On Laughter and Humor in Psychotherapy

Do psychologists have a sense of humor? This is difficult to determine. At first glance, laughter and humor have no place in the psychotherapeutic encounter, which rests on coping with mental pain, life's barriers and one's limitations, fet, evidence has appeared that psychotherapists-whether or not they confirm it-do use humor during therapeutic sessions. This article portrays humor's psychological and inter-personal functions and describes the various approaches to humor in psychotherapy.