Bibliotherapy refers to storytelling or reading specific books, poetry or other literature to help improve your life and to help you heal. Bibliotherapy uses literature to provide you with information, guidance and support to guide you along your healing and growth process.

A lot of research has been done on bibliotherapy. Research has found that bibliotherapy in controlled settings can be really beneficial and it can be beneficial when complemented with traditional talk-therapy with mental health professionals too. It has been shown to help with numerous issues including anxiety, depression, substance use/addiction, relationship issues, eating disorders, isolation, grief & loss, trauma, stress, anger management, rejection, and more.

Some of the benefits of bibliotherapy include:

1. Learning from the perspectives of others – when reading literature, you may learn about alternative ways to think about the problems or issues you are experiencing based on how the author or characters in the book experience the issue. This may include additional strategies the author has used or recommends using for similar struggles.

2. Receiving mental health benefits outside your counselling session – Most counselling sessions are between 45 minutes to 90 minutes long. Bibliotherapy let’s you continue the healing process through another way when you are not with your mental health professional. It may also lead to further questions or topics that come up for you to discuss in your counselling sessions.

3. Gaining personal insight and self-awareness – Literature can help you learn more about yourself by encouraging to reframe or think about your experiences in a different light. Bibliotherapy often inspires reflection and introspection, which can be valuable in the healing process.

4. You can read whenever you want and at your own pace – Bibliotherapy allows you to create your own reading schedule. You can read late at night, early in the morning, on your bus/train commute to work/home, and so on. This can be helpful because many of us live busy lives.

5. A wide range of reading materials and topics – This means that there is likely some type of book or reading material that is suitable for every read. Whether it is topics specific to you, format of the reading (written text, audiobooks, e-publications), or type of books (picture books, novels, guides, etc), you can find something to meet your specific needs.

As always, it’s important to look at the opposite side of the spectrum too. Here are a few precautions to take with bibliotherapy:

1. Be careful: Do not self-diagnose and self-treat – It is not natural for many of us to start self-diagnosing and self-treating – we all have done it at one point or another. Whether it’s self-diagnosing ourselves as having a mental health disorder or if it’s after self-diagnosing ourselves as having another health problem after having read a few articles online. Bibliotherapy should not be seen as a substitute for seeing a mental health professional. It should be seen as something complementary to mental health support. Always see the right professional for self-diagnosis and treatment

2. Choose your bibliotherapy material carefully - There are a lot of books out there but many books have not been verified in their validity or helpfulness. As a result, some books may do more harm than good. As well, there may be some books that are intended to help and have helped people in the past but for whatever reason are not a good fit for you. It can be a good idea to discuss books to read or relevant books for you with your healthcare professional so they can make some suggestions.