Totem Pole

The Totem Pole is the final total concept that can be used as a therapy intervention for the youngsters of Mistral. It stands for the group as a unity in Mistral and it tells the story of their experiences and changes during the therapy, it tells their social relations in the group and therefore it is their own storyline. The story world of this concept is the world of the Totem Pole that contains real stories of each of the youngsters in Mistral; individual stories of all the members of the group, as well as group stories. It has five parts of interaction between the user and the design product that are used in several sessions. These sessions are integrated in the current therapy program of Mistral. The first part of interaction is to create a ‘Personal Avatar´ that has supernatural powers. This is a representation of the user on a wooden box, which can be placed in the Totem Pole. The second part of interaction is to find and add a ´Power Object´ to the Personal Avatar. The Power Object is an object that feeds, gives support, motivates, gives power, or gives value to the Avatar and represents their personal motivations to follow the therapy. The Totem Pole is also designed to be used for in the Living Group session.

Linh Dinh
mentors: M. Sonneveld, V.T Visch
master thesis, February 2011