In the Nordic tradition, happiness is not loud. It is found in quiet moments of genuine connection — in being seen, in feeling held, in the simple experience of contact with another person. This maps beautifully onto two of TA’s most powerful concepts: physis, the natural life force that drives growth and healing, and contact, the fundamental human need that keeps that force alive.
Yet in therapy and in education, words alone do not always reach these places. Some clients — adults and young people alike — find it easier to approach their inner world through image, object, and metaphor. Projective techniques offer exactly this: a gentler, more playful doorway into the territory of script, decision, and change.
This workshop invites therapists and educators to experience projective methods directly — through cards, objects, and sand and clay inspired approaches — while exploring how these tools connect to the TA concepts of physis and contact. We will explore how a carefully chosen image can open a contact that words alone could not reach, and how working creatively can help clients reconnect with their own natural drive toward growth.
The session combines brief theoretical framing with hands-on experiential practice, giving participants both the understanding and the confidence to bring these tools into their own clinical work.
Alina Comendant
MSc-P, PTSTA-P, CTA-P, CTA-E
Alina Comendant, MSc-TA, PTSTA-P, CTA-P, CTA-E, is a psychotherapist, international trainer and supervisor based in the Netherlands. With over 15 years of hands-on practice across Romania and the Netherlands, she works with children, adolescents and adults, integrating Transactional Analysis, Gestalt play therapy, and creative approaches in her clinical and training work.
Growing up in Romania, Alina experienced firsthand how physis can thrive even in the most challenging conditions — a lived understanding that continues to shape her passion for education, creativity, and supporting the natural life force in those she works with.
Alina is a board member of ITACA and a member of ITAA and EATA.