Research

We have conducted randomized controlled trials into the efficacy of poetry as a tool for dealing with stress and anxiety. Our first two trials were with university students coping with stress and with a very large sample of online learners. Both trials used our Stressed Unstressed anthology and other poems. The results were very promising, as reported in “Poetry for Stress Relief” and “Mindful Poetry Trial”. Our methods and materials were also used by our trustees, Dr Alison Essary and Professor Mark Lussier, in a hospice trial comparing the benefits of mindfulness and poetry reading, published in the journal Progress in Palliative Care. Some more general thoughts on the wider wellbeing value of bibliotherapy are published in a series of articles we have written for the leading medical journal, The Lancet:

“Books do furnish a mind: the art and science of bibliotherapy”

“The Infirmity of his age: Shakespeare and old age”

“The Anatomy of Melancholy revisited”

“The worst is not, so long as we can say ‘This is the worst’: reading in a time of pandemic”