Bibliotherapy for Children
Bibliotherapy for children involves carefully choosing just the right story to introduce at the right time in the hope that it will be helpful to a child who is experiencing emotional upheaval.
A child might benefit from seeing themselves in the story, learning new vocabulary, having complex topics explained in age-appropriate language, having a chance to express their feelings in response to the story or listening to others respond.
For example, the leader of a support group for bereaved children might read a death-related story as a way to help children navigate issues of grief and loss. A parent might read a story about a child with two homes in anticipation of the family’s divorce. A librarian or a therapist might recommend a story with LGBTQ+ characters as a way of opening up a conversation.
There is not a great deal of research documenting the therapeutic impact of bibliotherapy but it's easy to imagine that a specific story could be the vehicle through which experiences are shared and normalized for a child thereby reducing feelings of "I am the only person in the world who feels this way" or "no-one understands what I'm going through".
Ideally, bibliotherapy
reduces feelings of isolation
provides perspective
offers a springboard for further exploration and expression through art, talk and play
stimulates the imagination
models problem solving and coping
helps children to frame questions and describe emotions
offers a preview of possible outcomes
encourages the development of empathy
The therapeutic part of bibliotherapy lies in knowing the specific hurdles a particular person is facing, carefully selecting just the right story or poem or song lyrics, and presenting it in a way that opens up a space for exploring, sharing experiences and possibly releasing held-in emotions. With thoughtful guidance, a child can build on that whole experience to develop some insight and then possibly a shift in outlook or a change in behaviour.
For this to happen the adult guide must be thoroughly prepared. He or she should:
take care with the stories chosen
read them thoroughly ahead of time
have a good rapport with the listener
avoid inappropriate biases and language, for e.g. people die they do not "go to sleep" or "pass over"
start with an invitation to relax, listen and open the mind
finish the reading with a pause for silence
ask open-ended questions that invite reflection and relating
listen actively and watch carefully for non-verbal cues
treat each contribution with respect and appreciation and without judgement
make sure that the process is not rushed and that there is time for the experience to be completed
close the discussion gently
remember this is just a therapeutic tool, not a full course of therapy
What Ails Bibliotherapy
Aren't all the positive effects of Bibliotherapy produced by sharing good literature at any time in a child's life?
There is nothing wrong with reading specific stories with children at pivotal moments in their lives to help them understand and cope with what is happening to them. But I also wholeheartedly agree with points made in What Ails Bibliotherapy? an article by Maeve Visser Knoth about the value of good literature at any point in a child's life. She makes the case that it is better to read good stories at any time as a way of vaccinating children for life's tough experiences. As she states …
“As a parent and librarian, all I can do is continue to try to inoculate children. I can continue reading a wide variety of books aloud to children in the library and to incorporate some of those tough or sad books in story hours even when I know that the funnier, less emotionally charged stories are the crowd-pleasers, the easy sell. I can make sure that I don’t isolate the death books off in a ghetto with other issue books where they will only be found when a parent or teacher asks specifically for one. And I can continue to recommend books to parents telling them why, from my own experience, I believe they need to read all kinds of emotionally complex books to their children.”
As a librarian she knows and values good children's literature and she has a point - the types of books one might use for bibliotherapy often feel too direct, too pedantic and less literary under ordinary circumstances.
But there are experiences that one simply cannot fully prepare for. Experiences that a child can't fully imagine until they are hit by them. Those are the times when, as a therapist, I welcome useful, and effective tools for helping children. As a parent I know they are also the times when I too am coping with upheaval and may not be able to express what needs to be said as thoughtfully as an author who has carefully prepared material with age appropriate language and a gently paced introduction of concepts.
To know me is to know that I love books and that I will I use them to help children develop their social and emotional fitness whenever I can.
Bibliotherapy for Adults
“Hector, in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, puts it beautifully when he describes how, in the presence of great literature, it’s as if a hand has reached out and taken our own. ”
With adults we make the distinction between cognitive bibliotherapy and affective bibliotherapy. Cognitive bibliotherapy typically involves non-fiction material written for the purposes of educating the reader. Affective bibliotherapy typically involves fiction and the reader is invited to immerse themselves in the story exploring connections they feel with the characters and situations described.
“The amount of therapy falls on a continuum, from self-help books at one extreme, in which the book is the major therapeutic agent and the involvement of a therapist is minimal, to bibliotherapy as an adjunct to therapy, in which the therapy process is the major therapeutic agent of change, with the book serving as a helping tool, and the involvement of a therapist is critical. ”
Cognitive Bibliotherapy
Self Help books are obviously everywhere, but finding the right book at the right time can be challenging.
The Reading Agency is a UK charity that dates to 2002. Its mission is to create new programmes and partnerships (mainly with libraries) that give everyone opportunities to become enthusiastic readers. They are driven by the belief that if you struggle with reading you can’t fully participate in social, economic, cultural or political life. One of their many initiatives has been to create reading lists.
Their Reading Well programme currently has four booklists that are endorsed by health experts, as well as people living with the conditions and their relatives and carers. They include adult mental health, long term conditions, and dementia. The fourth reading list is all about young people’s mental health.
“Reading Well for young people recommends expert endorsed books about mental health, providing 13 to 18 year olds with advice and information about issues like anxiety, stress and OCD, and difficult experiences like bullying and exams.”
For this list, the books have all been recommended by young people and health professionals, and are available to borrow for free from public libraries in the UK.
Affective Bibliotherapy
“It’s often said that books “take us out of ourselves”, but in reality the best literature is surreptitiously taking us inside ourselves, deeper than we might have expected or chosen to go.”
What about finding the right novel to pull you into … or out of … a perspective altering, immersive experience?
“The Advice Columnists Who Prescribe Literature as Medicine” by Katy Waldman in The New Yorker Magazine March 21, 2018
“Dear Book Therapist” a series of articles by Rosalie Knecht at Literary Hub. Rosalie Knecht is a writer, translator, and social worker in New York.
“Inspiring Reading as Therapy” is an article about Blake Morrison, Goldsmiths’ Professor of Creative and Life Writing. In 2007 he started to research how reading can help to alleviate pain and mental distress, and he uncovered a long history of literature as a powerful form of therapy which he writes about in this article from The Guardian Newspaper called “The Reading Cure”
“This is surely the other great therapeutic power of literature - it doesn’t just echo our own experience, recognise, vindicate and validate it - it takes us places we hadn’t imagined but which, once seen, we never forget. When literature is working - the right words in the right place - it offers an orderliness which can shore up readers against the disorder, or lack of control, that afflicts them.”
The reading organisation The Reader.org.uk brings people together to read great literature aloud and thereby improve members’ well-being, reducing isolation, and community building across the UK and beyond. Reading Groups have included children in care, people in recovery from substance mis-use, prisoners, individuals living with dementia, parents, teachers, and people with mental and physical health conditions
““Reading pushes the pain away into a place where it no longer seems important. No matter how ill you are, there’s a world inside books which you can enter and explore, and where you focus on something other than your own problems. You get to talk about things that people usually skate over, like ageing or death, and that kind of conversation - with everyone chipping in, so you feel part of something - can be enormously helpful.””