Päivi Kosonen, PhD, is a trained bibliotherapist and bibliotherapeutic educator. She is also senior researcher of Comparative Literature at the Universities of Helsinki, Tampere and Jyväskylä.
Päivi’s literary scholarship has largely centered around autobiographical literature and autobiography’s genre history from Antiquity and the Middle Ages to the modern and late modern era. Her bibliotherapist work encompasses both therapeutic writing and therapeutic reading.
Along individual clients Päivi also tutors and instructs bibliotherapeutic developmental groups in different communal settings, mostly at the House of Literature in Turku. Her interest in the theoretical aspects of bibliotherapy is shown in her aspirations to construct a more delicate and critical bibliotherapeutic reading method – one, that can be applied more generally across healt care. Her most recent publications in this are include:
- Creative autobiography. From self-knowledge to the teaching of writing (2015), and
- Towards therapeutic reading. Part I: Identity work: Growth and development through reading (2018)
You can find out more about me at a prominent Italian bibliotherapy website right here!