Bibliotherapy Basics Online Training

Monday 23 March – Friday 8 May 2026
Online

Australian Library and Information Association 

Bibliotherapy Basics

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 byDr 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.

ALIA National Conference 2026 Workshop

Tuesday 12 May 2026 - 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

The Literary Labyrinth: A pop-up reading way retreat

Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia

Friday 12 June 2026 - 9:00 am to 11:00 am

Bibliotherapy Webinar

Reading Retreat - Online

Saturday 27 June 2026 - 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
Online

A gentle retreat to slow your pace and rest with story.

Reading Retreats offer a quiet pause from daily life. In these spacious online or in-person gatherings, you slow down, breathe and meet story with gentle attention. No preparation is needed. Simply arrive as you are and let reflective reading, stillness and soft conversation restore clarity and ease.

Webinar - Tasmanian Libraries

Wednesday 1 July 2026 - 11:00 am to 12:00 pm

Bibliotherapy webinar. Delivered via Zoom.

Building Bibliotherapy Skills Online Course

6 July to 21 September 2026
Online

A deeper way of working with story. You enter a space where literature becomes a meeting place for reflection, connection and quiet growth.

The course brings together experience and theory, showing how literature, psychology and neuroscience meet through reflection and story.

Theoretical understanding is threaded through the learning, allowing insight to arise naturally rather than being taught separately.

Across twelve modules, you engage with readings, conversation and processes that strengthen both insight and practice. Alongside this, you begin to develop confidence in shaping bibliotherapy sessions with presence, care and attention.

• 12 × 90-minute learning modules

• Certificate of Completion

• Comprehensive course notes (one-year access)

• Post-course reflection activities to embed understanding

• One-to-one individual follow-up session

• Free Graduate Gatherings via Zoom for ongoing connection 

• Early Bird prices available for in-person

• Small classes: 5 (minimum) – 10 (maximum) participants

Story Aloud 2026 Season Podcast

Begins 27 July 2026 every 3 weeks.

Story Aloud is a gentle listening space where reflective stories and quiet invitations are offered in an intimate, unhurried way. Each episode invites you to slow your pace, soften your attention and let words meet you with warmth and steadiness.

All pieces in Story Aloud are original works written and read by Dr Susan McLaine, shaped to meet you with presence, tenderness and care.

The first season of Story Aloud is offered freely as a gift.

Gathering Around Story - Online

A welcoming online space to meet story in community.

Sunday 9 August 2026 - 11:00 am to 12:00 pm

Gathering Around Story offers a warm, reflective online circle where readers come together from time to time to pause, breathe and meet story with presence. 

Each gathering is a gentle moment of reconnection—an opportunity to slow your pace, listen inwardly and feel accompanied by others without pressure or expectation.

This is not a discussion group or a book club. It is a spacious, reflective conversation shaped by story. You do not need to prepare anything or read ahead. You simply arrive as you are, and the reading offered in the moment becomes a soft entry into reflection.

Whether you feel drawn to a single session or occasional gatherings over time, you are warmly welcome.

Bibliotherapy Basics Online Training: School Library

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: 31 August – 23 October 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 byDr 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.

Building Bibliotherapy Skills In-Person Course

28 October to 30 October 2026 - 9:00am to 10:00 am

Sydney, Australia

A deeper way of working with story. You enter a space where literature becomes a meeting place for reflection, connection and quiet growth.

The course brings together experience and theory, showing how literature, psychology and neuroscience meet through reflection and story.

Theoretical understanding is threaded through the learning, allowing insight to arise naturally rather than being taught separately.

Across twelve modules, you engage with readings, conversation and processes that strengthen both insight and practice. Alongside this, you begin to develop confidence in shaping bibliotherapy sessions with presence, care and attention.

• 12 × 90-minute learning modules

• Certificate of Completion

• Comprehensive course notes (one-year access)

• Post-course reflection activities to embed understanding

• One-to-one individual follow-up session

• Free Graduate Gatherings via Zoom for ongoing connection 

• Early Bird prices available for in-person

• Small classes: 5 (minimum) – 10 (maximum) participants

Discover Your Reading Identity

A short, self-paced program to begin at any time.

The Reading Way

A guided, reflective reading journey to begin at any time.