Bibliotherapy; The Interactive Process: A Handbook

xiv, 274 pages. Illustrations. Appendixes (Listening Exercises, Bibliotherapists' Records, and Professional Organizations). Bibliography of Professional Literature. Bibliotherapeutic Materials Cited. Index. Tables and Figures. Cover has slight wear and corner bumping. Inscription on fep is dated and signed Ro (believed to be Rosalie Brown, C.P.T. who designed the forms used in this book while working at St. Elizabeths Hospital). Bibliotherapy or therapeutic storytelling is an expressive therapy that involves storytelling or the reading of specific texts with the purpose of healing. It uses an individual's relationship to the content of books and poetry and other written words as therapy. Bibliotherapy is often combined with writing therapy. It has been shown to be effective in the treatment of depression. These results have been shown to be long-lasting. Sister Arleen McCarty Hynes pioneered the use of bibliotherapy at St. Elizabeths Hospital by engaging patients in literature as a process of healing and personal growth. Sister Arleen created the first comprehensive hospital-based training for bibliotherapy and co-wrote with her daughter Mary Hynes-Berry the authoritative book "Bibliotherapy: The Interactive Process: A Handbook" in 1986. She joined the Sisters of St. Benedict in 1981, after 10 years at St. Elizabeths in the District. Hired in 1971 as a patients' librarian at the country's only federal mental hospital, Sister Arleen expanded the library services offered there. She introduced a movie and a lecture series, provided a place where patients could listen to music and lent artwork for display in patients' rooms. She began exploring more deeply her interest in books as therapy. Sister Arleen became a prime force in establishing the National Association for Poetry Therapy, a leading creative arts therapy professional organization, and she hired the first bibliotherapist at St. Elizabeths. In 1978, she was awarded the Dorothea Dix Award in recognition of her contributions at St. Elizabeths.…