SHENETWORK SHEP 11

P 12NETWORK SHENETWORK tephanie is Director and Founder of Laughology with over eight years experience working in the public and private sector. She has an unsurpassed reputation for designing and delivering laughter and humour interventions for businesses, practitioners, clients, young people and adults. And she was recently invited by the University of Chester to develop and deliver the UK's first MA course in Humour in the Workplace and will soon complete an MA on The Psychological Benefits of Laughter, Humour and Personal Growth. Laughology is a unique concept that draws upon the thought process of humour. Allowing individuals and organisations to look at challenges in a new light using cognitive humour processing to move forward and gain control in difficult times. Enhancing emotional intelligence and well- being and improving performance. Having left Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in 2002 Stephanie began performing stand- up comedy, firing her fascination with the power of laughter and humour. After attending Dr Kataria's Laughter Leader course Stephanie was accepted as a participant in world-renowned, Dr Patch Adams's Health Care Intensive Training in the USA. She worked with Patch exploring the relationship between health, humour, community and the arts. Stephanie says " Laughter has always played a large role in my life so much so that at the age of 22 after graduating from Performing Arts University I began working as a stand- up comedian. " At university I studied the connection between arts and healthcare and having read the bookDr. Patch Adamsabout a pioneering doctor who introduced humour and arts into healthcare – I became fascinated with the physiological and psychological effects of laughter and humour and the link between the two. I began to realise how powerful humour in my own life for more positive response to S Meet Stephanie Davies, a woman who is one of the UK's leading voices in laughter and humour Laugh and the world laughs with you