Book Therapy

Books can be used for healing or harm. A good friend once told me to "stop reading" all the books on a particular subject, because doing so seemed to be bringing more confusion. Another time, a longtime colleague warned to not rely on books for psychotherapeutic purposes.

For those who are searching, books can be a great gift. There have been times when God was reaching out to me through the unlikely words of an unread, ignored book that was shelved long before. There were times of anxious waiting in which reading a captivating story seemed to lift me. As a healthy escape or respite, I remember how helpful this was during the long power outage of Ike, which was combined with the financial implosion of this past fall.

As different as book and talk therapy are, you can still choose to discern what rings true for you and what of it works or doesn't, whether it comes from the printed page or a person. Book therapy is not talk therapy; but it is definitely more economical and convenient.