Are Books Good Medicine?

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This past week I noticed a Facebook post by author James Patterson mentioning myths about books. One myth stated was that books are not important. I have heard that myth mentioned by college students as we discuss reading methods in the College Success courses I teach. Now as a Bookhead, books are very important to me. That myth made me think of how books are important? Reading books is a relaxing flow activity. Books help build the creative side of our mind as well as strengthening our critical thinking abilities. Beyond that I thought is there a health benefit to reading books? Can books be good medicine for the mind and soul?

This brings me to mention a book, Read Two Books and Let’s Talk Next Week by Janice Maidman Joshua and Donna Dimenna. This is a resource book for counselors and therapists in the use of bibliotherapy. Part of me wishes they would have written more in the text on their thoughts about the therapeutic value of reading. It is clear though, that that was not their purpose. What they do in the book is to list relevant books that relate to emotional and mental problems from A-Z. They simply list the books that speak to issues such as abuse, addiction, grief, mental illness, relationships, and many other topics. Almost any problem a therapist may be facing with a client there are books to help the client. Their book is an excellent resource for any counselor or therapist who are interested in incorporating bibliotherapy in their practice.

They point out that they are not trying to replace counselors with books. Instead they point out rightly that inner healing does not magically occur in the one hour office sessions. With bibliotherapy the books act as a between session homework for the person seeking help to gain insight from between the counseling sessions. The counselor can add to the effectiveness by using some session time for the client to open-up and share what they learned from the readings.

What is Bibliotherapy?

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Bibliotherapy points back to the Greek words “biblio” for book and “therapeia” for therapy. History shows that above the door of the library at Thebes read “The Healing Place of the Soul” (Campbell & Smith). It might help if those words where in modern libraries as well. From that we can gather that books can be good medicine for the soul. Campbell and Smith note studies that show the reading of self-help books improves the quality of the therapeutic relationship.
Adams & Pitre did a survey study of Canadian therapists who used bibliotherapy. They were wanting to discover why therapists used books in their counseling practice. The primary reasons the therapists mentioned for using books be it fiction or non-fiction with clients were to: encourage self-help, enhance therapy, clients request, speed the progression of therapy, books can help explain complex ideas, and to assess client motivation. The first reason of encouraging the client to move from dependency on the counselor to pro-actively helping themselves reminds me of a Professor I had in Counseling at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He stated that a counselor’s job is to continually be working themselves out of a job with a client. He meant by this to not make a client dependent on needing a therapist but to give them the life skills to overcome the present problem and to then hopefully be able to solve future problems.

I know over the years I have read books for a variety of reasons. Many favorite Biblical passages have helped me as I sorted out various personal problems. There have also been many self-help books that have aided my growth through difficult times and personal growth. Some that come to mind are just to mention a few:

The Road Less Traveled, by Scott Peck

What to Say When You Talk to Yourself, by Shad Helmstetter

The Pursuit of God, by A. W. Tozer;


Counselors Are Important

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If you are going through life difficulties and they are life debilitating do find a Counselor in your area to help you. Often a local pastor or priest may be able to recommend a professional Counselor in your area. Here is a link to the American Counseling Association’s help for finding Counselors across the country –

http://www.counseling.org/learn-about-counseling/what-is-counseling/find-a-counselor

I present this information as a licensed counselor myself, so I do encourage people to seek help with a professional for help with life’s difficulties. On the other hand if you are just trying to improve your life and the difficulties you face are not that large you may instead want to visit your local library, “The Healing Place of the Soul” according to the ancient Greeks. There at the library do a search for a book that relates to the self-growth area you are exploring.

Reflection: What is a self-help book that helped you in your inner growth or through a difficult time in your life?


Bibliotherapy references
Adams, S.J. & Pitre, N.L. ( 2000). Who Uses Bibliotherapy and Why? A Survey From an Underserviced Area. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 48. 645-649.

Campbell, L.F. & Smith T. P. (2003). Integrating Self-Help Books in Psychotherapy. Psychotherapy in Practice. 59. 177-186

Program Your Self -Talk in a Positive Direction

If you did the exercise in the last posting about comparing your negative vs. positive thoughts and came up with more negatives, don’t start feeling too bad. Dr. Shad Helmstetter in his book, Who Are You Really and What Do You Want? states there is some research that shows for some people up to 70% of their thinking is negative. That is a big chunk of negativity. What can we do to change the percentages in a positive direction?

One key area where we can improve our thinking in a more positive way is what we say to ourselves – our self talk. Yes it is ok to talk to yourself. We do it all the time. You probably don’t want to walk through the shopping mall holding a long dialogue with yourself. You will get a lot of strange looks but seriously, it is important to consider the things we say to ourselves.

I remember years ago in a College basic computer programming class learning the acronym, GIGO, Garbage In Garbage Out. If your computer program is filled with errors, your output on the program will be filled with errors. The professor mentioned that in his opinion the greatest computer ever designed was the human brain designed by God. He exhorted the class to apply the GIGO principle to our lives and thinking. If you allow garbage in to your minds the output into your life will be garbage.

Years after this while I was studying on my first Masters degree in Divinity/Counseling at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL my advisor encouraged me to read the Dr. Helmstetter book, What To Say When You Talk To Yourself. This, along with my appreciation for Cognitive Behavioral theories in my Psychology courses caused me to be awestruck by the power of our thinking in our individual lives.

Self-talk is the internal scripts we say to ourselves in our minds- “Boy, I’m sure having a rotten day!”, “How could I be so stupid”, “I should be able to do this better”, “ I will never be able to remember things!”, “ My mom said I would always be a failure. I guess she was right.” “I just can’t be creative!”. The scripts are programming statements that we consciously and unconsciously repeat over and over to ourselves. These statements program our personal internal computer, (our brain). When the programming is full of shoulds, coulds, can’ts and regrets we are programming major negativity which will produce negativity in our lives.

When I first read What To Say When You Talk To Yourself , I reflected over all the “I can’t” statements that had limited my past from my teen years and negatively affected the present at the time. I was astounded at the negativity and limitations I had placed on myself, almost unknowingly. I would like to say that that realization changed my life to success over night. Mental habits are slow in changing. Even up to this day. Before starting this blog for months I remember arguing with myself, “Why bother writing a blog you have nothing to say. You can’t do it. Who will read it anyways? It won’t help anyone” I finally reprogrammed my self talk with “I have always wanted to work on improving my writing. Doing a blog may be productive writing practice. Even if I only get a few readers, if I can encourage them to live a more than ok existence it will be worth it.”

In the previous paragraph I give an example of the primary way Dr. Helmstetter promotes to change the thinking programs in our minds. Set aside 30 minutes of quiet alone time to think over your self-talk statements you say to yourself on a routine basis. Jot down on a paper the things you say to yourself –
Examples –“Why me?”; “I never say the right thing”; “my room is always messy – I guess I am just a messy person”; “nobody likes me”; “I just can’t lose weight”. Look over the statements. Are they things I really want to be true about myself? Can I have pride in saying these things? Are they helping me be a better person? Then finally think over what you should be saying instead and write the new programming statements out. Here are some examples --change the “ I can’t” to “I can”; “I am having a rotten day nothing is going right” to “My day is starting off rough but I am not going to let it beat me. Look out world here I come!”; “My dad said I would always be a dummy in math” to “Maybe I am not a numbers guy but I need Algebra to get my degree so I will use the campus tutoring and do extra practice to make sure I pass.”

You get the idea. Look at the negative statements you are telling yourself and create a positive new program. Then when you catch yourself saying the negative statement hit the delete button in your mind to erase it and then paste in the more positive statement. Try the 30 minute exercise mentioned in the preceding paragraph and try building some new positive programs for yourself. Let your thoughts move your life in a positive direction!