A therapeutic approach for your mental wellness

The Critical Dialogue’s Dialogic Bibliotherapy combines the modality of book reading with that of dialogic learning that can go a long way in promoting mental wellness.

Reading specific and curated pieces of literature and engaging in a dialogue with your bibliotherapist in an individual and group setting helps you gain perspectives other than your own.  It helps you make sense of a difficult past experience, upsetting symptoms, or simply provides you with an experience of hope, contentment, and empathy.

It is a modality that is known to improve your self-esteem, self-awareness, and feelings of self-worth and self-efficacy.

Why would I need a bibliotherapist?

You might want to ask if it is about reading a book for self-care and rehabilitation, why would I need the help of a bibliotherapist?

Most of us who like to read books for relaxation, like to select our own reading material.  There is a danger here of becoming too narrow and sticking to what we know, simply because we may not know what other books exist – books that we would not only love to read but would also find to be stimulating, challenging, and therapeutic.

This is where the bibliotherapist can help in transforming lives.  They are experts on books and more importantly, would have already done the hard work of extensive reading than most of us.  They could even have a personalized session with you to understand the challenges you face and specially curate reading materials that could help you in your journey of personal transformation.

What can bibliotherapy do for you?

While bibliotherapy can be used to help in a wide range of mental wellness issues, we at The Critical Dialogue would primarily focus on the following:

How are we different?

“The great value of dialog isn’t that we get better or broader opinions, but that we come unsettled from any opinion, unsettled from any definite thought.”

David Bohm

The Critical Dialogue bibliotherapy sessions are not delivered from a position of authority.  As is the case with a teacher-student or patient-clinician relationship, our “Dialogic guidance” process combined with the bibliotherapy occurs from a paradigm of being equals. 

We believe that authority distorts the dialogic process.  It brings with it biases, judgments, prejudices, and prescriptive approaches to a therapy experience.

A dialogic process is an exploratory process that does not attempt to impose or persuade but provides a safe space for you to find your way all by yourself.  The fact that it does not and is not an attempt to win or convince you makes it meaningful for your personal transformation.

It is an invitation to not just engage, but to observe and listen, suspend assumptions and judgment, explore differences, search for meaning and more importantly listen to your inner voice.

Benefits of Bibliotherapy and the Dialogic process

When using bibliotherapy and dialogue in combination, a bibliotherapist chooses self-help references such as a workbook of calming exercises for a person with anxiety. Or they may select a story with a fictional character that is dealing with grief and trauma from losing a loved one for a client who recently experienced a death in the family. Or simply choose audio that could help the listener journey and find ways to deal with fear and overwhelm.

Through the use of stories in fiction and nonfiction books, poetry, plays, short stories, and self-help materials, a bibliotherapist can help you gain a deeper understanding of the concerns that brought you into the sessions in the first place. 

What to Expect?

Typically, a bibliotherapist will recommend a book or books based on their preferred modality and on the clients’ specific challenges. For instance, he/she may recommend a self-help workbook or a novel about a character who endured physical and psychological abuse.

The client will then, on their own time, read the book or its relevant extracts as suggested by the therapist and come and join the dialogic process. The experienced bibliotherapist and dialogue expert will then together with the client listen, discuss and explore the reading with the sole purpose of providing a reflective experience – no judgment, no prescriptions, period.

Because clients must read between sessions, getting into bibliotherapy does require additional effort and buy-in outside of the scheduled sessions. However, we have seen that the practice increases engagement and commitment to the therapeutic process.

Bibliotherapy, Dialogue, and Professional Listening Services

When these three modalities are combined you get what very few can offer as a complete therapeutic experience.

If you want to get an experience, please mail us your interest for a FREE 15 min. session to see the BENEFITS

We will send you an extract to read before you attend the session.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind the dialogic and bibliotherapy sessions are offered by The Critical Dialogue based on years of experience assisting individuals and groups in self-care and mental wellness practices using the modality of literature, story-telling, reading, and dialogue. The Critical Dialogue bibliotherapy sessions are intended to provide motivation, education, and a safe space for you to explore and find solutions to the issues that confront you. This is done by self-study and the dialogue with your dialogic bibliotherapist. They are not intended as therapy or treatment for medical or any mental health disorder and are definitely not a substitute for any therapy or clinical condition for which you are already taking the help of mental health professional. Neither The Critical Dialogue, its affiliates, nor peer support group leaders are able to provide medical or psychotherapeutic advice or treatment. The Critical Dialogue bibliotherapy is not a substitute for advice from an expert medical practitioner, clinical counselor, advisor, or related institutions. The Critical Dialogue or its constituent partners are not liable for any financial loss, trauma, physical or psychological harm, or any negative consequence that may arise or cause to the member or anyone using this service. By accepting to take part in dialogic bibliotherapy sessions offered by The Critical Dialogue, you agree to take complete responsibility for the consequences thereof. The Critical Dialogue keeps complete confidentiality of all session proceedings and commits to individual privacy needs. Such confidentiality will not be applicable when individuals who participate in group therapy sessions feel that any member or its constituents are likely to cause harm bodily or otherwise, to self or others. All disputes are subject to the jurisdiction of an Indian court, in this case, Hyderabad, Telangana state, India.

The above disclaimer is applicable for all The Critical Dialogue services offered through this website and through its affiliate or constituent partners and those who join as members to any group or as individuals are deemed to have read and agreed to all our terms and conditions before taking up any of our service options. The Critical Dialogue and its constituent partners accept no liability whatsoever in case the services do not provide you with the desired results.