Ethnic Diversity and the Use of Humor in Counseling: Appropriate or Inappropriate?

✍ Scribed by Mary Finn Maples; Peggy Dupey; Edil Torres-Rivera; Loan T. Phan; Linwood Vereen; Michael Tlanusta Garrett

• Publisher: American Counseling Association
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 93 KB
• Volume: 79
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1556-6678
• DOI: 10.1002/j.1556-6676.2001.tb01943.x

✦ Synopsis

Humor can reflect the healthy release of feelings during the counseling process, the type of emotional release that leads to significant therapeutic gains. It can also be a disturbing distraction, possibly causing early termination, if used inappropriately. Counselors need to exert particular caution before attempting to apply humor in working with a client from a culture different from the counselor's. This article explores the available literature and offers contributions on the subject from 4 “ethnically diverse” perspectives. Finally, a general approach based on existential theory is presented along with 5 general conditions to ascertain the appropriate use of humor.