Reading Fiction Together to Support Reflective Practice and Recovery in Serious Mental Illness: The Value of Book Club

Objective: To illustrate the value of reading fiction as a group supervision practice focused on supporting recovery-oriented psychotherapy for individuals experiencing serious mental illness (SMI). Method: Detailed practical description of the practice and conceptual analysis of the proposed value of using fiction as a group supervision method. Findings: Authors suggest that the supervisory practice is a novel component of clinical supervision, and offers value in its ability to promote reflective practice, to establish intersubjectivity among peers and supervisory relationships, and may serve for some to counter risks of clinician burnout. Conclusions and Implications for Practice: Participating in a book club that reads fiction as an adjunctive experience to supervision can promote recovery-oriented psychotherapy in four key ways: including its promotion of reflection on self, patients, and the experience of therapy for psychosis, its promotion of reflection on recovery and barriers to recovery, its ability to offer an experiential model of intersubjectivity, and its value in supporting peer consultation and helping offset clinician burnout.