Bibilotherapy: How Reading Can Improve Our Mental Health

If you have turned to reading during a time of stress or sadness in your life, you know already that reading and storytelling can be a component of healing. Perhaps a book has helped you cry, a character has sparked a significant shift within you, or a story has allowed you to see your life in a new light. 

Books and stories can be important tools in helping us through difficult times in our lives. In fact, there is a name for healing through reading: bibliotherapy.

Bibliotherapy is a method of therapy that uses literature to help people cope with emotional problems or changes in their lives, or to produce effective change and promote personality growth and development. Bibliotherapy is similar to art therapy or equine therapy in that it uses a specific type of activity to engage a person in the process of emotional healing – in this case, the reading of books and stories.

In bibliotherapy, the material being read is actively interpreted in light of the reader’s circumstances. Fictional materials are believed to be effective through the processes of identification, catharsis and insight. A reader, for example, after reflecting on significant characters or events in a story, may make a conscious change in their thoughts, beliefs or behaviors. 

Reading reminds us there is more to life than our immediate experience. This acknowledgement is a good step toward healing and renewal. Oprah Winfrey writes: “Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and discovered there was a world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.”

Developmental bibliotherapy refers to the use of books to help guide young people. As we read stories, mirror neurons in our brains learn through imagining the story almost as much as if we were the characters in the story ourselves. We are learning vicariously, practicing and testing alternative responses for later use as we accompany our fictional heroes through the pages of the novel.

Although reading fiction is not a panacea, by showing young people a wider view of normal, by allowing them to explore their emotions and their identity alongside fictional characters and heroes, by removing stigmas and stereotypes and by giving them the language and the confidence to seek answers from trusted adults, developmental bibliotherapy programs gives students skills that can promote better mental health outcomes throughout their lives.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. At BookGive, we acknowledge that mental health is a normal aspect of personal care and a part of everyday life. We encourage all our readers and supporters to get the help they need at all the times in their lives they need it. Many mental health providers and facilities in the Denver area offer bibliotherapy. Ask about it at your next therapist appointment.

This blog contributed by BookGive volunteer, author Phyllis Lundy.