Do you keep favorite quotes – maybe on your refrigerator or in bedside drawer? Have you saved meaningful sermons, or passages from great authors? Maybe you keep letters that touched your heart? If so, you already know the power of words to promote healing – physical, emotional, and spiritual. That is the essence of Bibliotherapy.
Members of our Caring and Coots Library Committees are collaborating to create a folder of “Readings on Recovery” for anyone working toward recovery from illness or injury. (Readings for caregivers will be included in a separate section.) All church members are invited to add to our Bibliotherapy project, on the premise that people who have experienced recovery can offer each other encouragement, inspiration, and just good practical advice.
What might be in our Bibliotherapy folder?
Quotes: Sometimes when we are tired it’s hard to concentrate on longer passages, but quotes – humorous, provocative, inspiring – can help reframe our thinking on a “bad” day.
Short readings: Sermons, chapters, short essays can be powerful medicine. Our collection will help us exchange readings we find meaningful, so they might make as much difference to others as they have to us.
Letters from Us: We all know something about recovery. The process of coming back from illness or injury can be frustrating. Sometimes as we flail about, we stumble upon a profoundly useful idea or practice and think: Why didn’t anyone tell me about this? Letters From Us will offer a perfect opportunity to share what helped us along the path to recovery.
Your suggestions are eagerly sought as we launch our Bibliotherapy project. Please send quotes to Judy Gibson, short readings to Betsy Kepes, and your letters to Kathy Curro. Their contact information is available in the church directory or from the church office. Please contact any of them if you have questions. Thank you for helping us to build a collection of Readings on Recovery.
Friends, I tried to access the church directory to inquire privately, but I found that I could not access it even though I am a church member. My question: could you put me in touch with the the bibliotherapist who is in charge of your bibliotherapy project? I did not know there was another practitioner in the North Country, and I am interested in some conversation and networking. Thanks for your Help!
Viki Levitt
Hi Viki, I’ll send you an email with the password for the Directory. The bibliotherapy project is being headed up by the Library Committee and the Caring Circle. Kathy Curro is probably the best person to start with; others working on the project are Judy Gibson, Betsy Kepes, and Joan kepes.