The healing power of laughter is well documented with personal experiences and research experiments. Besides directly supporting wellness, laughter facilitates our connection with inner healing wisdom with our Inner Physician.

Unfortunately, when we get sick, particularly when we stay sick with chronic diseases for a long period of time we tend to lose our sense of humor. Developing coping skills, we may become accustomed and even attached to suffering which may be reinforced by the atmosphere of healthcare, religion institutions and even our friends, family and the community.

It may be difficult to relearn laughter while chronically sick. Therefore, I offer a different, practical and proven path to laughter trough play, which we all mastered in early childhood while learning to walk, run, bicycle, relating to classmates, learning basic life skills. Which play? The one which we play just as the part of being alive, particularly when we are sick, particularly when we are facing life challenges, e.g. the current pandemics. It is play of improvisation! You agree that we improvise most of the time, why not do that with more skills, as the deep, meaningful, playful self-healing care.

I am teaching patients to apply the basic principles of the theatrical/ comedic improvisation (improv) to their Self-Healing Care. Among those principles are:

• unconditional Yes followed by the productive, resourceful And
• everything we face is a gift which we accept and expand on it. This means that we may reject continuation of the disease as the expression of that expanding after we are capable to accept the disease first. As stated by mystics, the disease does not go away until it teaches us necessary lessons
• we have everything needed to improvise, which translates into: we have everything we need for Self-Healing Care

When we are stuck in experiencing chronic diseases, we express the attitude of resistance, regret, fear, and learned helplessness- al summarized by the “No” attitude. Improv bring new perspective of playing with “Yes” attitude with humor, laughter, improvising the Self-Healing Care routines into daily life, breaking from the confinements of chronic diseases.

I teach and coach my patients in recognizing improv patterns in their lives and to turn spontaneous improv into playful yet powerful routines of Self-Healing Care (SHC). This is the main focus of my practice; to help patients mastering of what they do, what they know, what they help in their intuitive wisdom – all for SHC. I incorporate improv into office visit, combine it with other technique and also offer it to group. I don’t intent to turn my patient into improvisor, rather into self-healers who are skillful in using improv principles for their SHC.

I have been intensively trained in theatrical and comedic improv (many global venues and teachers) and in medical improv (The Northwestern University, Chicago). Improv is my favorite form of my SHC.

In addition to improv principle I coach patients in experiencing humor which is has empowering and healing impact. Recognizing humorous opportunities in the least expected places , e,g, doctor’s office or one’s own disease. As stated by Voltaire: “ The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” Fort that part my coaching I use my skills of the Certified Laughter Leader