Blog — become a bibliotherapist

Who Gets to Belong? A View from Literature

Reading Masud Husain's Our Brains, Our Selves alongside Rami Kaminski's The Gift of Not Belonging over the last couple of weeks, and they bring a fascinating tension to the concept of human belonging.

One is about people who lose the ability to belong when the brain changes and how quickly the world withdraws recognition when someone becomes unfamiliar. The other is about people who never felt the pull of the group in the first place and dares to call that a gift rather than a flaw.

Between Brontë's attic, Plath's bell jar, and Ishiguro's buttoned-up butler, literature has been asking this question for centuries: who gets to belong, who decides and why do some of us opt out.

Read this exploration on my latest Substack essay - link in bio or here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/bibliotherapywithbijal/p/who-gets-to-belong-a-view-from-literature

When we speak about transformation through reading, what exactly do we mean? The use of the word suggests a dramatic turning point, a before-and-after moment in which a life is visibly redirected. It could be a quiet, subtle internal shift, a new way of naming an experience, a change in how one understands the self or relates to others.

It may not always present as a visible change. It could simply be an alteration of the inner structures through which a person makes meaning.

My work explores reading as both a personal and structured practice, where reading serves as a tool for reflection and safe exploration of our emotions, particularly in moments of uncertainty, grief, transition, or self-doubt. I aim to create a space in which books become prompts for dialogue, self-inquiry, and emotional recognition.

As a bibliotherapist, I often come across readers and clients who say to me that reading is a luxury, or that reading is simply one choice among the many leisurely activities available to us. We live in a time that constantly pulls us away from reading: speed, distraction, overstimulation. So I would like to begin with a very direct question: is reading still a choice… or is it becoming a necessity? That’s a really interesting question, and it cuts deeper than it looks. The honest answer is: it's always been both, and the tension between them is getting sharper, and...

What Do Fairy Tales Really Tell Us?  Freud, the Unconscious, and the Hidden Language of Story For most of us, fairy tales bring to mind enchanted forests, wicked stepmothers, magical creatures, and faraway castles. These are the stories we first heard as children, nestled in bed or sitting in a circle at school—simple, fantastical tales meant to entertain, teach lessons, or lull us to sleep. But what if these stories were doing much more than that? What if, beneath their charming surfaces, fairy tales were speaking the language of the unconscious—giving shape to our deepest fears, desires, and internal conflicts?...

Dear friends, I hope this note finds you well. It’s been an exciting month in the world of bibliotherapy, and I’m delighted to share some wonderful news and upcoming opportunities with you. Book News On 4th September, the paperback edition of Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading was released. Thank you so much for your continued support of my work — it is truly appreciated. I’m also thrilled to announce that the Chinese edition of the book is now published, making bibliotherapy accessible to even more readers around the globe. International Conference in BrazilEarlier this month, I had the privilege of speaking at the first-ever International Conference on Bibliotherapy...