About Pages & Play: The Power of Bibliotherapy and Play Therapy on Young Minds
Hi! It's Bijal from Book Therapy and Freya from Play Refuge, and we are SO excited to introduce our new six-part podcast series, Pages and Play: The Power of Bibliotherapy and Play Therapy on Nurturing Young Minds which brings together bibliotherapy and play therapy to explore how books and play can shape young minds.
Each episode blends science, stories, book recommendations, and practical play tips to support adults and children. The series tackles key topics including building emotional literacy, embracing diversity, reducing anxiety, navigating grief, and raising teens, offering real-world strategies for parents, educators, and anyone curious.
Please do subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss an episode!
Look forward to having you on board :)
Freya and Bijal x
#bibliotherapy #playtherapy #podcast #parentingpodcast
Episode 6: Supporting Teens and Young Adults Through Play and Books
In this final episode of Pages in Play, we explore the transformative journey from adolescence into young adulthood—and how bibliotherapy and play therapy can support young people through this complex stage. Teenagers are navigating big questions around identity, belonging, relationships, and purpose. In this episode, we unpack how stories and play create safe, powerful spaces for self-exploration, emotional processing, and connection. We discuss: Why adolescence may extend into the ear...
24 Apr 2026
Episode 5: Navigating Grief and Loss Through Bibliotherapy and Play Therapy
In this episode of Pages and Play, Freya and I discuss how bibliotherapy and play therapy can support children and adults navigating grief and loss, reviewing grief models including Kübler-Ross’s stages (noting its origins and nonlinearity), Lois Tonkin’s “growing around grief” metaphor (fried egg), and Shelly Gilbert’s upward-spiral model. We discuss how literature and poetry act as emotional translators through identification, catharsis, and insight, and introduce the “mirrors, windows, doo...
17 Apr 2026
Episode 4: Supporting Anxious Children Through Play and Books
Hi everyone, we are half way through the series already! I hope you have enjoyed the first three episodes to date, and we are delighted to bring this fourth episode of “Pages and Play” where Freya and I explore how bibliotherapy and play therapy can support a child by enabling them to externalize their fears through story and symbolic play, and support their nervous-system regulation and emotional literacy. We discuss research from Jonathan Haidt on the decline of play-based childhood a...
10 Apr 2026
Episode 3: Building Belonging Through Identification, Representation, Diversity, and Inclusion in Books and Play
Hi everyone! It's Friday again and we are excited to publish the third episode of “Pages and Play”. This episode explores how bibliotherapy and play therapy support young minds through identification, representation, diversity, and inclusion. The discussion outlines bibliotherapy stages: identification (“shock of recognition”), representation across identities, diversity of perspectives, and inclusion as true belonging, with research noting fiction builds empathy, reduces prejudice, and...
3 Apr 2026
Episode 2: Developing Emotional Literacy in Children Through Books and Play
The episode of “Pages and Play” focuses on emotional literacy as central to bibliotherapy and play therapy, emphasising that children need language and safety to understand and express feelings, and that adults’ own emotional awareness is vital. We discuss how books and play provide safe ways to explore big emotions (anger, grief, anxiety, jealousy) and reduce shame, supporting co-regulation and later self-regulation. We reference theories and research from Claude Steiner, Daniel Golema...
27 Mar 2026
Episode 1: The Transformative Power of Story and Play on Childhood Development
In this first podcast episode, we introduce bibliotherapy and child-centred play therapy, explaining how stories and play support children’s emotional, psychological, and social development. We discuss the neuroscience and research behind how play and storytelling build neural pathways, executive function, language, emotional literacy, and agency. We also share our personal career journeys into the fields, suggest relevant book recommendations, and preview our next episode on emotional ...
19 Mar 2026
Coming Soon! A Six-Part Series on Bibliotherapy and Play Therapy
Hi! It's Bijal from Book Therapy and Freya from Play Refuge, and we are SO excited to introduce our new six-part podcast series, Pages and Play: The Power of Bibliotherapy and Play Therapy on Nurturing Young Minds which brings together bibliotherapy and play therapy to explore how books and play can shape young minds. Each episode blends science, stories, book recommendations, and practical play tips to support adults and children. The series tackles key topics including building emotional li...
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