Unlocking imagination, healing hearts: a comprehensive study of more than 70 years of bibliotherapy for children

ABSTRACT

Bibliotherapy has been used for ages in different cultures as a comfort, reflection, and well-being tool. It allows the readers to identify with the story, characters, or situations and thus gain insight into the motives of their own behavior. It provides them insight into their problems and helps identify and explore possible solutions. Mental health professionals, educators, and individuals seeking self-help and personal growth today acknowledge and embrace bibliotherapy. Children are the supreme hope and most significant asset of any nation. Unfortunately, they are the most vulnerable group which needs the proper guidance. Hence well-being of their present is crucial for the well-being of their future. Bibliotherapy as a tool for well-being of children offers immense potential. This article conducts a quantitative and qualitative literature review to understand the work done in this area of research. The article identifies the gaps and recommends future research topics to further strengthen bibliotherapy usage.

KEYWORDS:

• Bibliotherapy
• children
• bibliometric analysis
• intellectual structure
• literature review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).