THERAPEUTIC STORYTELLING INTERVENTION (TSI)

Who is it for?                                                              When is it best taught?

The ideal time to teach TSI is in the early to mid adolescence period. This is the youngster's age of questioning, of new experiences, and it is the time appointed for facing the big questions of life - "Who am I?", and "Who will I become?" The story helps children discover the answers to these questions for themselves.

Because Ron Phillips works as a therapist his use of this process has been primarily with troubled and disturbed children. However, as the stories within the book describe the adventures of a 'neighborhood kid', it has application on a broader front.

With TSI making overt the journey we travel to adulthood, and illustrating that through this particular time of change we can make choices about our lives and that the choices we make do affect the outcomes of our lives, it is a journey of empowerment and choice.

In New Zealand TSI has proven to be effective in many and varied environments. Users include parents, schoolteachers, police education officers, counselors, social workers, psychologists; youth group leaders and mental health workers. It is used in situations where individuals exhibit consistent patterns of poor behavior resulting in them causing significant disturbances in classroom, in the community, or in families. It even has application in the corporate sector.

For a population who require more extensive therapeutic experience, the material can be presented either on a one-to-one, or small group basis by presenters with formal training (the presenter will have to have obtained training from an Approved T.S.I. Trainer).

In 1999 Campbell Lodge, South Auckland Health's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Outpatient Unit at Middlemore Hospital in New Zealand, began conducting clinical trials into the effectiveness of TSI amongst the client population at Campbell Lodge. The client population at Campbell Lodge is severely emotionally disturbed young people with severe behavioral problems and at risk of self-harm. The trials showed completion outcomes almost twice as favorable as other known international adolescent programs.

With a proven record of over ten years, TSI is returning to where it began - in California. Our new foundation in the USA will be aimed at making this learning process more widely available through training courses for health professionals and other appropriate people. We hope you will join us in helping to make this possible.

For further information, please visit our website Youth Health International.