Two speakers discuss how laughter works as therapy in counseling, building trust and compassion between therapist and client. They explore why shared laughter creates connection and what it does for emotional healing.
So one of the things I notice in you in talking about the healing qualities that a counselor brings to the table is your laughter. When you understand something is so vibrant and then it's such a delicious giggle that it sees many times when you're being unfair, or it sees when something is off. But that laughter in that giggling form is never judgmental. It actually is kind, and it's the opposite of judgment. There's a kind of acceptance, there's a certain kind of compassion. And I think it's very important that you recognize that as a healing force that you can give to your clients. And in your personal life, whenever you can get even a flashpoint of the laughter, you know something else is up and you're close to a healing insight. And if your cognitive mind can join the laughter, then you've merged your intelligence and your higher wisdom that comes through your humor. And that's just such a beautiful healing dimension that you uniquely bring as a counselor and as a person. I think that you're touching on that, that oftentimes I can see the absurdity in my own emotions. And sometimes emotions are absurd. And how would, how would, as a therapist, how would we go about working with a client to recognize that absurdity in an appropriate way? Well, it depends on the development of a client. You pick the wrong client could backfire and they might feel a little offended. So you're looking to see, number one, is this client showing you the awareness that they know they're being overly self involved? Is this a client that I have a really good rapport with, so they trust me enough to where if I laugh, they're going to know I'm laughing with them and for them, not against them. And if it's one of those clients, then it's just delicious. Then it's just such a delight. And it's a form of lovingness. It really is. So it has to do with the rapport and the development of the client and the trust that's been developed. And you ask yourself in some kind of quiet way, do I have the connection with this client to be able to just be spontaneously free in my laughter? I see that it's really powerful to be able to laugh at the client, because I can see how when someone laughs with me that understands me, how loved I feel and understood I feel. Exactly. And at first you said laughed at, and then you went with laughed with. And it is laughing with. It's laughing with, it is laughing with. It's like you're joining their heart. And in a certain way, I hear your giggle is. Isn't it absurd how serious we take our feelings and how serious we take our needs and how carried away we get with ourselves? And you recognize you're one of us, so you're not even making it about them. You're saying us, we're human. We're human. And so there's something universal about it, and so you're not making it about the client as such. It's just, we, as human beings, aren't we funny?
