Comedy Therapy Foundations Course for Clinicians
Virtual!
Comedy therapy is a group therapy approach focused on the treatment of loneliness, isolation, social anxiety, and self-criticism/perfectionism, grounded in the therapeutic power of play, creativity, and laughter.
If you are a member of the Regis University community (student, alumni, faculty, staff), email alison@comedyistherapy.com for a discount code and a slightly different version of the course.
Our virtual training course is designed to equip you with the necessary knowledge and resources to initiate and lead an improv comedy-based therapy group for adults from the ground up.
We are so excited to help you start your journey toward building and facilitating comedy therapy groups!
Comedy therapy provides a treatment for loneliness and isolation and creates connection and healing through the therapeutic power of play, creativity, and laughter.
This course provides everything you need as a clinician to begin facilitating an 8-week long comedy therapy experience for adults, from marketing and intake materials to session-by-session curricula.
The course also includes a two-hour video of a demonstration therapy group with student actors.
Anyone interested is welcome to enroll in this course, students and laypersons included!
By the end of this Comedy Is Therapy course, you will be able to…
Build and facilitate an 8-week group comedy therapy group for adults struggling with loneliness, isolation, social anxiety, self-criticism, and perfectionism.
Explain how and why improv comedy-based therapy is especially therapeutic for adults after the isolation of the pandemic.
Understand the theoretical underpinnings of improv comedy-based therapy.
Implement best practices when facilitating therapeutic improv sessions.
And more!
About the Course Facilitators:
Dr. Alison Sheesley, PhD, LPC, RPT, is a Visiting Assistant Professor who is excited to be staying at Regis University as an Assistant Professor full-time. She loves teaching and training counselors in the art of therapy! She is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Registered Play Therapist who focuses on attachment in her clinical work and continues to work in private practice as a play therapist for all ages. Improv comedy is play therapy for grown-ups! She remains in awe of the healing power of expressive arts and play and, personally, loves to write creatively and practice improv comedy.
Stephanie, M.S., Speech, Language, and Learning, is an improv performer and educator, instructional trainer and designer, and speech-language pathologist. A Boston native, Stephanie has frequented the stages of ImprovBoston and ImprovAsylum. During her 8 years in Chicago, she performed with various casts and house teams at iO Theater as well as Improvised Jane Austen. Inspired by her work as a speech-language pathologist - specializing in play-based treatment and communication therapy for people on the autism spectrum - Stephanie enjoys teaching clinicians from diverse fields how to integrate improv comedy into their therapeutic practice. Stephanie sees improv as the art of living and shared laughter as a force of unity.