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Certified Transactional Analysis Coach · Chicago, IL

Transactional Analysis training in Chicago.

Train as a Certified Transactional Analysis Coach (CTAC) with Harmonika Institute in Chicago, IL. Master Transactional Analysis as a coach's framework — ego states, life scripts, and the canonical TA games.

Transactional Analysis certification training in Chicago, IL

Chicago cohort details

City
Chicago, IL
Credential
CTAC
Tuition
$3,500
In-person training
10 days · 80h
Live cohort calls
2 days · 8h
Supervised practice
80h
Portfolio + jury
40h
Total
208h · ~26 day-eq.
Cohort
10 students
Format
In person + live cohort calls
Download detailed program (PDF)

PDF — modules, hours, faculty notes, and a typical week's schedule.

Train where you live

Why Transactional Analysis in Chicago?

Chicago has been a quiet capital of expressive arts and somatic education in the U.S. for half a century. The city's relationship with the arts — its theater, dance, and visual-art communities — has shaped a wellness scene that is more lineage-aware and less trend-driven than either coast. Our Chicago cohorts tend to be educators, social-services adjacent professionals, and artists in mid-career.

For students of Transactional Analysis specifically, Chicago's scene is a particularly good match: strong somatic and expressive-arts traditions; lower trend volatility than the coasts. The local cohort runs in venue partners around Wicker Park, Lakeview, West Loop, with public transit and parking accessible from across the metro.

Chicago students are often 35-55, with backgrounds in education, social services, healthcare, or the arts. They tend to ask harder questions during admissions than students in trendier markets, want more substantive curriculum content, and value faculty who can speak about lineage with depth. Many of our Chicago cohorts include licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs), educators with master's degrees, and visual or performing artists — students who bring intellectual rigor to holistic practice.

The modality

What you'll be training in.

For a deeper introduction to Transactional Analysis as a practice tradition, see the full program page.

Transactional Analysis (TA) is a framework for understanding human personality and communication, developed by the American psychiatrist Eric Berne in the 1950s and 1960s and elaborated by his students and successors over the following decades. The name comes from Berne's central insight: that human communication can be analyzed as a series of transactions between specific ego states in each participant.

The foundational TA model identifies three ego states in every adult: the Parent (responses absorbed from caregivers and authority figures), the Adult (here-and-now reality-based responses), and the Child (responses from one's own childhood emotional and cognitive history). A transaction is any exchange between two people; a clean transaction stays consistent (Adult-to-Adult, for instance), while a crossed transaction (one person speaking from Adult, the other responding from Parent) creates the small communication breakdowns we all recognize.

What you'll learn

The Transactional Analysis curriculum, in 10 in-person days.

  • Ego states (Parent / Adult / Child) and how to map a conversation
  • Strokes, hungers, and the structure of transactions
  • Life scripts and basic redecision-style script work
  • The drama triangle (Karpman) and how to interrupt it in real time
  • The canonical TA games and how to recognize them
  • Using TA in a coaching contract within a non-clinical scope

See the full module-by-module curriculum →

Cohort schedule

When Transactional Analysis cohorts run in Chicago.

Chicago cohorts adjust around the city's pronounced winter. Most students prefer May or September starts; January cohorts are smaller. Weather rarely cancels classes (Chicagoans are used to it), but the cohort schedule includes one snow-day buffer per month from November through March. The deep winter creates unusually strong cohort cohesion — the shared experience of trekking through January slush to attend training builds bonds that summer cohorts do not produce.

The right student

Who this Chicago cohort is for.

Coaches, leaders, and HR practitioners who want a deep, structured language for understanding and changing communication patterns.

Career outcomes

After graduation in Chicago.

  • Open a TA-informed coaching practice (CTAC)
  • Add TA to an existing leadership, communication, or coaching practice
  • Specialize in team dynamics or relationship coaching
  • Lead TA-based workshops in companies and community settings
Tuition

$3,500 for the full 26-day Transactional Analysis program in Chicago.

Same tuition whether you study in Chicago or any of our other U.S. cities. Monthly payment plans without interest. A 25% deposit confirms your spot in the Chicago cohort.

Tuition and financing details

$3,500

208h total · 10 in-person days

Next step

Become a Certified Transactional Analysis Coach in Chicago.

Talk with our admissions team about the next Transactional Analysis cohort starting in Chicago, IL. Free, online, one hour.