"The art of medicine consists of keeping the patient amused while nature heals the disease." Voltaire

"Doctor I have a ringing in my ears." "Don't answer!" - Henny Youngman

"A smile is the shortest distance between two people."

GENERAL COURSE DESCRIPTION The word humor derives from the Latin word "umor," which means fluid. Humoring someone originally meant "balancing their fluids," thus putting them in a good mood. While not fully embraced by psychotherapists, the health benefit of humor has been known for a long time. It has been known for a long time that a good hearty laugh can help to reduce stress, lower blood pressure, elevate mood, boost the immune system, improve brain functioning, protect the heart, make people feel closer to others and foster instant relaxation. Humor is cathartic, can reduce fear and anxiety, help people cope better, stop rumination, offer alternative perspectives and simply make people feel good. Research has shown that laughter decreases stress hormones and increases infection-fighting antibodies. It is an effective way to introduce alternative explanations or perspectives, which can decrease the client's fear, worries, rumination and anxieties. Humor Therapy is a term applied to any attempt to use humor or fun to advance therapeutic goals and alleviate people's psychological ailments. Diagnostically, assessing the client's use of humor has also been part of humor therapy. Goethe wrote, "People never show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable." Indeed, many experts agree that the kind of humor people use shows a lot about the kind of people they are. Humor has also been effectively used as a tentative way of introducing interpretations that may be resisted or rejected by the client. In spite of the fact that humor and laughter have tremendous clinical potential, very little attention has been given to the subject. Graduate and post-graduate education has beaten humor out of us. We have been taught to be serious at all times, as a sign of our professionalism. As a result, we have abandoned one of the oldest healing methods, the way of humor. This unique course provides therapists with an understanding of what humor is, how it has been defined, describes the different types of humor, articulates its known physiological and emotional benefits, identifies its clinical use as well as teaching therapists how to clinically utilize it in ethical and effective ways. The course is intended to give therapists not only the knowledge and understanding of humor and its application to psychotherapy but also the courage to lighten up when appropriate and use humor in therapeutic ways.