Written by Dr. Newkam, Psychologist, RPT-S, in collaboration with Dee Keller, LPC
What is Bibliotherapy?
Bibliotherapy is a therapeutic technique that involves using books to help children navigate, learn from, and cope with a variety of life circumstances. It is based on the healing, consoling power of a book, and offers support for a range of social, emotional, behavioral, and developmental concerns.
Below, we'll walk through how to choose the right book, what to do after reading it, and how to bring all of this into your virtual sessions in Teleo.
✨ Therapeutic Benefit
Teleo clinicians use bibliotherapy across a wide range of presenting concerns, such as anxiety, big life transitions, social skills, and trauma. Because a book gives a client a character to relate to instead of asking them to talk about themselves directly, it's often an easier entry point for younger or more guarded clients than a direct conversation would be.
Especially useful for: feelings identification, self-image, family transitions, social skills, empathy-building, and processing difficult or traumatic experiences.
How Can You Use Bibliotherapy in a Virtual Format?
Teleo already incorporates bibliotherapy, so it's easy to use in your virtual sessions. Options include reading a chosen book to the client during the session, selecting an ebook or video read-aloud from the Activity Bank.
⭐Quick Tip
The Teleo Activity Bank, a curated collecton of therapeutic interventions, is searchable by activity type — filter Type > EBook, then cross-filter using Topic to narrow in on a specific concern. Between Teleo's Activity Bank and your custom Activity Bank, you can go from "I need a book on X" to having a book ready for session.
How Do You Choose a Beneficial Book?
Choose a book based on the client's presenting concern or needs. A helpful bibliotherapy library covers a range of topics and developmental ages. That way you can match the story to what the client is working through.
Some book themes worth building your library around:
Feelings identification
Self-image
Family issues
Social skills
Empathy
Trauma
An example book within Teleo, Ruff Ruff Remi Teaches Relationship Tools is a great fit for teaching feelings identification, since naming feelings is a foundational skill for building healthy relationships.
⭐Quick Tip
Teleo's Activity Bank comes with over 300 activities and interventions, which includes books— so there's already a starting library at your fingertips.
Can't find your favorite book title already in Teleo? That's where your custom Activity Bank feature comes in:
Copy the URL for any ebook or video read-aloud you want to use, then add it to Activity Bank—visit this article to learn how.
Organize your custom activity through chosing filters by topic, age range, clinical approach, and activity type, so it can be found quickly. Learn how to organize your Activity Bank here.
Teleo's customizable filters in the Activity Bank saves you time. It's your virtual library shelf, organized and ready to use with every client.
What Happens After Reading the Book?
This is an opportunity to explore thoughts and feelings with a client, and process specific aspects of the story.
To do this you can explore:
The characters
The themes in the book
The differences/similarities between characters
The differences/similarities between the client and a character
How the problem was resolved
💡 Professional Tip
Below are examples of verbal prompts to deepen the conversation with older clients. These prompts can be adapted to many books.
What did you learn through the book?
What is a takeaway point(s)?
What helped the main character get through their hard time?
Bibliotherapy and play therapy pair naturally, and integrating the two can deepen the work. For younger clients especially, following up with a game, sand tray, or creative art project can reinforce what the book covered more than conversation alone.
Below is an example of using a book and play therapy in Teleo to deepen a young clients feeling-identfication skills.
Add and read the book: Ruff Ruff Remi Teaches Relationship Tools
Practice client's feelings-identification skills with the books companion worksheet, Ruff Ruff Remi: Find the Feelings.
If a client likes to keep their hands busy, try the book's companion coloring worksheet Ruff Ruff Remi: Remi Coloring Page, paired with simple follow-up questions.
"What feelings come up when you play with friends or siblings?"
"What might Remi feel if there were loud sounds during play?"
Try It in Your Next Session
Bibliotherapy works because it gives kids a safe way to see themselves in a story. And incorporating it into a virtual session is simple — between the Activity Bank and your own custom Activity Bank, Teleo has made it easy to bring a book into a virtual session as it would be in person.
Did you try these tips? Let us know how it went in the Teleo Clinician Community!
✍🏼Dr. Newkam is a licensed psychologist and Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor (RPT-S) in Hershey, Pennsylvania. She primarily conducts individual therapy with young children coping with internalizing and externalizing disorders, and trauma histories.
Dr. Newkam also loves children's books and has combined her passion for bibliotherapy and play therapy into her therapeutic work with children. She is the author of the Ruff Ruff Remi children's books; a series that addresses a range of social-emotional skills and topics.
Want to learn more about integrating Play Therapy and Bibliotherapy? Read Dr. Newkam's article here.
✍🏼Dee Keller, LPC, is a licensed professional counselor, parenting consultant, and owner of Sunnyside Counseling, a virtual practice based in Virginia. Dee focuses on supporting kids, college students, and moms in navigating anxiety, perfectionism, and overwhelm. She is dedicated to helping clients uncover their strengths and embrace balance and growth in their lives.
Learn more about Dee’s work at sunnysidecville.com