The wellness industry is one of the fastest growing markets, with an estimated global value of US$6.3 trillion in 2023. Gen Z and millennials are driving much of this growth, spending more on wellness products and services than older generations.

The challenge, however, is that the wellness industry has few guardrails, allowing social media influencers and media personalities to position themselves as experts on well-being — sometimes without scientific backing.

In a space where personal opinions and untested strategies are often presented as facts, it can be difficult to distinguish between helpful guidance and misleading information.

One form of self-help that has gained attention is bibliotherapy, which uses books to support well-being. If you’re looking to improve your well-being, you may find yourself at your local bookstore or library scouring the shelves for a self-help book.

The self-help category is one of the largest non-fiction book categories. But not all self-help books contain strategies that are actually tested to determine their efficacy.

With over 15,000 self-help books published yearly in the United States alone, sifting through so many books can be challenging.

As a professor of psychology and founder of a book club that selects........

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