By Carol Goh
Curious how reading can accelerate therapy gains? Pair bibliotherapy with Psychotherapy, EMDR, or Schema Therapy in a personalised plan. WhatsApp us, contact us, or book an appointment.
About bibliotherapy
Bibliotherapy uses carefully selected books to help clients gain insight into life issues through the lenses of different authors and stories. As an avid reader, I curate titles as a supplement to core psychotherapy—tailored to your goals, readiness, and session themes.
Some evergreen titles clients often find impactful:
- Halftime — Bob Buford
- Lost Connections — Johann Hari
- Man’s Search for Meaning — Viktor Frankl
- The Courage to Be Disliked — Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
- The Top Five Regrets of the Dying — Bronnie Ware
- The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari — Robin Sharma
- The Road Less Travelled — M. Scott Peck
- The Power of Your Subconscious Mind — Joseph Murphy
- Tuesdays with Morrie — Mitch Albom
Why it helps
Books expand perspective and offer language for experiences that feel hard to name. With guided reflection, reading can:
- Provide education and normalise experiences
- Build insight into your patterns and needs
- Spark discussion that deepens therapy
- Connect you to shared human struggles
- Offer practical strategies you can try between sessions
- Prepare you for future challenges with resilience
Reading pairs especially well with:
- Self-esteem work (see Low Self-esteem)
- Relationship themes (see Beating a Breakup Hurts, Marriage Counselling)
- Existential concerns (meaning, emptiness, grief)
- Mood and anxiety (see Depression, Stress Counselling)
What research suggests
- Bibliotherapy can deepen empathy, learning, and recovery (Czernianin et al., 2019).
- Evidence supports benefits across depression, anxiety, trauma, and anger (Sevinç, 2019).
- In older adults, reading keeps the mind engaged, supporting life satisfaction and may help reduce dementia risk factors (Adegun et al., 2018).
- Adding journaling after reading can amplify cognitive and therapeutic impact (Deitcher, 2019).
For trauma-linked symptoms, we often combine reading with EMDR or Schema Therapy for deeper processing.
How we use it together
- Clarify goals — mood, relationships, identity, purpose.
- Curate a reading plan — short chapters, essays, or memoirs matched to your stage of change.
- Active reading — prompts for reflection, marking passages, brief exercises.
- Integrate in session — discuss insights, emotions, and applications.
- Translate to action — small experiments and skills practice between sessions.
Tip: Pair reading with brief journaling or voice notes. A few lines on “What resonated? What do I want to try this week?” compounds progress.
Ready to start?
WhatsApp us for a quicker response.
References
Adegun, A. O., Oke, D. I., & Fashina, A. Y. (2018). An Empirical Analysis of Bibliotherapy and Self-Management Technique as a Tool for Life Satisfaction.
Czernianin, W., Czernianin, H., & Chatzipentidis, K. (2019). Bibliotherapy: a review and perspective from Poland. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 32, 78–94.
Deitcher, H. (2019). Bibliotherapy and Teaching Jewish Texts: “Medicine for the Mind”. Religious Education, 114, 17–29.
Sevinç, G. (2019). Healing Mental Health through Reading: Bibliotherapy.
The information in this article is for educational purposes and isn’t a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
