2024 Reflections on Bibliotherapy
Voicenotes from Me, Your Resident Bibliotherapist. Podcast +Transcript
PODCAST
Listen to the podcast episode here.
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah, where we explore the transformative power of books and how they can heal, inspire, and guide us through life's challenges. I'm your host, Bijal Shah, and today I wanted to share some of my reflections on bibliotherapy from the year.
This year has been a huge year for bibliotherapy with the publication of the book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading in the UK and the Commonwealth and various translated versions of the book that have now released, including the Bulgarian and Turkish translated editions with the Portuguese and Slovenian versions coming out next year in 2025. This has propelled bibliotherapy into the spotlight and I have certainly seen more enquiries from readers, librarians, booksellers, and mental health professionals on training and the use of Bibliotherapy in their own professional spaces.
The online courses too, which include the general Bibliotherapy, Literature and Mental Health Online Course as well as the Children's Bibliotherapy Skills Online Course continue to drive adoption and interest in the therapy and I hope that this will continue over the coming years.
We even had a new Indian Rasa Theory and Bibliotherapy Online Course launch this Autumn and this has been an incredibly interesting and thought - provoking course. The fact that in Ancient India, there was so much discourse about the emotional value and engagement of literature particularly around the emotions it triggers or could possibly trigger was fascinating and while I stumbled upon this when researching my book, I wanted to pull together a comprehensive course on the whole topic, given that I could not include any of it in the book, which was focused on more Western traditions of therapeutic reading.
I am hoping this continues to inspire both new-to-bibliotherapy readers as well as seasoned bibliotherapy enthusiasts on the subject.
As part of my mission to continue spreading my passion and knowledge of bibliotherapy, I also launched a micropodcast this year focused solely on Bibliotherapy. This broadcasts voice notes from me as well as book recommendations on different mental health and wellbeing themes. Notable episodes include the following, of which there were a few!
From Season 1:
How Literary Fiction Trumps All Other Genres When it Comes to Mentalising and Building Empathy.
Literature on the Court: What Bibliotherapy and Tennis Have in Common
And from Season 2:
Heartwarming and Uplifting Fiction and Nonfiction Reads from Indian Literature
Exploring Scriptotherapy
I hope this will drive lots of new listeners to the therapeutic power of books and bibliotherapy.
Other highlights include speaking at my favourite literature festival, the Cheltenham Literature Festival on bibliotherapy and the power of books, which was a dream come true. In addition extracts of the book were featured in The Irish Times which focused on couple's bibliotherapy, and in the summer edition of Good Housekeeping, where many of my book recommendations where published. The icing on the cake was bibliotherapy being the headline article in the September issue of the BACP's University and College Counselling Journal! So the seed sown in 2017, when I initially launched my bibliotherapy practice is gradually growing into a wonderful bibliotherapy movement where readers are willing and excited to explore the value of literary thinking, drawing meaning, reflections and self-awareness from it all.
My plans for the next year include the launch of the book in the US in February and the paper back here on the UK and the commonwealth as well as various translated versions including the Slovenian and Portuguese ones.
Also, as we speak, today I’ll undertaking a bibliotherapy workshop in Istanbul at the Rami library and signing copies of my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading to some brilliant Turkish librarians so I am really excited to spread the work here which seems really embracing of bibliotherapy! This is a nice addition to two memorable workshops I delivered this year - one for a foster care community library in Oregon, and the other - at my old work place, Deutsche Bank , where in my former life, I worked in risk management.
I am hoping there will be many more book tours to come and awareness of Bibliotherapy will continue!
And I think it’s going to be a huge year for bibliotherapy! If you’d like to incorporate it into your work, or are simply curious about bibliotherapy, my book, or my online course on Bibliotherapy are the perfect starting points! As always please don’t hesitate to get in touch should you have any questions. I always enjoy hearing from listeners.
Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and next week I’ll be sharing my most anticipated reads of 2025!
Until then stay well :)
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