Sharing with you this story The Guardian ran yesterday: ‘At once intolerable and addictive’: five wellbeing courses and apps, road-tested.’
It gives my podcast series a great review. It is the writer’s‘favourite discovery from this whole exercise’. She says: ‘I love this podcast. There’s something so intimate and soothing about being read to…It’s the closest thing to a hug I’ve had in months.’
Thank you The Guardian for seeing exactly the space I have been intending and holding for everyone.
GIVEAWAY TIME 
In celebration of World Mental Health Day, I’m partnering with Wanderlust to give away 5 premium tickets to the upcoming RISE by Wanderlust event on October 10th, valued at $59 each.
Head to the Words That Heal Facebook page to enter.
All you’ve got to do to enter is:
1. Like this post.
2. Tag your buddy.
3. Like the Words That Heal Facebook page and Wanderlust’s Facebook page.
Say ‘Om’ and keep your fingers crossed. 
Winners will be announced Friday, October 8th.
What’s included? 
1 x ticket to the upcoming RISE by Wanderlust event October 10th
1 x Wanderlust journal
1 x Wanderlust Wholefood Blend Product
1 x Tote bag
Giveaway open ’til 6pm AEST 8/10/21.
Offer only available in Australia.
Winners will be contacted directly by Words That Heal.
Wanderlust events are BACK, and I am so excited to be part of it!
Please find the event link here: https://au.wanderlust.events/products/wanderlust-rise
No spoilers, but I have selected a poetic book excerpt and lines of poetry with the intention to transport the listener to a place of appreciation of nature and let them ease into their own exploration of the themes and thoughts that present themselves. Or simply relax, and listen to the words.
Wanderlust ‘Rise’, a 90-minute virtual RISE experience to nurture your true nature.
Date: Sunday, October 10thWhen: 9am-10:30am AEST
Where: Your favourite quiet space
What to Expect: Relish in a mind, body and spirit experience with meditation, yoga and mindful bibliotherapy.
I do hope to see you there and please share with anyone who may benefit from nurturing and strengthening their spirit 
I think it’s high time for me to officially announce that I am now Dr Susan McLaine. I still feel a little shy about it… so if you’d be kind enough, please forgive me for being a bit quiet, but now it’s time to get on and increase the advocacy for bibliotherapy, something I deeply believe in: using the power of literature and the human voice to heal.
After spending over a decade in the research world, I’ve successfully completed my doctoral research ‘Looking beyond traditional bibliotherapy: a new view’. This research study looks beyond the use of self-help books as traditional bibliotherapy in clinical settings to creative bibliotherapy facilitated by non-health practitioners in community-based settings. Such group reading programs, sharing imaginative literature, have become a widely used means of promoting wellbeing in Australia and internationally.
My RMIT Supervisors, including Dr Sue Reynolds, Dr June Allan and Dr Huan Vo-Tran, need special thanks: especially Dr Sue Reynolds. As does State Library Victoria, for supporting my study in the area of bibliotherapy. As well as family and friends for hearing more about bibliotherapy than they ever perhaps wanted to.
If lockdown restrictions allow, look out for me in December, wearing the doctoral graduation gown, PhD robe and bonnet; you may just see me heading down to end-of-year graduation at Marvel Stadium.
I have some more exciting news to share! After the success of Season One of ‘Bibliotherapy with State Library Victoria’, with 20,000 listens, I’ve created Season Two.
Each episode focuses on a different feeling or experience and uses the healing power of literature to nourish and comfort us during this challenging time. In Season Two, a six-part series, I will read and speak to selected literary texts and poems that focus on various aspects of wellbeing, using a facilitated self-reflective approach. Again, you can find it on podcast apps or just goggle search ‘Bibliotherapy with State Library Victoria’.
For more information visit https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/bibliotherapy
Another chapter in a recent UK publication ‘Reading and mental health’, this time published by Palgrave UK, provides cutting-edge research and best-practice examples to demonstrate how reading benefits health and wellbeing.
I have another chapter in a recent UK publication ‘Reading and mental health’, this time published by Palgrave UK, provides cutting-edge research and best-practice examples to demonstrate how reading benefits health and wellbeing.
I have some exciting news to share! I have been working on a series of free bibliotherapy podcasts for State Library Victoria.
On Saturday State Library Victoria launch a new podcast series, Bibliotherapy with State Library Victoria. Each episode will focus on a different feeling or experience to use the healing power of literature to nourish and comfort us during this challenging time. In this 9-part series, I will read and speak to selected literary texts and poems that focus on different aspects of wellbeing, using a facilitated self-reflective approach. If you have friends or family you think would benefit from these free podcasts, please invite them to subscribe and, of course, I do hope you will listen for yourself.
https://www.slv.vic.gov.au/bibliotherapy
You can find it on podcast apps – just search ‘Bibliotherapy with State Library Victoria’ and links are provided below.
Launching our chapter in ‘Bibliotherapy ‘ the new bibliotherapy guide to support the health and wellbeing of communities published by Facet UK. Thank you Dr Sue Reynolds for launching.
“Reading is more than a distraction; it is an active engaging of the imagination, which causes you to enter what psychologists describe as an altered state of consciousness.”
Words That Heal 