What is bibliotherapy?

Bibliotherapy is an expressive therapy that uses an individual’s relationship to the content of books and poetry and other written words as therapy. Bibliotherapy is often combined with writing therapy. Bibliotherapy is an old concept in library science. In the US it is documented as dating back to the 1930s. Bibliotherapy consists of the selection of reading material, for a client that has relevance to that person’s life situation. It can consist solely of reading, or it can be complemented with discussion or play activity.