Most of Ella Berthoud’s patients are young professionals: cosmopolitan careerists in their 30s or 40s. Some are burdened with anxiety. Some feel adrift in their mid-lives. Many are approaching rites of passage: a first child, retirement, a gap year in India, the death of a spouse. But others have more singular afflictions. One patient was hooked on chick lit, and “terrified of reading anything more demanding.” A young couple was eager to rekindle a fizzling romance. Berthoud—a London-based “bibliotherapist”—has heard it all. In each case, the prescription is the same: Read a book.
via Do books have the power to heal? | Macleans.ca.
The post also includes a transcript of today’s (September 10, 2013) live chat with Ella Berthoud.
infophile 
Most certainly they do.
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I agree! From personal experience I believe books are therapeutic – calming, immersive and allow you to focus on something other than the difficulties in your life.
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I think they can all kinds of other things as well. As a child growing up in what I can only describe as an insane world, books gave me glimpses of normal life and normal people. They gave me hope that life might one day be different.
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Your experience is a great example why access to books and education is sooooo important.
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