Dare to Be Yourself:

Bibliotherapy as Self-Empathy

Take all of the pressure of daily life, set it aside temporarily, read in an ideal setting, and practice self love

Reading offers us many gifts. Among them, Bibliotherapy is the art of prescribing books for therapeutic effect. It is an ancient practice that can pierce even today’s hypertensive hearts. There is an earthly bounty to reading books that is unique to each of us.

Which books shall you read? Books which help you forget and then remember wholly who you are. Books which give you words when you don’t have them. Books with characters that show you how to stand up for yourself, to find courage in your challenges, to remind you that your difficulties are temporary, and to trust that your lessons can be valuable. The good news is that literature can offer us boundless comfort.

First, in order to get there, my job is to help you find the right book(s). I will ask you to answer a what-when-where-who-why questionnaire about the details of your reading habits. We will consider genres you like to read, and if you prefer pages, files, silence, or audio. Perhaps you prefer a more social reading structure to a solitary one. Those sorts of things. Once I have received your filled-in questionnaire, we will set up a conversation in person, over the phone or Zoom.

Next, we will consider the pathos of your current life circumstances until one issue stands out. There is a longing, yearning, or nudging that is particular to you at this point in your life.

As your Bibliotherapist, I will coax it out and then send you a list of books to ruthlessly dive into your issue. Finally, I will task you to live vicariously through other characters in order to understand your issue through the vortex of combined experience.

If done right, your Bibliotherapy prescription will help you throw off the restraints to unlock a pathway towards enrichment, emotional intelligence, and pure enjoyment. Unfolding a prescribed book at precisely the right time can help illuminate you, and encourage you to move forward more open, creative, or whole. Bibliotherapy is when you need story to distract you into re-centering yourself.

Individual Consults are $60 for 1 book, $240 for 4 books, and $480 for 8 books.

Gift certificates are available!

Seasonally, I will also offer courses, and hopefully eventually, A Year of Bibliotherapy!

I have a Master’s degree in Literature and Creative Writing, and I taught college English courses for 12 years. The last two years, in a course called Literature Matters, I introduced The Bibliotherapy Project. Students and I collaborated on their chosen works. In this case, it had to be fiction because the course was housed in an English department. But, focusing on a particular genre, archetype, or character produced some amazingly fruitful final projects done in mixed media that the students and I will certainly never forget.

- Maria Savvenas, MA