As I sat across from one of my clients last week, I was reminded of something that was an important part of my healing journey, but I’ve never actually written about it here.
This is something we all do, but probably don’t realize the impact it is having on us. I do it in the morning at 4:00 a.m. when I can’t sleep, which is almost every morning.
I’ve done it for so long and so thoroughly that I never realized, until now, how vital it has been in helping me reclaim my life from severe childhood trauma.
Wonder what I’m talking about?
Reading.
Yes, reading. In the context of trauma healing, we call it “bibliotherapy.”
According to Wikipedia, “Bibliotherapy is a creative arts therapies modality 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.”
Over the 15+ year course of my healing journey, I’ve read probably close to 100 different books about trauma healing, self-improvement, creativity, spirituality… you name it, I’ve probably read it.
I didn’t realize it then, but I was looking for more than information. I was looking for connection. To people who knew the path, lived the same challenges, found peace and healing.
When we don’t feel safe making connections with people up front and personal, we can make connections with people through their words on a page. We often discover ourselves in the stories of others, and as we connect with their healing journeys, we find the salve to our own wounds.
Bibliotherapy has been one of the most important things I have done, and continue to do, to find my way home to myself, to my work, to my truest purpose.
And by writing about my journey, I have combined bibliotherapy with writing therapy, a powerful combination for personal transformation.
One of my writing therapy projects became a book that I have recently published – In A Garden of Dreams: How Beating Resistance Led Me Out of Despair and Into My Purpose. In this new book, I share the tools I used to bring me back to myself after a bout of severe depression, fueled by loss and grief.
If you have lost yourself in the black hole of depression, perhaps you will find yourself again in my story.
Until next time,
Anne
P.S.: Because I believe in this form of therapy so much, I have compiled an entire Learning Library for trauma survivors. These are some of the very best books on the subject.
Find the Learning Library here: https://www.thesurvivorscompass.com/learning-library/