Mental Health Programs

Keynotes
Paul offers keynotes to organizations whose members include therapists, psychiatrists, social workers, counselors and all other categories of mental health professionals.  Mental health professionals who spend their working days immersed in the emotional turmoil and crises of others must develop personal coping tools which enable them to “let go” of their own emotional reactions which come from empathizing with the problems of their clients/patients.  That is, to avoid burnout and “compassion fatigue,” they must find a way to avoid carrying home with them the emotional crises they have been immersed in throughout the day.  Humor research documents humor’s power to do this.

Paul’s keynotes are entertaining and fun and guaranteed to get therapists laughing.  But they are also substantive and show mental health care providers just how humor builds emotional resilience and helps them sustain their own effectiveness in working with clients—regardless of their specific approach to counseling or therapy.  If desired, attention is also given to how to help their clients learn to use humor as a coping tool.  Evidence is reviewed documenting the effectiveness of Paul’s 7 Humor Habits Program in reducing clinical levels of depression.  Growing evidence supports this Program’s use as a clinical tool.

[Note: Dr. McGhee’s graduate work included working in several clinical settings.  During his 20-year academic career teaching in Departments of Psychology and a Department of Human Development & Family Studies, he worked with clinical psychologists and family therapists.  He recently (2011) contributed a chapter to a book written specifically for therapists on the use of humor as a tool in working with clients/patients.  He especially loves speaking to mental health professionals because of their own expertise in coping issues and because they are in the perfect position to pass on to those who need it most the coping and resilience-promoting power of humor.]

Partial Client List
ARC (NJ)
Association of Mental Health Administrators
Association of Community Mental Health Centers
Delaware Health & Social Services
El Paso Borders Rape Conference (TX)
Grief & Loss Conference, Area Health Education Centers of NJ
New Jersey Association of Mental Health Agencies
New Jersey Psychiatric Association
Nova Scotia Emotional Intelligence Conference (Canada)
Project Live (NJ)
Texas A & M Murphy Day Conference
Texas Crime Victim Academy
Texas Crime Victim Institute
Texas Victim Services Association
Texas Correctional Department