I’m OK, You’re OK”.
In July 2015, Ian Stewart retired from the Co-Directorship of The Berne Institute and became an Honorary Director. At the age of 75, in good health and vitality, Ian decided to spend less time on teaching and management and more quality time in his garden and with his dear cats and wife, Hicky. Sadly, in his last years he suffered from Alzeimers and withdrew from contact with most of us and died at the age of 84. His legacy is rich and his light will continue to shine through all the many people whose lives he touched and who learned so much from him. Ian you are a legend, we honour you. Thank you and farewell.
Adrienne Lee
Director or The Berne Institute
Sept 2024
