(This article was originally published by SAJTA, the South Asian Journal of Transactional Analysts, in July 2020. This is my first article to the journal and I'm thrilled to have had it published. Hopefully there will be more in my journey into the fascinating world of psychotherapy).
Abstract
The Permission Wheel, developed in the 1980s by Gysa Jaoui, is a visual representation of the various limits and permissions in a person’s life. This article seeks to explore the tool, its potency, and the possibilities for its customization and usage.
Laurie Hawke’s 2007 article contains a simple, lucid description of the Permission Wheel, brought alive by the case study of Marie. In our training group, we recently had the opportunity to examine and practice creating the Permission Wheel. This article uses insights generated in the process, and those from a few experiments that I conducted with my clients.[1]
The Basic Framework
Permissions, a key part of the therapeutic process in TA, are described by Berne (1972) as ‘Parental license for autonomous behaviour’. Berne also states ‘true permissions are merely permits, like a fishing license.’ Hence - there is no compulsion to use permissions; but there is freedom to do so.
A key aspect of Jaoui’s Wheel is that a permission is not seen as binary i.e. ‘you either have it or you don’t’ - but exists in degrees, e.g. a high or low permission to be joyful. A quick way of understanding this tool is to look at the Permission Wheel Hawkes used for her client Marie, Figure 1.
Figure 1: Marie’s Permission Wheel
( Laurie Hawkes, 2007, Transactional Analysis Journal 37:3, Pg 213).
There are four quadrants in the wheel representing permissions to Self in the areas of Feelings, the World, Myself and Others. Ten concentric circles represent degrees of freedom (each 10%), filled in based on the therapist’s understanding of the client. We, thus, are able to get a ‘map’ that represents the client’s overall permission spaces i.e. their Script Enclosure (Hawkes, 2007)
The darker areas in Figure 1 were Marie’s original pre-therapy permissions and the lighter areas show an expanded space over a period of therapy. Hawkes highlighted that a major benefit of the tool is being able to monitor progress over time.
In our training group, we each drafted our individual Permission Wheels – and also worked in pairs to help deepen insights around each other’s wheels; we used empathetic listening and open ended questioning to discover correlations and patterns in our emerging wheels – for example, high permission to be a child correlating with high permission for joy in one case; and in another, low permission to grow up corresponding with low permission to make decisions.
We concluded that the intuitiveness and visual nature of this tool makes it a very interesting framework for discussion and co-creation; and that in a therapeutic setting, the awareness created can enthuse the Child in the client - so that the Adult may contract for changes that emerge, with the support and co-operation from the Child.
The Play Pen
Hawkes likened the script-enclosure to a play pen, ‘close to the playpen described by Gouldings in their 1976 article on injunctions’ (Gouldings, 1976). This seems apt, because the degrees of freedom across different areas form a metaphorical ground within which we are safe and comfortable.
A question that arises: even if clients work with their therapist to increase permission in an area, does that mean that they will actually step into the new ground? Or is it possible they may avoid it, preferring to hover in familiar parts? What would allow a client to really take in a permission?
For this to happen, the client needs to believe that the increased permission is good for them and must feel safe in trying out behaviours prohibited earlier. This is where the therapist’s potency and protection are important (Crossman, 1966); and both must be powerful enough for the client to go ahead and disobey their Parental injunction. Exploring new territory will require practice by the client– until this unfamiliar new ground becomes familiar, and the client is able to experience something along the lines of ‘Hey! It really is OK to venture out here.’
Who’s in Charge of This Permission Business, Anyway?
Since I was enthusiastic about the idea of the permission wheel, my trainer, asked if I would write an article on the topic for SAJTA – despite the fact I had been in training only for two months. The permission to think, and to succeed were implied in that ask; but, despite being a seasoned writer, I still felt a sense of uncertainty as to how to approach my first article on TA.
I called my trainer to ask somewhat breathlessly whether I could use personal examples and a non-academic voice, both natural components of my writing style– in other words, I was looking for the permission to be myself.
My trainer, recognizing an anxious Child looking for validation, spoke from her Nurturing Parent, assuring me that it would be okay to write the article as naturally as possible and we would have the editorial team’s inputs to review. I appreciated her assurances; however, I found myself still unable to get started until I decided it would be okay – and more than that, my Child got excited and decided that it might even be fun.
As with injunctions, the Child ego state is key in permissions; permissions may be given by Parent figures, but they have no power unless they are taken in by the Child.
I realized my trainer was excited about my writing this article –her Child ego state was involved in this process as well. Thus, her asking me to write a SAJTA article can be seen as a permission transaction (Berne, 1972), depicted below in Figure 2.
Figure 2: The Permission Transaction
Adult-Adult –
S1 (Trainer-Me): Would you like to write this article?
R1 (Me-Trainer): Yes, I think it would be a good exercise, actually.
Intra-psychic (For me)
S2 (My Parent - my Child): You really think you can do this?
R2 (My Child - my Parent): You’re right, I probably can’t.
Parent-Child
S3 (Me-Trainer): Would it really be alright for me to write this as me?
R3 (Trainer-Me): Of course, don’t worry about it.
Child-Child –
S4 (Trainer-Me): It’ll be fun!
R4(Me-Trainer): You know, I think it will!
The last two transactions with my trainer involving my Child receiving her parental permission, and being infected by her Child enthusiasm led to the following intra-psychic conversation, where I accepted the permission completely–
(My Child – my Parent): My trainer thinks it’s going to be fine, and in fact, we’re going to have some fun with this.
(My Parent – my Child): Alright, you sound like you know what you’re doing. Go ahead and give it a shot.
And so, I got down to writing.
Thus, we see that in a permission transaction, all ego states tend to be involved; but ultimately they need to be granted to; accepted by, and then explored and acted upon by the Child.
We have Permission to Modify the Permission Wheel!
The four quadrants in Gysa Jaoui’s original Permission Wheel are highly relevant; however, our training group saw the opportunity to also add different areas into the wheel–e.g. romantic relationships, creative pursuits. Any modifications are completely in line with the creator’s original intent for the tool – she shared it generously and encouraged creativity in its use.
1. Enhancing the list of permissions
Our group brainstormed other possible permissions, listed below. In my experience, the Wheel became unwieldy and complex if too many items were added; practitioners will need to experiment and find their own balance between granularity and overcomplication. A non-exhaustive list of options to consider are in the following table:
Me & My Feelings
|
Me & Myself
|
Me & Others
|
Me & The World
|
- To feel all feelings
- To make meaning of the world
- To feel wonder
- To dream
- To feel excitement
|
- To be beautiful
- To make mistakes / be human
- To relax
- To be sexual
- To be okay
- To approve of myself
- To deal with my problems
- To be silly
- To just be
- To be naughty
- To be creative
- To be intuitive
- To trust in myself
|
- To be loved
- To forgive
- To love
- To express self
- To refuse
- To be independent
- To ask for help
|
-To be important
- To be different
- To be rich
- To learn
- To grow
- To make an impact
- To lead
- To stand out
- To be ordinary
- To win
- To decide
- To change one’s mind
- To be innovative
|
Figure 3: Possible Permissions To Include In the Wheel
Coming up with this list was a liberating exercise; and in fact, as I used it with my clients, their involvement and excitement grew as they added to the list for themselves.
What other permissions might be there? The possibilities are endless; it depends on our clients and their context, and our own creativity - and awareness about what permissions might help them most.
2. Mix & Matching Two Wheels
As an experiment, I decided to work with one of my clients, Raman (name changed) to overlay a Permission Wheel on another tool, the Coaching Wheel (adaptation of the original Life Wheel created by Paul J Meyer in the 1960s) wherein different life areas are plotted and marked for the client’s satisfaction levels, as a means to decide priorities and actions (see figure 4)[2]
Figure 4: The Coaching Wheel Template
Clients often take the lead in deciding and naming their specific areas of interest. In Raman’s case, one was ‘Trading’, as he works in the Financial Markets and was concerned about his lack of progress here.
We decided to explore permissions related to success in this space; to his surprise, he realized that while he had high permission in some relevant areas i.e. to compete, to win, and to be ambitious; he had very low permissions in others, such as to take risks and to feel abundant; and he had a sudden insight that these low permissions were compromising his performance at an unconscious level. He was still operating under past influences from a middle-class upbringing where he had heard often ‘money is always scarce’ and ‘we are not like those rich people’ and even ‘people like us do not take risks’. Clearing these blocks was crucial to his success. This moment of insight occurred due to the interplay between two tools. What other combinations might be possible? We can experiment and see.
3. Wheels Within Wheels
Our training group suggested that each life area can actually have a wheel within itself, and I realized this to be especially true through the case of Raman. Within Trading, for example, there were already several requirements for success - ambition, competitive spirit, ability to take risks, comfort with money, etc. We can help our clients achieve progress through breaking down key life areas and working towards permissions there.
One context relevant to children and young adults pertains to the skills required to thrive in the 21st century, which include four competencies - Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, Communication (World Economic Forum, 2016) We can conceptualize a modified version of the Permission-Wheel to see the degree to which relevant permissions exist for each of these skills to develop - whether in educational, home or organizational contexts. In Figure 5, a sample wheel has been included. In this version of the wheel, as a simplification, I have used only three circles representing low, medium, high permissions.
Figure 5: Sample Wheel adapted to the 4 21st century key competencies
It is similarly possible to conceptualize various other wheels, depending on the context - and what we can identify as the most relevant permissions in that context.
4. The Interplay in the Playpen
I felt some dissonance as I looked at the first draft of my own Permission Wheel. I had high permission for anger, modelled for me by my father, who had occasional flashes of anger and would cool down almost immediately afterward. My husband looked at my permission wheel and questioned if I indeed could have such a high permission for anger - given how upset I got with myself after my every outburst.
This made me wonder: if we did have permission for something, why would we feel not-okay about it? I then realized that I had very low permission in another area which I had included my wheel -‘Be human’. This meant that even if I had Anger modelled as acceptable behavior, and exercised my license to get angry - my internal Parent would follow up with crushing criticism. I had to work therefore not just on using my anger permission more selectively, but also to enhance my permission to be human, and to forgive myself for the occasional lapse.
Moreover, I realized I could also use my permission to grow and learn to evolve the way in which I choose to express my anger. I’d had outbursts modelled when I was younger - but now with my Adult, I could explore and discover for myself different and healthier ways to express my anger. This implies that we can not only work towards increasing our permissions, but also choose to change the nature and quality of how they manifest.
It also appears that high permission in one area can result in our using this license at the expense of developing other permissions in other areas. In our group, we heard examples of where Anger permission is high, Fear/Sadness terrains lie unexplored. In Raman’s exploration, we found that his high permission for Independence/Space also had resulted in lack of exploration and hence low permission in ‘Intimacy/Closeness’; this realization intrigued him and he determined to explore the terrain further.
5. A new concept: Supermissions
The most significant implication that arose for me in reflecting upon the Permission Wheel was this: some permissions seem to be ‘super-permissions’ - without them, the potency of other permissions may be lost. Some of these super-permissions could be: ‘Permission to feel all feelings’; ‘Permission to be Ok/Human/Make Mistakes’, ‘Permission to be my (whole) self’ and ‘Permission to change and evolve’. Work in these areas could increase the effectiveness and sustainability of permission work in all other areas; conversely, if these remain low, no amount of work on increasing other permissions may bring about lasting positive change. While Allen & Allen have explored hierarchies/ordering in permissions (1972, addendum 1998) – this idea of ‘superpermissions' merits further development.
Is it Possible to Go Beyond Permissions?
Overall, the Permission Wheel is a valuable tool with strong therapeutic possibilities - and plenty of room for creative exploration and co-creation with clients.
I do find the Playpen/Enclosure analogy apt, and yet, something about it bothers me. Playpens, fences, boundaries seem necessary, and give us the freedom and comfort of operating in our safety zone- but to me, they still signify limits.
I find myself wondering whether a point can be reached in our individual processes of growth, where we no longer need permissions at all. Could there be a possibility of living without boundaries? What superpermission might it take to enable us to jump out of the play pen and explore freely outside?
I do wonder about this. But then, I’ve always had high permission to wonder.
REFERENCES
· Allen, J.R., & Allen, B.A. (1972). Scripts: The role of permission. Transactional Analysis Journal, 2(2), 72-74
· Allen, J.R & Allen B.A. (1998), Addendum to the 1972 article ‘Scripts: The role of permission’. Retrieved 30 May 2007 from http://www.itaa-net.org/TAJNet/articles/allen-scripts-addendum.html
· Berne, E. (1972). What Do You Say After You Say Hello? London: Corgi. Republished in 1975.
· Crossman, P. (1966). Permission & Protection. Transactional Analysis Bulletin, 5, 152-154.
· Hawkes, L. (2007) The Permission Wheel, Transactional Analysis Journal, 37:3, 210-217, DOI: 10.1177/036215370703700305
· World Economic Forum article: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/03/21st-century-skills-future-jobs-students/
About Yashodhara:
Yashodhara is an author, certified coach, fitness instructor, TEDx speaker.
She has authored eight books over the last decade, and has had a 17-year long corporate career as a marketing leader. She has recently launched her coaching venture Allsomeness. Know more at allsomeness.in, and contact her at yashodhara.lal@gmail.com.
[1] I would like to thank my trainer, Aruna Gopakumar for her considerable inputs for this writing, as well as to her training group for their support. Thanks also to Laurie Hawkes who responded with kind encouragement to a request to reproduce Marie’s Wheel.
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