Something to laugh about: Humor as a characteristic of effective therapists.

Abstract

The final draft of this chapter was updated and approved by the study participants, especially regarding whether their confidentiality had been adequately protected.

Learning the subtle dance: The experience of therapists who deliver mentalisation‐based therapy for borderline personality disorder

“…Therapists' experience of positive emotions within the group focused specifically on their own use of humour as a strategy for helping service users to cope with distress in the group, and for coping with therapists’ own emotions. Humour as a psychotherapeutic tool and a mechanism of change has long been recognised (e.g., Bloch et al, 1983; Franzini, 2001; Knox et al, 2017; Mann, 1991) and discussed in relation to MBT (Brooks et al, 2020; Midgley et al, 2017), although the technique may not come naturally to all therapists and carries a host of risks (Franzini, 2001). Humour must fit with the therapists' personality and be responsive to the needs of the service user (Knox et al, 2017), otherwise there is the potential that service users could misunderstand humour.…”

“…Humour as a psychotherapeutic tool and a mechanism of change has long been recognised (e.g., Bloch et al, 1983; Franzini, 2001; Knox et al, 2017; Mann, 1991) and discussed in relation to MBT (Brooks et al, 2020; Midgley et al, 2017), although the technique may not come naturally to all therapists and carries a host of risks (Franzini, 2001). Humour must fit with the therapists' personality and be responsive to the needs of the service user (Knox et al, 2017), otherwise there is the potential that service users could misunderstand humour. In the context of MBT, humour runs the risk of introducing iatrogenic harm by taking service users into a state of psychic equivalence (‘because I feel it strongly, I believe it's real’) if they overreact whilst under increased affective arousal, when misinterpreting humour.…”

Client laughter in psychodynamic psychotherapy: Not a laughing matter.

“…Perhaps some therapists are more comfortable and some are less comfortable with laughter and thus influence their clients' laughter behavior. Similarly, Knox and Hill (2017) found that therapist personal factors influenced their use of humor.…”

Humor in professional coaching: a literature review and research agenda

“…When dealing with negative feelings, humor proves effective in mitigating negativity by fostering positive emotions, as demonstrated by functional magnetic resonance imaging studies that probe brain activity ( Wu et al, 2021 ). In theoretical psychotherapy papers, humor is linked to the establishment of a strong working alliance between therapist and client ( Meyer, 2007 ; Beermann and Samson, 2012 ; Sultanoff, 2013 ; Thomas et al, 2015 ; Gladding and Drake Wallace, 2016 ; Knox et al, 2017 ). Evidence for this connection is discerned in the positive impact of humor resulting from shared laughter, which enhances social bonding ( Silva et al, 2017 ).…”

“… Irving (2019) states that humor nurtures a client’s capacity for playfulness and establishes a secure space to play within therapy. Moreover, humor is identified as a competence of effective therapists; in a study involving interviews with 11 therapists, those who judiciously employed humor demonstrated more positive therapeutic effects ( Knox et al, 2017 ). In addition, the fields of counseling and mentoring acknowledge the mental (relieving tensions and gaining new insights) and physical (activating muscles, increasing blood flow, and releasing endorphins) benefits of humor ( Shaughnessy and Wadsworth, 1992 ; Goldin and Bordan, 1999 ; Love, 2013 ; Gladding and Drake Wallace, 2016 ).…”