The Use of Humor in Therapy Course

The Use of Humor in Therapy Course is organized by Professional Development Resources (PDR), Inc.

Course Description:
The Use of Humor in Therapy is a 2-hour online continuing education (CE) course that reviews the risks and benefits of using humor in therapy and the relevant historical controversies of this proposal.

Should therapists and counselors use humor as a therapeutic technique? If so, should they be formally trained in those procedures before their implementation? The paucity of rigorous empirical research on the effectiveness of this form of clinical intervention is exceeded only by the absence of any training for those practitioners interested in applying humor techniques. In this course a representative sample of its many advocates' recommendations to incorporate humor in the practice of psychological therapies is reviewed.

Therapeutic humor is defined, the role of therapists' personal qualities is discussed, and possible reasons for the profession's past resistance to promoting humor in therapy are described. Research perspectives for the evaluation of humor training are presented with illustrative examples of important empirical questions still needing to be answered.

Learning Objectives:
• Define therapeutic humor
• List at least 7 specific benefits of using humor in therapy
• List at least 5 specific risks of using humor in therapy
• Identify at least 3 pressing research needs regarding humor in therapy
• Name at least 4 scientific problematic issues with much of the past and current research on humor in therapy
• Name at least 3 major training issues regarding humor in therapy