Healing with Storybooks: Using Bibliotherapy to Help Children Cope with Death

Abstract

Abstract Bibliotherapy refers to a dynamic process that occurs when mindful reading of books helps the reader to gain potential insight into their life experiences, overcome negative emotions, and enhance adaptive coping. The key to effective therapeutic reading involves selecting developmentally appropriate books with portrayed characters, situations, and emotional experiences with whom the child can identify. Children’s literature can be used as a pedagogical and clinical tool to teach values, facilitate emotional growth, and promote healthy development. The present case report demonstrates that parent-directed bibliotherapy has the potential to reduce childhood fears and help young children come to terms with loss in a nonthreatening and engaging way. The easy accessibility and low cost make bibliotherapy the treatment of choice in low- and middle-income countries where there is a need for alternative options for the delivery of services due to the scarce availability of trained child mental health professionals.