ABSTRACT
My experience with the International Congress of Applied Psychology (Morgan, 2008) has led me to appreciate the humor that often is used as a test of trust among indigenous people such as the Maori in New Zealand, the Senoi in Malaysia, the Aboriginal People of Australia, and the original tribes of the Native Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans. For them and for those clients from any culture where humor and irony are to be found, the initial rapport so essential to psychotherapy can be enhanced as a treatment for either genuine or factitious grief. However, therapist humor is contraindicated when its timing is inappropriate, merely sustains a client’s defensiveness, or is incongruent with the client’s emotional tone.
