An Introduction to Travel Log:

First introduced in 2007 but reviewed and modified; now undergoing fresh trials during 2009.

Travel Log presents five stories from the book together with exploratory questions, which assist young people to understand particular aspects of their development, along with the challenges that accompany that development. It helps them to build a healthy concept of who they are and where they come from. The resource acknowledges diversity, builds strengths and develops skills of discernment and positive choice thereby avoiding unnecessary focus on problems. It uses Therapeutic Storytelling Intervention™, (TSI), a methodology which uses the age-old art of storytelling as a very effective means of bringing about positive behavioural change in people’s lives.

The stories in Travel Log help create mental images and pictures in the students’ minds and can be likened to holding up a mirror to them. This process allows them, in their own time, to take an honest look at themselves.

The teacher guides them through the three stages of the TSI process by helping them to:

• identify with the behaviours of the characters in the story from a safe place;
• internalise the struggle that the character is facing and recognise their negative behaviours;
• make a decision to apply the successful techniques used by the character.

A central premise for TSI is that life, as a journey, presents individuals with many challenges and opportunities. Schools that choose to use some or all of the options this resource offers can help students prepare for these challenges and opportunities, to develop belief in themselves as individuals and to help them realize that they have a great deal to offer their world.

The five themes introduced in Travel Log are:

• Partner Relationships,
• Domestic Violence,
• Sibling Rivalry,
• Using Education Wisely, and the
• Relationship between Rejection, Drugs and Alcohol.

Based on the TSI™ book, "The Travels of Plymouth",
written by Ron Phillips, TSI International Ltd.