Using bibliotherapy to rebuild identity for people with aphasia: A book club experience

Aphasia book clubs were developed to support connecting with literature and reading for pleasure within an aphasia-friendly environment. Bibliotherapy is an evidence-based therapeutic approach, in which a book is selected to address the challenges facing the reader. Its aim is to facilitate a deeper understanding of a lived experience in order to promote healing, strategy development, and adjustment. Aphasia book clubs provide an opportunity to discuss books about the challenges associated with aphasia. A recent book, Identity theft: Rediscovering ourselves after stroke recounts the stroke recovery story of Dr. Debra Meyerson and 22 other stroke survivors. Identity Theft focuses on the need to reconstruct positive identities despite remaining disabilities to facilitate rebuilding rewarding lives. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of reading Identity Theft in an aphasia book club for people with aphasia (PwA).

27 PwA read the book Identity Theft in one of four online aphasia book clubs offered by two universities. Weekly discussions were facilitated by graduate SLP students under the supervision of experienced clinicians. At the end of the 10 week program, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with participants to understand the lived experience. Interviews were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Analysis of the interview data generated four main themes and 13 subthemes. The main themes included: Mechanism for Reflection, Power of Community, Engaged Learning, and Therapeutic Environment. Interview extracts illustrate the way these themes support increasing self-efficacy and rebuilding a positive identity.

The themes align positively with outcomes associated with the bibliotherapy process. Themes also integrate into a self-management model that promotes self-efficacy through education, support, awareness, problem solving and goal setting. Caveats included determining participant readiness to examine recovery issues and facilitator preparation. Aphasia book clubs surrounding psychosocial texts may help PwA reconstruct a positive post-stroke identity.