Reading supports good care for mental health
A strand involving books in mental health care has been gaining more and more space. Bibliotherapy, as its name suggests, is a complementary therapy that uses the reading of books that include a problem that a person or a group needs to face. It can be performed with adults and children, using the characters in the stories to illustrate overcoming events.
Professor Carmem Beatriz Neufeld, from the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP) at USP, says that bibliotherapy works as a low-intensity adjunctive treatment, widely used by professionals because it has the potential to bring quality information about certain diseases, difficulties, symptoms and individual characteristics.
The idea is that each person or group of people (who go through similar problems) have a book in the bibliotherapy sessions, recommended by a specialist, that shows in their story how the character dealt with the situation. For journalist and writer Galeno Amorim, current president of the Book and Reading Observatory, therapy using books induces people to think about their problems. “With reflection, there is a release of feelings, a connection between what is experienced and passed on in that work with what the reader lives”, says the journalist.
Benefits of bibliotherapy
The main benefits, according to Carmem, are related to discovering what is really going through people’s heads. The teacher indicates that when feelings are unknown, levels of anxiety and concern increase and the person does not know how to deal with that situation. “Using bibliotherapy as a psychoeducation tool, it is possible to obtain quality information to be able to proceed with the appropriate treatment”, says the professor.
Amorim recalls that the simple act of reading literary works is already, in a way, therapeutic, however, when the patient associates the problems of the characters with what he experiences, the effect is even greater, generating relief from anxiety and afflictions when seeing that he can also solve your problems.
Carmem says that in the scientific literature, psychoeducational interventions, such as bibliotherapy, have data that demonstrate their effectiveness in initial treatments for psychological and health demands. “This means that therapy with books is not the only treatment offered to the patient, it is usually an initial intervention of low intensity, which can guide the professional in indicating other types of psychological intervention”, explains the professor.
Who is it for
Bibliotherapy is indicated in the most different situations from children to adults. The difference, explains Carmem, is that, with adults, it is possible to have a more direct and scientific language. As for children, she says that the stories are more recurrent because it is possible to use the characters to explain, at the child’s level of cognitive development, certain characteristics, symptoms or difficulties.
Book therapy is also indicated in groups of people facing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, or chronic diseases such as cancer. One example is the reading club with women from the Center for Teaching, Research and Assistance in the Rehabilitation of Mastectomized Women (Rema) at USP’s Ribeirão Preto School of Nursing (EERP), where activities are aimed at patients undergoing treatment for cancer and diseases neurodegenerative.
who can apply
Amorim points out that there are two types of bibliotherapy: clinical, which requires previous training in psychology or psychiatry, and developmental, which anyone can practice by completing a specific course. He says that the course is much sought after by teachers, librarians, social workers, nurses, psychologists and doctors, but they all have something in common, which is a taste for books and listening to people.
For researcher and coordinator of bibliotherapy courses Nanci Gonçalves da Nóbrega, from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), it is essential to have passion and a critical eye on literature narratives and sensitivity to provoke dialogue during meetings. She also says that it is essential to study about the other with whom she will share the reading. “The two keywords regarding bibliotherapy are intention and attention”, concludes Nanci.