In Sweden, bibliotherapy is a relatively new method for using literature as a tool for boosting mental health and wellbeing. Internationally, however, bibliotherapy has been used for quite a while. In the UK and US, bibliotherapy was introduced after WWI.
Bibliotherapy is not primarily a literary analysis. It focuses instead on what the text that the group members read brings up for each reader - what feelings and memories are evoked. Literature thus becomes an entry point to conversations about participants’ lives, identities and experiences.
Shared Reading is another method for using literature to improve mental health. It was developed by The Reader in Liverpool.
In this method, a trained facilitator selects a text to be distributed to the participants and then reads it aloud to the group. After the reading, the group explores the thoughts and feelings that the text evokes together. No preparation is required for participants and it is a method suitable for all reading levels and ages.
Creative writing is yet another tool to explore and investigate thoughts, feelings, language and imagination. The texts written by participants are not evaluated. Instead, they act as a method for self-reflection and self-compassion. This exploration does not focus on achieving a particular literary quality, but on better understanding ourselves.
Reading and writing can provide a space to process. Literature can break feelings of isolation and writing can make it easier to express what is going on inside us – to ourselves as well as to others - loved ones, teachers, doctors or therapists.
Live literature, meanwhile, has been used for several millennia to process collective trauma. In his book Wonderworks, Professor Angus Fletcher writes about the ways in which literature and the performing arts can be used to process collective memories of war, crisis and disaster. He highlights the ancient Greek theatre’s use of catharsis as an evidence-based tool for helping an entire audience to collectively make sense of, and move through, experiences of grief, violence and trauma.
At the time of writing, increases in violent conflict around the world and a move towards less democratic and more authoritarian leadership as well as the ongoing climate crisis loom on the horizon. The fact that young people feel these worries about their, the planet’s and humanity’s future is more than understandable. In times like these, reading and writing can act as vital support systems and safe havens for building hope, community, resilience and change.