Bibliotherapy

Bibliotherapy, also called book therapy, reading therapy, poetry therapy or therapeutic storytelling, is a creative arts therapy that involves the careful selection of literature and the reading of specific written materials as therapeutic interventions to promote psychological healing and personal growth. This evidence-based practice draws on the therapeutic potential of the relationship between individuals and written language, including narrative fiction, poetry, memoirs and self-help literature, to improve psychological well-being and manage mental health issues; it partially overlaps with, and is often combined with, writing therapy. As a form of supportive psychotherapy, bibliotherapy functions as a brief, structured self-help intervention using standard manuals, such as The Feeling Good Handbook for cognitive therapy and Control Your Depression for behavioral therapy, to help individuals acquire emotion regulation skills; its main advantage over cognitive behavioral therapy is cost-effectiveness, though CBT tends to have more positive outcomes for complex presentations. It has been shown effective in treating mild to moderate depression, with modest evidence for symptom reduction in alcohol dependence, self-harm and panic disorder, and can also take a more informal, unstructured form as reading or activity recommendations by a librarian or health professional.