Keynote: The Amuse System: How to prevent hardening of the attitude and utilize laughter in therapy to counter stress induced dysfunctional eating behaviors.

Carson, Ralph

Saturday, February 9, 2019: 1:45 PM-3:30 PM

Desert Ballroom (JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa)

Background: The use of humor and laughter in psychotherapy has great potential in a treatment setting for eating disorders. Laughter provides levity in broaching sensitive topics, stimulating insights, diffusing anger, and relating to patients in a more intimate way. The intension of this presentation is to communicate the value of bringing humor into the therapy session, to provide an assortment of skills and tools to implement humor; and to promote humor as a technique for achieving recovery in the eating disorder population

Objectives:

List five benefits of bringing laughter into the therapy session
Design a “humor tool kit” to generate humor as an alternative to dysfunctional eating behaviors.
Discuss the genetics and neuroscientific foundations of laughter
Work with patients on how to develop a sense of humor
Identify the various questionnaire designed to appraise a patient’s humor aptitude.
Explain the therapeutic benefit of laughter in individual, group, and activity sessions.
Illustrate how laughter therapy for depression restructures neurological pathways

The Science of laughter and humor
1. Trans-species; pancultural and instinctive
2. Genetics, gamma waves and neuroscience
3. Relationships and social skills
4. Contagious
History: Laughter is the best medicine
Bringing Laughter into the therapy session
1. Counters stress induced eating; an antidote for emotional eating
2. Corrects faulty hunger and fullness signals and improves awareness
3. Self-soothing and an alternative to comfort foods and compulsive behaviors
4. Coping tool
5. Humor and the low weight anorectic patient
6. Improving self-esteem
Learning to have a sense of humor
1. Humor questionnaires and assessment
2. Creating a humor “tool kit”
Laughter combined with joyful movement
1. Laughter yoga™; Laughercise®
2. Evidenced based benefit to movement therapy
3. Laughter physiology: internal jogging

We are all very familiar with the basic five senses: taste, touch, sight, sound and smell. But all too often we forget that we actually have a sixth sense, that being a sense of humor. The use of humor and laughter in psychotherapy has great potential in a treatment setting for eating disorders, but little is known, and most is based on theory. The issue comes down to what is it about laughter that is healing? It is about how humor and laughter are used to confront life challenges by reducing stress and creating social bonds more than the laughing itself and the release of endorphins. Laughter provides levity in broaching sensitive topics, stimulates insights, diffuses anger, and relates to patients in a more intimate way. Humor is an innate tool for coping, an antidote for stressful situations and a relief from nervous energy. The stress producing hormones cortisol and norepinephrine are reduced. Self-confidence and intelligence are heightened as laughter stimulates creativity and problem solving. Generating humor is not limited to those who seem naturally to be more humorous --- it can be taught. There is a basic premise that self-initiated and stimulated laughter done in a group turns into contagious laughter. This presentation intends to communicate the value of bringing humor into the therapy session, to provide an assortment of skills and tools to implement humor; and to promote humor as a technique for achieving recovery in the eating disorder population.

Presenter:

Ralph Carson, LD, RD, PhD

Ralph Carson, LD, RD, PhD is a nutritionist and exercise physiologist with over 40 years of experience currently Senior Clinical and Scientific Advisor for the Eating Recovery Center and BED Program and a consultant for Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Center in Hattiesburg, MS. He is an active member on the board of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp) and author of The Brain Fix: What’s the Matter with Your Gray Matter, over 20 scientific published articles and several text book chapters.

Co-presenters:

Brian Kohatsu, n/a

Brian Kohatsu has been a media producer for more than 30 years. He has worked with a variety of unique clients, primarily treatment centers that specialize in eating disorders. For over ten years now, he has been recording the nationally recognized professionals who present at IAEDP. In 2003, Brian began a second career in comedy. First as the co-host of a nationally syndicated radio program, then as an improv performer, and finally as a stand-up comedian. Brian was a finalist for Arizona’s Funniest Comedian and runner-up in the Clean Comedy Challenge. He performs throughout the country for churches, casinos, comedy clubs and corporate events. In addition to performing comedy, Brian teaches comedy classes, team building workshops and improv camps for teens. In early 2018, Brian was proud to be part of the Hospice of the Valley Dementia Fellowship teaching improv skills to dementia caregivers.

and Cassy Taverna, MSW, LCSW

Cassy Taverna is originally from Boston, Massachusetts. She earned a BA in psychology at Bay Path College in Massachusetts in 2013 and a MSW degree from UNC-Wilmington in North Carolina in 2016. She is passionate about macro-level issues like transformative justice, advocacy for child welfare and other contemporary social justice issues. Cassy spent two years (2008-2010) serving the West and Southside of Chicago, IL with the AmeriCorps organization, City Year where she tutored and lead an after-school program for elementary school-aged children as well as participated in community development and civic engagement projects. While residing in Chicago, Cassy decided to integrate her interest in humor and became involved in improvisation groups while writing comedically on the side. Cassy has performed stand-up comedy routines for both small and large audiences.

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