World Laughter Tour, Inc

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Download Our General Information Brochure (click here) Download information in several different languages (click here) WHAT IS A LAUGHTER CLUB? By Steve Wilson (click here) Steve Wilson SOME HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES FROM STEVE WILSON I STARTED IN 1964 I have been working with therapeutic activity concepts since my first professional position as the psychologist at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, in 1964. In that era, "milieu therapy" along with concepts of therapeutic activity and "adjunctive therapies" were gaining popularity. Mostly it was framed around strategies for residential treatment, but it also found applications in outpatient treatment. Out of this era came a host of new therapies that were novel departures from the Freudian principals that had come to wide acceptance in the Western world. Experimentation led to the development of art therapy, music therapy, movement therapy, horticultural therapy, bibliotherapy, psychodrama, Esalen & Gestalt, EST, sensitivity training, Glasser's Reality Therapy, Redl & Wineman's programming for "Children Who Hate," and others. In California and Connecticut, drug treatment programs like Synanon and Daytop Lodge were fine-tuning these ideas for application with populations that had deeply entrenched issues. Modalities that we now think of as established, accepted practices, at that time were cutting edge and often viewed as suspect; and I was very taken with these exciting possibilities. In those days, through my own reading, attending self-help retreats & educational workshops, and meeting some of the key innovators, I continued to learn as much as I could about these novel approaches, and from time to time, I tried them in practice. Thanks to some great mentors and people who believed in me (even when I was unbelievable!) from 1967-1972, I was given tremendous latitude and support to apply these practices in positions at the Weeks School (juvenile residential treatment) in Vermont, the Women ’s Reformatory in Niantic, Connecticut, and as Director of the Nicholas Youth Center, a progressive & innovative residential program of Montgomery County Juvenile Court (Dayton, Ohio). TEACHING ACTIVITY THERAPY From 1973-1981, as Chairman of the Mental Health Technology at what is now Columbus State Community College (WLT's co-sponsor), I led a magnificent pioneering faculty team as we literally invented a curriculum to prepare a workforce that had not previously existed: the mid-level mental health generalist. We blended our understanding of several disciplines to create a dynamic program based on a three-part foundation of knowledge, skills, and values. With the guidance of some of the pre-eminent adjunctive therapists in the country, on staff at the prestigious Harding Psychiatric Hospital (Columbus, Ohio), we incorporated and taught activity therapy including activity planning, analysis and evaluation. To this day, the program produces a cadre of Associates Degree mental health workers every year who are in high demand; for more than 30 years the program has maintained a 99% employment rate of its graduates.

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