About me

Looking forward to sharing stories with you

“Waiting for a world to be unearthed by language, somebody is singing the place where silence is formed.”

Alejandra Pizarnik

Watch this video to know more about what happens in my sessions!

My Practice

Narrative Bibliotherapy delivers the benefits of Narrative Therapy using poems and stories.

Bibliotherapists use literature to support and promote mental health and emotional wellbeing. As a creative arts therapy, bibliotherapy helps individuals and communities to build and strengthen self-awareness, a sense of agency, connection and social cohesion.

Developed by Michael White and David Epston in the 1980’s, Narrative Therapy is the postmodern, social constructionist psychotherapeutic practice whose principles, ethics and techniques constitute the therapeutic core of my practice.

In my article ‘Bibliotherapy as Narrative Practice’ I explain this intersection in more detail.

My Story

I bring together mental health, literature and cultural criticism to support self-awareness, and promote wellbeing and connection using literary texts.

Supported and informed by extensive teaching and research experience at the University of Manchester and other institutions in the UK and abroad, I began to develop my bibliotherapeutic practice in 2011. I maintain a research profile, work with individuals, facilitate groups, deliver training, and offer mentoring, supervision and consultancy.

I hold an MA in English Literature, Culture & Modernity (London) and a PhD in Latin American Cultural Studies (Manchester). I undertook training and supervision in Narrative Therapy at The Institute of Narrative Therapy (UK), to which I am accredited.

I have lived in the UK for three decades, but I am from Argentina, where a part of my heart will always live.

Thank you, Mariana, for all you give to us through the workshops! Your selection of readings is always stimulating, and I particularly like how you lead the group. Sharing your library with us is so generous!

Dr Cecilia Batten, Consultant Psychiatrist & Psychoanalyst, Bristol, UK

It’s been such a transformative experience to meet with Mariana! Each session is a safe haven in which I feel supported and gently encouraged to play with the harmonies that emerge and resonate back and forth between my own stories, and the texts Mariana (quite magically, it seems, I must say) suggests. As the process continues to unfold, I’m struck by the power that being truly, deeply listened to has, and by how deeply healing it is to engage with narratives (others’, my own) in a space held with such care. Our work together has also greatly helped me to reflect upon my own work with others as a teacher and facilitator. I feel I am developing a more grounded, compassionate presence, with a growing awareness of all the threads that come into play, and with a growing confidence in the tools that I possess and that are continuing to evolve in me, under Mariana’s guidance, to responsibly hold and guide spaces where people can engage with their ideas, feelings and one another.

Cecilia Andreotti, English Teacher, Trainer & Facilitator, Buenos Aires, Argentina

These sessions are most enjoyable, thought provoking and invigorating. Awesome experience, thank you for facilitating.

Graciela Quiñones, Clinical Social Work & Psychotherapy, Connecticut, USA

Another catalyst for this thesis was my attendance at the narrative bibliotherapy sessions facilitated by Dr Mariana Casale during the pandemic. […] In those intellectually stimulating, non-hierarchical, rhizomatic, and deeply personal sessions, we were invited to engage with the texts not from the perspective of an authoritative interpretation but from our own embodied experiences and life perspectives. We could respond, perform and generate new conversations with freedom and respect rather than embarking on obscure, never-good-enough interpretations of the texts. These sessions […] helped me reclaim my right to read and a place of value for my writing.

Veronica Maurel, writer, PhD in Creative Writing, Nottingham, UK

Heartfelt thanks for inspiring me to find a way to take my great love of poetry deeper into my work and sharing this with souls who are usually denied its richness. As you can see, there were quite a few adaptations that were required, but I think the key to it being successful was channeling a little fraction of the poise, conviction, passion and generosity of spirit that you bring to your bibliotherapy work, as well as the very thoughtful way you use questions to guide an open exploration that goes deep into intrapsychic, interpersonal and even transpersonal space.

Joel Parker, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, NHS. London

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“They will later discover that just because it displays its fury doesn’t mean the sea—or the world—exists. That’s why each word says what it says and more and something else besides.”

Alejandra Pizarnik