(Ivanhoe Newswire)-- A new study shows a laugh signifies more than humor and ridicule, at least
when used in therapy. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston
have found the first physiological evidence of the role of laughter during
psychotherapy.Carl Marci, M.D., lead author of the study, says many therapists are caught
up in the old notion that using laughter in therapy is inappropriate. But, he
says, current research shows laughter is more about communicating emotion than
about humor. Even more, when patients and therapists laugh together, it
magnifies the emotional intensity and creates rapport between them.
Researchers videotaped therapeutic sessions and took physiological
measurements of both members of 10 patient-therapist pairs where patients were
being treated for outpatient mood and anxiety disorders.
There were 145 episodes of laughter during the sessions. On average, patients
laughed more than twice as often as therapists. However, patients' physiological
response when therapists did laugh showed they felt validation of the emotions
they were expressing.
Overall, laughter showed to produce physiological responses in patients and
therapists, with arousal strongest when both laughed together.
Dr. Marci says he was surprised to find how common laughter was in therapy.
He says: "Taken together with the current understanding of laughter outside of
psychotherapy, our findings suggest that the patient who is laughing is trying
to say more than has been expressed verbally to the therapist. Laughter is an
indication that the subject is emotionally charged."
This study, the researchers say, supports the need for therapists to pay
closer attention to when patients laugh during therapy and for them to explore
the meaning of what is said immediately before the laughter.
