Bibliotherapy

Description: a creative arts therapies modality that involves storytelling or the reading of specific texts with the purpose of healing. It uses an individual’s relationship to the content of books and poetry and other written words as therapy. Bibliotherapy is often combined with writing therapy. 

For the last few months, I have been getting an advertisement for a course on bibliotherapy, probably because my feed is happily littered with book memes from the numerous sites I follow. I thought “how interesting” and clicked on the link. The course frequently touted on my feed is an online course, so it is something I may consider doing. The downside, it’s online and I live for in-person class (especially after 2020), because of the interaction among the participants.

I reviewed the course outline and was surprised I had never heard of this concept before. As a constant reader I find a lot of healing in books, as I’m sure many of you do

So, what does this have to do with the epiphany I had while reading The Trials of Apollo: The Tower of Nero?  It was one of the first times I realized that most of my young adult reading centers around groups of friends out to solve a mystery/save the world/stop a crime. I became aware of the fact that I wish I would have had a childhood similar to those in the books I read. I should have prefaced this by saying that I did not have a bad childhood. I had wonderful individual friendships but not many long-term groups of friends that I hung out with. As I dug a little deeper into my psyche, wondering why I didn’t have a core group of friends, I realized that a long time ago a good friend betrayed me within a friend group and I’m not sure I ever trusted the group dynamic again. This had to have happened around age 10 or 11 and her betrayal destroyed some of my relationships and has affected me over the years.

Regular therapy has opened up my mind to making these kinds of connections that I’m sure have been roaming loosely in my sub-conscious but have finally broken the surface allowing me to look at these issues. Bibliotherapy is another layer that I can apply to my own self-awareness.

And that’s why I read so many similar types of books in the young adult genre. Well, that and I do enjoy many of the stories told. They give me the comradery (and adventure) I was seeking at different points in my life.  Such is the power of books!