Is Humor Important in Therapy Despite Having Hard Stuff To Deal With?

Doing this feels like a waste of time and money to me. When the t I have seen does it, I think it is for her not me. I would rather just finish it but she is not up to it.
That you like it too is an interesting concept.

I don't think we tell jokes in session but so often the humorous parts of my issues make us both laugh. T's laugh is very nurturing and inclusive and comforting. It feels good. It makes me feel happy.

I am a laughing beast. I could not stand a T who is humorless and does not appreciate good dark humor.

Yes, my T and I have shared a number of funny moments in therapy, even at very serious sessions. Humor is just mixed in here and there, and it feels quite natural, like other relationships I have.

Yeah, my T and I share a quirky sense of humor that's very spontaneous. Humor isn't something that he uses as a specific technique -- it's just become a very natural part of our relationship as it's evolved over the years.

I think humor is DEF vital in therapy. In my session today we did trauma work, although its serious stuff, he seems to make a point in making me laugh. I think it keeps me in the present moment, if he didnt make me laugh I would dissociate A LOT.

today i had a tough session...we talked about my heightened ptsd & grief over the death of a fellow officer (the park ranger out in mt ranier)...so very sad. ...but we also talked about my new tattoo....so it was a very mixed session...she liked the tat but said she could never, ever, ever do that...i think the 'icky" word slipped out of her mouth...i called her "such a mom" & it kind of went down hill after that...

so yeah after a very serious, tough session of memories & ptsd work..we slipped into some serious name calling...

once when i went to see my pdoc who at that time was very formal..by the book boundary wise etc...i was walking in the hallway with him to his office & mentioned i had gotten a huge giant screen tv as a hand me down from a friend..& said it was larger than me...without skipping a beat he said "well that's not very hard...you're kind of short ya know!" another doc was in the hallway & shot him the look of omg what have you done & said..

i calmly looked back at him & said.."gee ya think? really i am short? damn, better add that to my list of serious issues!"

i have to or , need humor.

Very important. My T and i laugh all the time evwn tho we do extensive trauma work.

I wish I could have laughed today...
Bluemountains

My T and I are the same way. Most of the time it's serious work, but occasionally we'll find something that we can laugh about.

T and I laugh a lot. I think we genuinely enjoy being together, and we share a sense of humor. I think there have been some sessions when we haven't been able to find our way to a place where we can get more light-hearted for a minute, but we usually can.

I love to laugh with my T.

When I'm stressed, I can be really, really funny. My husband and several friends keep urging me to do stand up comedy. I had one T that totally didn't work for me. One of the problems was that she was so busy laughing that she didn't listen to me at all. I think she thought I was not really depressed or suffering because I was so funny. When we had a meeting that included my husband, he told her something I had said to him about how depressed and suicidal I was, and she YELLED at me about making him feel bad by saying that. ????

Then, the next person I saw, I mentioned what had happened with the female T, and then HE did this stony face thing and wouldn't laugh EVER. My current T will laugh and then address what I said. If it's in the form of a funny question, he'll ask me if that's an actual question for him. I love his laugh. He's pretty funny as well, but tends not to joke much.

I think humour is important in therapy as long as both parties are into it, and it doesn't interfere with the serious side of therapy.

I really like my current T and we laugh a lot. I usually make most of the jokes, but he likes my dry sense of humour and it's important to me that he likes me. Unfortunately the humour has gotten in the way of any seriousness. I didn't realise this until recently. I knew I was doing my usual make-a-joke-out-of-things-that-hurt to feel less vulnerable, but I thought he saw through that to how bad things were underneath...apparently not.

I finally worked up the courage to talk to him about this today and he cancelled my session So I'm going to have to summon up the courage again next week now, and then be more authentic in session from now on. I wouldn't want there to be no humour in therapy though. Sometimes things are just so tragic that it's actually funny.

*Willow*

Now wait, do I have this right? Your therapist misuses humor to accomplish humiliation, which she considers a therapeutic tool? stop dog, why are you going to her? Does she actually use the word "humiliation"?

It's been SO helpful reading all of your responses. T and I do joke around everynow and then as well. At first T seemed SO serious and it caused me to be scared of her. I didn't feel comfortable. After about 5-6 months she seemed more laid back and I started to joke around with her and realized that she has a very good sense of humor. We laugh at eachother's jokes even though I think sometimes the jokes are really lame. I grew up w/ parents who hated it when my siblings and I would joke around so sometimes I apologize to T stating "Ok, I'll stop being silly now." T doesn't say anything or else she says "It's ok to be silly." Oh, T......

Huh? That's not like any database design process I've ever used.

What was in the bottle?

Back in the olden days when people were still doing hierarchical / hieroglyphical...

T and I do laugh in sessions together. We both share a sarcastic, witty sense of humor, so it works well for us - and I'm sure it helps build our relationship. There are times when I've felt so low, and T tries to use humor to support me....sometimes it really helps, knowing how well he knows me, that humor would work.....and other times, I just can't bring myself to even smile, let alone laugh.

T and I are a good match though when it comes to humor, and I love that about us.