Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah – Details, episodes & analysis
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Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah
Bijal Shah
Frequency: 1 episode/35d. Total Eps: 53
Hi, my name is Bijal Shah and I am a bibliotherapist and founder of Book Therapy (a bibliotherapy and literary curation practice: www.booktherapy.io). I'm also the author of the book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading (https://bit.ly/bibliotherapybook). I curate book prescriptions and provide online training in bibliotherapy, more detail of this can be found on my website, www.booktherapy.io
In this podcast, I share my knowledge and research on bibliotherapy, including the latest developments, science and book recommendations.
Join me every week where we take a deep dive into Bibliotherapy.
We release two episodes a week:
1. Voicenotes fom Me, Your Resident Bibliotherapist.
2. Ask the Bibliotherapist: Book Recommendations for What's On Your Mind
Join our member-only subscription here to listen to all episodes for free. To get access to corresponding transcripts: https://bibliotherapywithbijal.substack.com/subscribe
I hope you enjoy the show and if you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading (https://bit.ly/bibliotherapybook) a helpful companion.
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like the transcripts to all episodes, you can join our member-only subscription on Substack: https://bibliotherapywithbijal.substack.com/subscribe
And as always, I love hearing from listeners so if you'd like to get in touch, share any book recommendations or thoughts on bibliotherapy, you can do so at bijal@booktherapy.io
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In conversation with Catherine Carr on Siblings and How They Shape Us
Season 5 · Episode 2
lundi 23 mars 2026 • Duration 39:53
Hi everyone, excited to share my conversation with award-winning audio documentary maker and author Catherine Carr about how sibling relationships shape identity, drawing on Carr’s podcast Relatively and her new book 'Who’s the Favourite?'
Carr explains that her fascination wtih sibling dynamics began during the 2020 pandemic when people began to reach out to and reconnect with their siblings, highlighting that sibling bonds can be some of the longest relationships in life.
We discuss birth order, family “roles,” and how siblings influence development, including Carr’s experience as a middle child whose parents divorced and split the children between England and the Netherlands.
Carr also describes shifting sibling relationships from vertical to horizontal (equal adult friendship), the complications of contested memories and shared narratives, and how aging parents can be a flashpoint.
The conversation covers sibling estrangement and the stigma of it as well as glass siblings and Carr's favourite books!
Listen to the episode here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1452949/episodes/18891567 or wherever you get your podcasts, by simply searching for 'Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah'.
I hope you enjoy it! And if you'd like to get a copy of her book 'Who's Your Favourite?" you can do so anywhere you get books or here: https://www.waterstones.com/books/reviews/isbn/9781836431282#review-455525
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
01:35 Why the Focus on Sibling Relationships and Catherine's New Book
04:26 Catherine's Childhood and Own Sibling Relationships
06:13 Siblings in Literature
08:39 Family Roles and Labels
15:19 Birth Order and Influence
18:58 Shared Stories and Memory
23:43 Estrangement and Stigma
28:59 Glass Siblings Explained
35:21 Catherine's Favourite Book
37:29 Final Thoughts and Thanks
#bibliotherapy #bibliotherapypodcast #books #whosthefavourite? #catherinecar #newbook #podcasts #bookistpodcasts #newreleases #siblingpodcast #relatively
Email us at bijal@booktherapy.io
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like access to the transcripts, do subscribe to my substack: Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Transcripts on Substack.
If you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading a helpful companion.
******************************************************************************************
Get 10% off with code PODCAST on the following:
Personalised Book Prescriptions
Bibliotherapy Sessions
You can also follow us on your preferred platform using the links below:
On Poetry, Metaphor and Chronic Pain: Language as a Tool for Healing with Sarah Fletcher
Season 5 · Episode 1
vendredi 13 mars 2026 • Duration 31:24
In this episode of Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah, I interview Sarah Fletcher, a British-American poet who grew up in the UK and later pursued poetry and a PhD researching physical pain and poetry. We discuss the power of poetry to heal through rhythm, sound, precision, memorability, and how physical pain is difficult to capture in language, often relying on metaphor, including militaristic framing and the limits of the 1–10 pain scale.
We discuss how chronic pain is isolating, fragmentary, and hard to capture in narrative. Sarah also talks about some of the poetry and pain workshops she runs that build shared language and connection to capture the physical experience of pain in poetry, including reframing pain as an unwelcome guest at a house party. She notes a Canadian hospital’s “pain menus,” how expressive writing can improve healing, and the need to challenge mind–body dualism.
Sarah also cites T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” as life-changing and we also announce an upcoming shared podcast, “The Bibliotherapy Room" that we will be recording! Watch this space for more :)
00:00 Welcome and Introductions
01:49 Sarah’s Poetry Origins
04:55 Sound, Rhythm and Healing
06:58 Why Pain Resists Language
09:12 Metaphors We Use for Pain
11:51 Chronic Pain and Isolation
15:41 Living Alongside Pain
17:58 Creative Writing for Pain
22:20 Empathy, Doubt and Doctors
26:07 Workshops, Laughter and Relief
27:46 Pain Menus and Social Prescribing
31:51 The Mind-Body Connection and Creativity
33:51 Life-Changing Poem Pick
36:44 New Podcast Announcement
38:29 Closing Thanks and Farewell
Email us at bijal@booktherapy.io
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like access to the transcripts, do subscribe to my substack: Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Transcripts on Substack.
If you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading a helpful companion.
******************************************************************************************
Get 10% off with code PODCAST on the following:
Personalised Book Prescriptions
Bibliotherapy Sessions
You can also follow us on your preferred platform using the links below:
Life Imitates Art: AI, Relationships, and the Insights of Utopian & Dystopian Fiction
Season 4 · Episode 4
vendredi 31 octobre 2025 • Duration 23:17
In this episode of Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah, I explore how contemporary fiction and nonfiction depict love and relationships between humans and artificial intelligence.
Blending utopian and dystopian perspectives, I examine novels such as Klara and the Sun, Machines Like Me, and Frankissstein, alongside nonfiction works by thinkers like Sherry Turkle and Susan Schneider.
Utopian stories portray AI as capable of empathy and moral growth, offering new forms of connection, while dystopian visions warn of emotional automation and the commodification of intimacy. Nonfiction writers echo these tensions, questioning whether real affection is possible with machines and what our longing for digital companionship reveals about human loneliness.
Is AI both our mirror and our muse? Join me as we explore all this and more!
Hope you enjoy the listen.
Email us at bijal@booktherapy.io
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like access to the transcripts, do subscribe to my substack: Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Transcripts on Substack.
If you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading a helpful companion.
******************************************************************************************
Get 10% off with code PODCAST on the following:
Personalised Book Prescriptions
Bibliotherapy Sessions
You can also follow us on your preferred platform using the links below:
The Role of Romantic Storytelling in Bibliotherapy
Season 4 · Episode 3
dimanche 26 octobre 2025 • Duration 22:51
In this week’s episode of Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah, we explore the quiet, transformative power of love stories — and how the romance genre can become a profound tool for emotional healing. From the classic worlds of Jane Austen to the modern intimacy of Sally Rooney, and from the wisdom of Bell Hooks and Erich Fromm to the poetic tenderness of Alain de Botton, we look at how stories of love — in all their beauty and heartbreak — help us understand ourselves and others.
Through the lens of bibliotherapy, I’ll unpack how reading about love can validate our experiences, repair our emotional wounds, and remind us that connection and hope are still possible - even in an age of disconnection.
I hope you enjoy the episode and as always, all thoughts/reflections welcome!
x
Email us at bijal@booktherapy.io
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like access to the transcripts, do subscribe to my substack: Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Transcripts on Substack.
If you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading a helpful companion.
******************************************************************************************
Get 10% off with code PODCAST on the following:
Personalised Book Prescriptions
Bibliotherapy Sessions
You can also follow us on your preferred platform using the links below:
Reading Love in the 21st Century: Lessons from Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving
Season 4 · Episode 2
mardi 21 octobre 2025 • Duration 22:58
In this week’s episode of Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah, I explore Erich Fromm’s timeless classic The Art of Loving and reflect on what it can teach us about love in our modern world. I look at how Fromm’s vision of love — as a discipline, a practice, and a moral art — can help us navigate the challenges of connection in 2025, from digital intimacy to generational shifts in how we give and receive love.
At its heart, this episode is an invitation to slow down, pay attention, and rediscover love as the deepest expression of what it means to be human.
I hope you enjoy it! x
Email us at bijal@booktherapy.io
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like access to the transcripts, do subscribe to my substack: Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Transcripts on Substack.
If you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading a helpful companion.
******************************************************************************************
Get 10% off with code PODCAST on the following:
Personalised Book Prescriptions
Bibliotherapy Sessions
You can also follow us on your preferred platform using the links below:
On Love, Loneliness, and the Literature That Heals Us
Season 4 · Episode 1
jeudi 16 octobre 2025 • Duration 17:29
In this opening episode of Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah, I trace love’s enduring role as literature’s greatest subject, and explore love not as sentimentality, but as a profound human discipline that shapes how we live, connect, and heal, from divine longing to intimacy, navigating loss and loneliness.
I reflect on the paradox of modern loneliness: that the deepest ache is not the absence of others, but the longing to be truly seen. Drawing on the words of Erich Fromm, Rumi, and Kahlil Gibran — and novels from Pride and Prejudice to Normal People — I explore how reading love stories and romance can mend the fractures of the heart and remind us that belonging is possible.
I also discuss how the romantic comedy is an important literary device in this respect — a gentle rebellion against cynicism — and explore how it offers a space for forgiveness, courage, and restoration of faith in love’s ability to connect, heal and empower us.
Email us at bijal@booktherapy.io
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like access to the transcripts, do subscribe to my substack: Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Transcripts on Substack.
If you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading a helpful companion.
******************************************************************************************
Get 10% off with code PODCAST on the following:
Personalised Book Prescriptions
Bibliotherapy Sessions
You can also follow us on your preferred platform using the links below:
Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Season 4 Trailer
Season 4
mercredi 15 octobre 2025 • Duration 04:05
Excited to share Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah is back with Season 4!
In Season 4, I’ll be sharing my 40 best books of 2025 to read in 2026 across both fiction and non-fiction — and yes there are some surprise reads in there!
We’ll also dive deep into the role of the romantic comedy in healing — and what it means to be a romantic hero: someone who, despite a hundred heartbreaks, can still say, “I still believe in love.” After all, most of us have been heartbroken — if not by a person, then by a loss of any kind.
We’ll analyse characters who embody romantic heroism, and what they teach us about endurance, vulnerability, and faith in connection.
From my favourite romance books from age 0 to 43, to AI and love in utopian and dystopian futures, and the timeless wisdom of Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving — this season is a love letter to literature and to life.
We’ll also explore books to help us cope with disconnection, loss, and heartbreak over the festive season, and why true and lasting love often brings us closer to the divine.
And finally, I’ll share my most anticipated reads and bibliotherapy predictions for 2026 — stories that will heal, uplift, and inspire.
First episode drops this Thursday.
Hope you love it!
x
Email us at bijal@booktherapy.io
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like access to the transcripts, do subscribe to my substack: Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Transcripts on Substack.
If you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading a helpful companion.
******************************************************************************************
Get 10% off with code PODCAST on the following:
Personalised Book Prescriptions
Bibliotherapy Sessions
You can also follow us on your preferred platform using the links below:
Bibliotherapy in Bloom: Japanese Literature to Read This Spring
Season 3 · Episode 10
lundi 19 mai 2025 • Duration 23:47
In today's episode, we’re immersing ourselves in the gentle, contemplative, and often transformative world of Japanese literature. As we step into the season of spring, a time of renewal, impermanence, and quiet growth, I can’t think of a better literary tradition to explore. We'll be diving into both Japanese fiction and nonfiction that can support our emotional wellbeing, offer perspective, and help us reconnect—with ourselves, with nature, and with others.
Plus I share some helpful therapeutic practices to engage with to deepen your reading experience. Hope you enjoy it!
Bijal x
(Bibliotherapist and Founder, Book Therapy, Author of Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading)
Email us at bijal@booktherapy.io
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like access to the transcripts, do subscribe to my substack: Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Transcripts on Substack.
If you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading a helpful companion.
******************************************************************************************
Get 10% off with code PODCAST on the following:
Personalised Book Prescriptions
Bibliotherapy Sessions
You can also follow us on your preferred platform using the links below:
Dostoyevsky and Bibliotherapy: Could One Say Dostoyevsky Understood Human Beings Better Than Freud?
Season 3 · Episode 9
dimanche 11 mai 2025 • Duration 24:47
In today's episode, I explore the psychological depth of Dostoyevsky’s literature through the lens of bibliotherapy. Could the Russian novelist understand the human psyche more intimately than Freud himself? We examine key characters, existential themes, and the healing potential of Dostoyevsky’s work, comparing literary insight with psychoanalytic theory. From Raskolnikov’s guilt to Ivan Karamazov’s spiritual crisis, this episode uncovers how fiction can mirror the unconscious—and why Dostoyevsky still resonates as a therapeutic force today.
Email us at bijal@booktherapy.io
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like access to the transcripts, do subscribe to my substack: Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Transcripts on Substack.
If you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading a helpful companion.
******************************************************************************************
Get 10% off with code PODCAST on the following:
Personalised Book Prescriptions
Bibliotherapy Sessions
You can also follow us on your preferred platform using the links below:
My Most Anticipated Spring & Summer Reads – Fiction and Non-Fiction Picks for 2025
Season 3 · Episode 8
dimanche 4 mai 2025 • Duration 23:16
Dear Listener,
Hello and welcome back to Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah—the podcast where books are more than stories—they're medicine for the soul. Today, I’m thrilled to share some of the spring and summer reads that I am most excited about reading this year. Whether you're seeking escape, self-discovery, or emotional renewal, this season’s fiction and nonfiction titles offer powerful paths to healing.
From stories of love, loss, and intergenerational memory to explorations of identity, time anxiety, and reinvention, each book speaks to a part of us that longs to be seen or soothed. These are books for the curious and the courageous—those ready to embrace transformation through story. Join me on this episode of Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah to find not just what to read next, but what your soul might need most this spring and summer.
Plus my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading is finally out in the US and Canada on June 10, 2025 in case you’d like to add it to your Spring and Summer reads. I hope you love it :)
Let’s dive in!
Enjoy!
Warmly,
Bijal
Email us at bijal@booktherapy.io
Don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and get new episodes as they are released. If you'd like access to the transcripts, do subscribe to my substack: Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah - Transcripts on Substack.
If you'd like a bibliotherapist in your pocket then you might find my book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading a helpful companion.
******************************************************************************************
Get 10% off with code PODCAST on the following:
Personalised Book Prescriptions
Bibliotherapy Sessions
You can also follow us on your preferred platform using the links below:
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