Read Two Books and Call Me In the Morning
I often recommend books to my clients. Not as a substitute for counseling, but as an adjunct to counseling. The books I most often recommend are in the sidebar on the right.
One reason I recommend books is to keep the client/couple invested in therapy. It’s too easy for people to not think about making changes in their lives until they are sitting in my office. Working through a book keeps the client involved throughout the week. Counseling then becomes more than 50 minutes once every seven days.
Another reason is that is speeds up the process. Teaching the material in a book while the client is in my office slows counseling down. Like school, people will get more out of counseling if they do their homework first.
Finally, bibliotherapy demystifies counseling. A good counselor has insight and skills, but he is not a mind reader. Nor is he privy to things ordinary human beings don’t know about. Therapy, quite simply, is work. Seeing your life and problems from God’s perspective, renewing your mind daily, laying aside anger and bitterness; all of these things ask for some effort on the part of the client, but they are not arcane arts.
A self help book is not a panacea. But it can be helpful.
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
Good thoughts, Bowden. Just this week I asked a man whose wife had an affair if he had been reading a book I recommended. He said no he usually watches tv. We had just talked about the pain he is in. I mentioned to him that I thought reading this book might lesson the time he had to deal with the intensity of the pain. We’ll see what happens.
Occasionally I’ll meet with someone who reads so much, just packing information in his or her head that I’ll recommend they don’t read anything!
Ben:
I think there are a few who read too much. Instead of acting on the information, they just buy another book. I usually tell them this story:
I took up golf late in life; my uncle – who was still coaching his high school golf team to one state championship after another – told me I probably didn’t need to take lessons. “Just watch a video… but stick with the same series of videos. If you switch around you’ll just end up getting confused.”
Great advice for golf.
Great advice for reading self help books while in counseling, too!