Bibliotherapy

"Bibliotherapy" is an umbrella term that covers a wide variety of clinical (therapeutic) and non-clinical (developmental, creative, social) interventions involving books, reading, and communication around texts. In the broadest sense of the term, bibliotherapy is the systematic use of books to assist individuals in dealing with mental, physical, emotional, developmental, or social problems. It has been also widely recognized as an effective tool of promoting health, well-being, and resilience, which reflects the view of literature as "being health-promoting in the widest human sense".

Although the term bibliotherapy is relatively new, the foundations of these practices date back to ancient times.

Bibliotherapy, a blend of the science of psychology and the art of literature, is having a comeback as a therapy. The idea that books can help make people feel better has long been entrenched in human history. The ancient Greeks placed an inscription above a library entrance calling it a "place of healing for the soul". Plato said that the Muses gifted us with the arts as "an aid to bringing our soul-circuit, when it has got out of tune, into order and harmony with itself".

By the 20th century, Sigmund Freud was using literature during his psychoanalysis sessions, while literature was prescribed as treatment for hospital patients in the US and England during the First World War.

Today, projects such as the UK's Books on Prescription, where doctors can prescribe works of literature to treat people suffering from mild to moderate mental illness, or programs of therapeutic reading groups held in hospitals, prisons and public libraries, are following in this tradition, showing that reading can offer relaxation, mental stimulation and new perspectives on life.

"For people who enjoy reading, it can be an excellent way to de-stress," says Jacinta Wassell, clinical psychologist at the Black Dog Institute, one of Australia's leading bodies in the treatment and prevention of mood disorders.

"Taking time out to enjoy a good book not only provides a healthy distraction from the stresses of daily life it also offers a chance for your body to relax, helping ease muscular tension and frazzled nerves.

"Depending on the individual, they may prefer to become engrossed in a fictional story, one that captures the imagination and inspires creativity. For others, they may select a self-help type of book that offers step-by-step suggestions for managing mood and anxiety problems."

Today, bibliotherapy offers a variety of successful applications that range from one-on-one and group sessions run by psychologists and psychiatrists in medical clinics and hospitals, to collaborative "Books on Prescription" programs offered by public libraries partnering with healthcare organizations , to "shared reading" groups facilitated in a variety of settings, including libraries, schools, retirement homes, hospitals, drug rehabilitation units, shelters, community centers.

For all avid readers who have been self-medicating with great books their entire lives, it comes as no surprise that reading books can be good for your mental health and your relationships with others, but exactly why and how is now becoming clearer, thanks to new research on reading's effects on the brain. Since the discovery, in the mid-nineties, of "mirror neurons"-neurons that fire in our brains both when we perform an action ourselves and when we see an action performed by someone else-the neuroscience of empathy has become clearer.

A 2011 study published in the Annual Review of Psychology, based on analysis of fMRI brain scans of participants, showed that, when people read about an experience, they display stimulation within the same neurological regions as when they go through that experience themselves. We draw on the same brain networks when we're reading stories and when we're trying to guess at another person's feelings.

Other studies published in 2006 and 2009 showed something similar-that people who read a lot of fiction tend to be better at empathizing with others (even after the researchers had accounted for the potential bias that people with greater empathetic tendencies may prefer to read novels). And, in 2013, an influential study published in Science found that reading literary fiction (rather than popular fiction or literary nonfiction) improved participants' results on tests that measured social perception and empathy, which are crucial to "theory of mind": the ability to guess with accuracy what another human being might be thinking or feeling, a skill humans only start to develop around the age of four.

Reading has been shown to put our brains into a pleasurable trance-like state, similar to meditation, and it brings the same health benefits of deep relaxation and inner calm. Regular readers sleep better, have lower stress levels, higher self-esteem, and lower rates of depression than non-readers. "Fiction and poetry are doses, medicines," the author Jeanette Winterson has written. "What they heal is the rupture reality makes on the imagination."

What are your favourite books? .

Ours favourite books for personal development are: Viktor Frank -Man's search for meaning; Bruce Lipton- The biology of belief; Dr Joe Dispenza-Breaking the habit of being yourself; Daniel Goleman- Emotional Intelligence; Marcus Aurelius- Meditations; Matthieu Ricard: Altruism / Happiness & The Art of Meditation.

Love,

Sophie and Ellie xx

Sources:

Wellness.com.au

The New Yorker

Janella, Moy (2017) "Reading and Writing One's Way to Wellness: The History of Bibliotherapy and Scriptotherapy"

Tukhareli, N. (2017) "Bibliotherapy-based Wellness Program for Healthcare Providers: Using Books and Reading to Create a Healthy Workplace"