CREDIT: ORBANDOMONKOS/THINKSTOCK
Who would have thought that reading to feel better would be considered therapy. Introducing bibliotherapy.

“There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Inside you they work their magic,” wrote Diane Setterfield in The Thirteenth Tale.

It’s no secret that artists tend be… temperamental.

We have a lot of energy working its way through our bodies and out of our hands. But when that energy gets stuck and can’t manifest itself how we want, we seem to have trouble coping. Some artists even purposefully throw themselves into fits of emotion in order to harness their creativity. Basically, we love to feel.

But there are times when sensitivity tips and spills into depression and other mental illness. We can look at a whole roster of great artists affected: Vincent van Gogh, Anne Sexton, Jackson Pollock, Beethoven.

Cue bibliotherapy.

Although many of you may have heard of art therapy and its now extensive use in the mental health field, bibliotherapy is relatively new as a sanctioned form of medical attention.

Simply put, bibliotherapy is reading to make you feel better. Although it’s just beginning to be recognized, fiction as therapy is not a new concept.

In World War II, returning veterans were given novels to help them cope with merging back into society. And as far back as ancient Greece, signs were posted above library entrances that said it was a healing place for the soul.

A typical bibliotherapy session involves sitting with a therapist and discussing a number of things like what your relation is to books, if you’ve connected with characters before what’s going on in your life that you feel needs to be looked at.

Bibliotherapist Ella Bertoud said in an interview with Maclean’s that most of her patients are dealing with common things like having an affair, feeling depressed, problems at work or having a baby on the way.

“Books affect different people in different ways,” said Bertoud. “That’s why we see people and get to know them well before we prescribe books to them.”

Although some are skeptical, mostly of it as a standalone therapy rather than accompanying medical attention, bibliotherapy has become more popular than music therapy in England, and is gaining considerable ground here in Canada.

Professer Hoi Cheu at Laurentian University in Sudbury is one of the most prominent advocates for literature as healing, and the Canadian Applied Literature Association (CALA) aims to explore the role of books and storytelling in therapy.

I’m sure most of us have experienced getting lost in a story at some point in our lives, whether it was in Whoville, Narnia or Middle-earth. It is enchanting, stepping out of your own world and into another. It feels so real, food is tasted, characters become friends, and, most importantly, lessons are learned.
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