Bibliotherapy
What is Bibliotherapy?
Bibliotherapy, or the therapeutic value of reading, is simply the use of reading to help people in any situation in life. It can take shape in many forms, from reading about someone who has gone through a similar experience to you, to choosing a book because you’re looking for some tips on how to unwind and relax. Below you will find examples of how bibliotherapy is being used in Westminster.
Share a Book Reading Groups
A reading group with a difference! Over tea and biscuits, the group is read aloud to by a trained facilitator, breaking regularly to allow the group to give their immediate response to what has been read. The group uses these breaks to say as much or as little as they like about the poem, play, novel or short story which has been read. As well as being a pleasurable experience and a great chance to socialise with others, members of reading groups like these often say they benefit from improved confidence and wellbeing.
Maida Vale Library’s Share a Book Group meet every Wednesday morning from 10.30am-12 noon. If you are interested in joining the group, come along on the day or tell a member of staff.
“I won’t make any appointments for Wednesday mornings. The group is very important to me. I really enjoy speaking to people about the stories. It’s a terrific morning.”
Mood-boosting Books
Getting stuck into a good book can really unwind your mind. Westminster Libraries were involved in BBC Headroom’s search to put together a list of up-lifting books. Read about the experience below:
“Over the summer myself and three other members of the Maida Vale Library Reading Group teamed up to read and review eight books. Each reader completed a questionnaire for the books they read, focusing on how the book made you feel, with the book rated on a scale of 1-10 for its uplifting qualities.
For example, when reviewing Antoine De Saint-Exupéry’s The little prince, Rosemary Hudson described her feelings on reading the book thus:
“Sad, happy, intrigued, charmed, touched, exhausted. Glad to still be a child at heart, able to appreciate the strangeness and beauty of the natural world, life and death.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rosemary awarded the book 10 out of 10!
Together with similar feedback on other books from four more reading groups (one each from Portsmouth and South Tyneside and two from Sunderland) our responses contributed to the final selection of books for the promotion. Five of the titles read by our group made it on to the final list:
- Glad to wear glasses by John Hegley
- The poetry cure edited by Julia Darling and Cynthia Fuller
- Radio head: up and down the dial of British radio by John Osborne
- The uncommon reader by Alan Bennett
- The little prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
Full booklist click on the Mood-boosting Books
Books on Prescription
Books on Prescription is a scheme which provides self-help books for a range of common emotional problems. The books all address a particular problem and have been selected by experienced psychologists and counsellors because their patients have found these books especially helpful.
GPs and other health professionals such as Practice Counsellors and Community Mental Health Teams can “prescribe” a book which they think you will benefit from. Westminster Libraries have copies of these books to borrow. You can take your “prescription” to any of the libraries listed below and exchange it for the book you have been recommended.
The libraries involved in the Books on Prescription Scheme are Maida Vale, Marylebone and Victoria Library. Alternatively, take the prescription to any other Westminster library and we will contact you when the book is ready for collection from there.
Westminster Libraries Books on Prescription booklist
Anger
Overcoming Anger and Irritability by William Davies
Anxiety
Mastery of Your Anxiety and Worry by Michelle G. Craske
Mastery of Your Anxiety and Panic by David H. Barlow
Managing Social Anxiety by Debra A. Hope
Mastering Your Fears and Phobias by Martin M. Antony
Overcoming Anxiety: a Five Areas Approach by Dr. Chris Williams
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook by Edmund J. Bourne
Depression
Overcoming Depression: a Five Areas Approach by Dr. Chris Williams
Overcoming Depression - One Step at a Time by Michael E. Addis
Mind Over Mood by Dennis Greenberger
Eating Disorders
Anorexia Nervosa: a Survival Guide by Janet Treasure
Getting better bit(e) by bit(e) by Ulrike Schmidt
Overcoming Binge Eating by Christopher Fairburn
General Wellbeing
Manage Your Mind: the Mental Fitness Guide by Gillian Butler
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Mastery of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Client Workbook by Edna B. Foa
Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by David Veale
Self-esteem
Overcoming Low Self-esteem by Melanie Fennell
Worry
The Worry Cure: Stop Worrying and Start Living by Robert L. Leahy
The Worry Cure: seven steps to stop worry from worrying you (Audio CD) by Robert L. Leahy
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