Bibliotherapy: Tracing Its Global Evolution and Exploring the Contemporary Research Landscape in Sri Lanka

Bibliotherapy, the use of literature for therapeutic purposes, has gained increasing attention globally as a complementary approach to mental well-being. Bibliotherapy is a form of creative arts therapy that involves telling stories or reading specific texts and implementing personal connections to the content of books as a therapy. Mainly, there are two types of bibliotherapy as clinical bibliotherapy and developmental bibliotherapy. Clinical bibliotherapy is employed by mental health professionals to address emotional-behavioral problems and achieve therapeutic goals. Developmental bibliotherapy, used by educators, librarians and healthcare assistants and it facilitates to address milder psychological issues. The idea of bibliotherapy is not a new one and it has undergone a dynamic evolution. At early stages, bibliotherapy is developed as ‘reading therapy’. There are various anecdotes scattered through-out the ages that concerning the value of reading. It has been around for centuries, and have been referred to by different terms, depending on the time period. The objectives of this paper were to examine the global evolution of bibliotherapy from its historical roots to the present and to explore the contemporary research landscape of bibliotherapy in Sri Lanka. The methodology based on this study was literary survey. Accordingly, the paper attempts identify the contemporary research landscape in Sri Lanka while revealing global evolution of bibliotherapy. Challenges and possibilities affecting bibliotherapy researches in Sri Lanka are also discussed.