Travel That Can Change Your Life: How to Create a Transformative Experience [Paperback]

Jeffrey A. Kottler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 21, 1997

This is an inspiring look into the deeper significance of travel. It reveals how traveling provides an ideal opportunity for personal change and the chance to take an inner journey and reflect on spiritual needs. Noted psychologist Jeffrey Kottler shows how to understand the reasons why we travel, to identify problems to deal with and goals to achieve on a trip, and to plan a journey that can inform, enlighten, and bring about life changes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Travel offers you more opportunities to change your life than almost any other human endeavor," writes Dr. Kottler. The goal of his book is to help you create the kind of trip that will help you take the greatest advantage of your journey. Travel That Can Change Your Life helps the reader define what kind of traveler they are, then asks questions that help define the kind of trip that would best suit each person's needs and desires, such as "What is it that you would like to have happen as result of you trip?" and "In what specific ways would you like to be a different person from the one who left?" If travel as transformation is on your itinerary, this is an excellent place to begin charting your course.

From Library Journal

In his professional and personal life, Kottler (counseling and educational psychology, Univ. of Nevada; The Language of Tears, Jossey-Bass, 1996) has seen many examples of individuals using travel to explore their inner selves. To assist in making this process of change more conscious and effective, he offers ways to use travel to make personal changes. Changes can be large or small, and Kottler explains different possibilities, for example, opening up to adventure, getting lost, facing fears, and finding one's sense of space. Examples and suggestions are clear and interesting. This intriguing work is recommended for public libraries.?Alison Hopkins, Queens Borough P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (May 21, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787909416
• ISBN-13: 978-0787909413
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,297,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeffrey A. Kottler has authored over 65 books in the field for counselors, therapists, teachers, and the public, including COMPASSIONATE THERAPY: WORKING WITH DIFFICULT CLIENTS; ON BEING A THERAPIST; COUNSELORS FINDING THEIR WAY; MAKING CHANGES LAST; COUNSELING SKILLS FOR TEACHERS; DIVINE MADNESS: TEN STORIES OF CREATIVE STRUGGLE; BAD THERAPY: MASTER THERAPISTS SHARE THEIR WORST FAILURES; THE CLIENT WHO CHANGED ME: STORIES OF THERAPIST PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION; and THE MUMMY AT THE DINING ROOM TABLE: EMINENT THERAPISTS REVEAL THEIR MOST UNUSUAL CASES AND WHAT THEY TEACH US ABOUT HUMAN BEHAVIOR.

Jeffrey has worked as a teacher, counselor, and therapist in a preschool, middle school, mental health center, crisis center, university, community college, and private practice. He has served as a Fulbright Scholar and Senior Lecturer in Peru and Iceland, teaching counseling theory and practice. He has also served as a visiting professor in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, and Nepal. He is currently Professor and Chair of the Counseling Department at California State University, Fullerton.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is psycho-babble junk, August 15, 1999

By 

C. Ryan (Winthrop, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Travel That Can Change Your Life: How to Create a Transformative Experience (Paperback)

I have been reading several books on meaningful travel and pilgrimage, most of which have had worthwhile, useful material. But this book is a tremendous disappointment. Kottler's idea of an example of transforming travel is a woman on a business trip blocking out some self-indulgent feel-good time so she can can "feel less guilty (about neglecting her children) because I am pursuing a career so ambitiously". Hey, any man or woman who thinks selling potato chips or filing legal briefs is more important that their children SHOULD feel guilty. And Kottler is so ignorant it's hard to believe he has a high school diploma, much less a Ph.D. For example, he tells a boring, pointless story about a terrible experience during a 14-hour drive in the Philippines. Then Kottler says he and his wife recover from the ordeal by traveling to Hong Kong and, "crossing the international dateline" they are able to spend the same day more pleasantly. Dr. Kottler, check your map: the international date line DOES NOT RUN between Manila and Hong Kong, and when you cross it traveling from east to west you arrive in the NEXT day not the prior one. Don't waste your money on this one. Maybe I should have been more sceptical of a book about creating transformative travel experience written by somebody who lives in Las Vegas!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolute junk, August 1, 2002

By 

Maureen "Unitarian Universalist Minister, Lif... (Hendersonville, New Caledonia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Travel That Can Change Your Life: How to Create a Transformative Experience (Paperback)

This book is trivial in the extreme. Dr. Kottler takes the possibility of transformative travel (as explicated, for example, in Cousineau's Art of Pilgrimage or Sarah York's Pilgrim Heart) and makes it into self indulgence. Don't waste your money or your time.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is psycho-babble junk, August 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Travel That Can Change Your Life: How to Create a Transformative Experience (Paperback)

I have been reading several books on meaningful travel and pilgrimage, most of which have had worthwhile, useful material. But this book is a tremendous disappointment. Kottler's idea of an example of transforming travel is a woman on a business trip blocking out some self-indulgent feel-good time so she can can "feel less guilty (about neglecting her children) because I am pursuing a career so ambitiously". Hey, any man or woman who thinks selling potato chips or filing legal briefs is more important that their children SHOULD feel guilty. And Kottler is so ignorant it's hard to believe he has a high school diploma, much less a Ph.D. For example, he tells a boring, pointless story about a terrible experience during a 14-hour drive in the Philippines. Then Kottler says he and his wife recover from the ordeal by traveling to Hong Kong and, "crossing the international dateline" they are able to spend the same day more pleasantly. Dr. Kottler, check your map: the international date line DOES NOT RUN between Manila and Hong Kong, and when you cross it traveling from east to west you arrive in the NEXT day not the prior one. Don't waste your money on this one. Maybe I should have been more sceptical of a book about creating transformative travel experience written by somebody who lives in Las Vegas!