Facilitated yet flexible online course. Your foundational training in bibliotherapy and wellbeing.

Course overview

Bibliotherapy Basics is a seven-week, foundational, facilitated course that introduces the principles and practice of bibliotherapy as a wellbeing-focused approach to reading. The course offers an experiential foundation, inviting you to first experience bibliotherapy for yourself before gently exploring what it means to design and facilitate sessions for others.

The course is self-paced within a facilitated structure. It is highly recommended that you follow the suggested timeline to move through the levels alongside other participants. This shared rhythm creates richer discussion and deeper learning.

Optional Zoom sessions are offered at different times throughout the course, providing opportunities for group discussion and questions.

Right for You If ...

... you are working in a public, school, special, health or academic library and want to develop skills in using literature to promote wellbeing and connection.

The course is also suitable for educators, community services, counsellors and anyone interested in how stories nurture wellbeing.

Learning style and outcomes

The course is experiential and reflective. Each of the four levels builds on the one before it, combining theory and practice in a way that brings bibliotherapy to life. You will:

• Experience bibliotherapy directly before facilitating it for others
• Learn how literature supports wellbeing, emotional awareness and growth
• Explore the roles of fiction, nonfiction and poetry in bibliotherapy
• Design and deliver a simple bibliotherapy experience
• Reflect on your own responses and insights throughout the process.

By the end, you’ll have an embodied understanding of bibliotherapy and how to apply it in your own setting—whether personal, educational or community-based.

Delivery and commitment

Duration: 7 weeks (including a two-week planning break)

Format: Facilitated yet flexible, with a self-paced structure that follows a recommended shared timeline for deeper collective learning.

Dates: Monday 23 March – Friday 8 May 2026

Time commitment: Approximately 6 hours per week

CPD hours: 30 CPD hours

Digital Certificate: Provided by ALIA on completion of the course

Requirements: Internet access and a device to use the online learning platform. Access to poetry, fiction, short stories, memoirs and nonfiction resources.

After the course

Once you experience the effects of bibliotherapy on yourself and others, you will likely want to explore it further! Bibliotherapy is an ongoing journey, and Bibliotherapy Australia offers more advanced courses to deepen your understanding of bibliotherapy, its therapeutic purposes, and the techniques used in its practice. Bibliotherapy Australia offers training and educational courses to a range of community-based professionals focused on wellbeing. Completing this course grants access to free bi-monthly Zoom gatherings for past or registered participants of Bibliotherapy Australia courses.

Facilitator

This course is developed and facilitated by Dr Susan McLaine, Founder and Director of Bibliotherapy Australia, and an internationally recognised authority in bibliotherapy practice. Before founding Bibliotherapy Australia, Susan worked in public and state libraries for 18 years.

More information

Cancellation Policy