LAUGHTER THERAPY: HISTORY, TECHNIQUES, BENEFITS - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The laughter therapy is an alternative form of psychological therapy based on the use of laughter and humor to improve the mood of patients and alleviate symptoms of various mental disorders. Despite being a relatively unknown type of therapy, there is fairly strong evidence supporting its effectiveness.

Humor has been used practically throughout history to improve people's moods. However, it is believed that laughter therapy as such appeared in the 70s of the last century in the United States, when Norman Cousins ​​published his experience overcoming the effects of arthritis using laughter as the main weapon.

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From this moment, the use of humor in a therapeutic way began to gain more and more followers, and multitudes of experts began to investigate its applications. Today there are different forms of laughter therapy, based on all kinds of techniques aimed at improving the physical and mental health of patients.

Laughter therapy is still a relatively unknown practice, but in some countries such as the United States or India it has achieved great recognition. In this article we will see in detail what it consists of.

History

The idea that laughter could be beneficial in improving mood has been popular throughout history. However, it took until the second half of the 20th century for some researchers to come up with the idea of ​​using this natural medicine to also improve our physical health.

One of the first scientists to be interested in this topic was Dr. William Fry, a professor of psychology at Stanford University who in 1964 proposed the creation of a study group on the healing properties of laughter. Despite the lack of funds at the time due to the Vietnam War, Fry began researching the subject on his own.

Still, the subject was relegated to the background until the 1970s, at which point a Saturday Review editor named Norman Cousins ​​decided to tell his story. Since 1964 this writer suffered from ankylosing spondylitis, a rare version of degenerative arthritis, which is usually fatal for those who suffer from it.

Norman cousins

However, when Cousins ​​told his story his health had only improved. Her secret was this: the use of humor to improve her physical condition. According to him, 10 minutes of deep laughter a day helped him sleep better than even morphine, the most powerful sedative drug around, could.

Due to the fame that his story achieved, and his book Anatomy of a disease (1979), from this moment on, scientific experiments began to be carried out on the power of laughter and humor to improve the health status of patients with different diseases..

In the following decades, many studies were carried out on laughter and its healing power, all of them from different perspectives. Thus, nowadays fields as diverse as neuroscience, medicine or clinical psychology have tried to apply the discoveries of laughter therapy, achieving surprising results for many.

What is laughter therapy based on?

The most important premise on which laughter therapy is based is the following: laughter, regardless of whether it is caused by real reasons or if it is forced, has very beneficial effects on our physical and mental health. For this reason, this type of therapy seeks to promote humor as much as possible, and in case of not being able to achieve laughter in natural ways, the patient is taught to imitate it.

Based on this idea, laughter therapy can take very different forms depending on the context.

Types

Basically we can find three different versions: the one based on true humor, the one that focuses on faking laughter in the most realistic way possible, and the one that tries to create a safe space for humor to appear naturally.

The first form of laughter therapy seeks to make patients laugh through the use of classic humorous devices. Thus, in the sessions (which can be individual or in groups) the participants can listen to comedy shows, act in humorous works or even watch movies or series that lead them to laugh out loud.

On the other hand, the second type of laughter therapy seeks to obtain the benefits of this natural phenomenon without having to use humor for it. Also known as 'laughter yoga', this type of therapy teaches patients to imitate this event using different body and relaxation techniques.

Finally, laughter therapy can also involve the use of relaxation and physical exercise techniques, which, combined with the creation of a safe space and the use of different types of talk therapy, can help patients to be able to laugh more easily. during your day to day.

Laughter therapy exercises / activities

The most used laughter therapy techniques are:

Release the negative

This technique is performed using a balloon and there are several variants. The subject must inflate a balloon; when he is done he will let go of it, letting it deflate, and will have to say something that he wants to disappear from his life or environment.

Eliminate the negative

In this case, the patient ties the balloon with the shoelaces. The therapist plays music and the participants must start dancing by dragging the balloon, trying to make it explode before the song ends.

Tense to relax

In this technique, patients must contract their muscles and walk quickly, moving from end to end around the room. Likewise, they should try to verbalize their name without loosening their muscles. Finally, the body is loosening little by little.

Phoning laugh technique

The patients lie on the floor and the therapist instructs exercises to induce different types of laughter directly.

Tickle Technique

Finally, although it is not possible in all cases, some therapists choose to induce laughter directly through tickling.

Benefits

We have all experienced the most immediate benefits of laughter on our own skin: greater sense of well-being, more positive emotions, and generally greater joy. However, proponents of laughter therapy claim that the effects of this phenomenon go much further.

Thus, according to some research, laughing deeply can usually alleviate the symptoms of many serious mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety or even schizophrenia. This would occur due to the fact that with laughter a large amount of endorphins and neurotransmitters are released, thus regulating the activity of the brain.

On the other hand, it seems that laughter also has a very positive effect on our body. The effects of laughter therapy in this sense affect ailments of all kinds, from the most common to others much more serious.

Thus, continued laughter includes benefits such as the normalization of tension in people who had it very high, the reduction of all kinds of aches and pains, the reduction in the risk of suffering diseases such as cancer or cardiovascular problems, or the improvement of the insomnia and other stress-related physical problems.

References

1. "Laughter Therapy History: Who, What, When" in: Laughter Online University. Retrieved on: April 21, 2020 from Laughter Online University: laughteronlineuniversity.com.
2. "Laughter therapy" in: The Guardian. Retrieved on: April 21, 2020 from The Guardian: theguardian.com.
3. "Laughter Therapy: What is it and how is it beneficial?" in: Cognifit. Retrieved on: April 21, 2020 from Cognifit: blog.cognifit.com.
4. "What is laughter therapy?" in: How Stuff Works. Retrieved on: April 21, 2020 from How Stuff Works: science.howstuffworks.com.
5. "Laughter yoga" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: April 21, 2020 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.