This Lancaster Literacy Research Centre event will be a talk from Dr Liz Brewster: Experiences, interactions and interpretations: Bibliotherapy in theory and practice

Abstract:

Throughout the long history of using books to help treat or manage mental health difficulties, the word ‘bibliotherapy’ has meant different things to different people. In this talk, I will outline some of the key disputes and disagreements, many of which have still not been solved, such as who is best placed to deliver bibliotherapy, and what kinds of texts should be considered therapeutic. I will introduce and outline four different ways that bibliotherapy may be seen to work in practice, with books providing emotional connection, escapism, social support and/or information. Presenting data from empirical work conducted in the UK, I will consider bibliotherapy from the position of a reader as well as from a bibliotherapist.

Event schedule:

Event start time - Welcomes & introductions (please enter the meeting with your 'real' name as your display name, and your camera switched on, to allow us to all put faces to each others' names)

Event start time + 5 - Presentation from Speaker Name(s) (please turn your camera off and mute your microphone during the presentation)

Event start time + 40 - Discussion (please use the raise hand feature on Teams to indicate you would like to have a turn speaking and once asked to speak by an event facilitator, please un-mute your microphone and turn your camera on)

Presenter bio:

Liz Brewster is a senior lecturer at Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University. Her research focuses on experiences of mental health and wellbeing, and particularly on how creative activities such as reading may affect mental health. In 2018, she co-edited the text Bibliotherapy with Dr Sarah McNicol.

Bibliotherapy in practice, Liz Brewster, Lancaster Literacy Research Centre