Craven shares the role books and stories play in therapy
Books and stories play an integral role in therapy through bibliotherapy.
“Bibliotherapy normalizes common experiences clients may have, such as learning to manage difficult emotions, making new friends, or dealing with grief and loss,” said Dr. Laura Craven, teaching assistant professor in counselor education. “Clients gain insight and learn new skills as they read about and discuss how the characters navigate their situations.”
One of the most common uses of bibliotherapy is with children.
“A great example is an elementary school counselor I know who created stories with the stuffed animals she kept in her office,” Craven said. “For a classroom lesson on communication skills, she took pictures of the stuffed animals on the play ground and created a story in PowerPoint of a disagreement they had while playing. As she went through the slides, the students would help the stuffed animals come up with ways to solve the problem, based on communication skills she had taught them.”
Craven shared three books that have had an impact on her as a counselor, including “Why Does He Do That?” by Lundy Bancroft. When she previously worked with survivors of intimate partner violence, this book helped her clients understand the abuse that they experienced. Two books that helped teach her about the impacts that trauma can have on her clients are “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel Van Der Kolk and “The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog” by Bruce Perry.