Summary Of Nerd Alert Reading Is Good For Your Health

In Jen Christensen’s article, “Nerd Alert: Reading is Good For Your Health”, the idea of a therapy approach consisting of books, known as Bibliotherapy, is introduced to the reader. Alison Courtney has been assigning books for people to read, not just for pleasure, but as a therapeutic treatment. She has been using books to aid people in overcoming issues such as grief or depression, as well as using them as general emotional support in several different aspects of life such as goals and relationships. The article also presents some research in regards to books and the benefits they bring in the areas of empathy and feelings toward general life situations. After reading the article, I feel slightly skeptical toward Courtney’s Bibliotherapy, but I do feel that the article confirmed to me, how beneficial books can actually be.
In particular, when introducing Courtney, it is explained that she, “...isn’t a licensed therapist, nor is she currently an English teacher, although she did work as one for 10 years in France, and has spent years shelving books at the library and in bookstores.” (1) This sentence made me question her authority to give therapy sessions to people. One reason being the fact that, even though she has an extensive history with books, she doesn’t have a background of psychology to properly ‘assign’ books. Without this knowledge, she doesn’t fully understand what effect a particular book will have on a person other than herself. Consequently, she could accidentally cause more harm than good in a patient. Furthermore, when quoted, Courtney uses phrases such as, “I think,” and “may help.” These phrases again leave me to wonder if she is sure that what she is doing can assist people and their