The Jockey Club Community Sustainability Fund--Joyful Readers Community Project brings you the Wellness Guidebook, a digital catalog featuring leading authors from around the globe who will be delving into topics of spirituality, mental health, and wellness.

This four-part digital series, taking place live via Facebook and YouTube, will unfold over the next nine months taking you through the origins and themes of unique literary titles through panel discussions with authors and readers.

The culmination of these online sessions will result in a holistic view of mental health and wellness presented in our digital ‘Wellness Guidebook’.

Take this virtual chance to join in on a dialogue with writers, industry leaders, and fellow Asia Society members to discuss new ideas and share in a cultural exchange we’ve been sorely missing. It’s time to pick up something you otherwise wouldn’t, learn something new, and reconnect with a different part of the world. Read on bookworms.

Bibliotherapy and Mental Health

Whether you’re an adolescent averse to adulthood, a middle-aged person undergoing a life-changing period, or a perfectionist who feels pressure every day.

However, which book I should read to help me to go through the anxiety? What books can make me happier? Bibliotherapy is a creative therapy believe there is a book out there that can give your life perspective, and help people coping with anxiety disorders.

In this webinar, Bibliotherapist, Ella Berthoud will introduce this creative therapy and its process. She will also give us some tips on choosing books and building up a reading habit.

Ella Berthoud started reading on a journey from Tehran to London, on the parcel shelf of a Wolsey 1300 when she was five. She spent the next thirteen years reading books in inappropriate places like ski-lifts and trampolines. She studied English Literature at Cambridge University, where she read as many novels as she could at once. She continued on to University of East London where she studied Fine Art, and combined her twin passions of reading and painting by listening to books while creating works of art. She has worked as an artist in residence at Pentonville Prison, Friends School Saffron Walden and Queenswood School.

Ella first started talking about bibliotherapy with Susan Elderkin when they were at Cambridge together. Over the ensuing years they prescribed literature to their friends and family, while Ella worked as an artist and Susan wrote her own novels. In 2007 they developed the idea in conjunction with The School of Life into what it is today, a one to one service taking place in person, or over the phone.

Ella has co-written The Novel Cure: an A-Z of Literary Remedies with Susan Elderkin, Also The Story Cure: How to Keep Kids Happy, Healthy and Wise co-written with Susan Elderkin. She has also written The Art of Mindful Reading: Embracing the Wisdom of Words, and 30 Second Literature as the sole writer.

Jerome Yau (moderator) is a bilingual communicator and public affairs strategist with broad experience in multicultural journalism, non-profit communications, public affairs and content management. He is currently a communications consultant specializing in simple communication, translation and copy editing.

Got Questions? Ask them here during the program.