During the placement semester, which normally takes place in the fourth semester, social work students gain their first practical experience and prepare for working life. This also involves dealing with emotionally taxing or stressful situations. Particularly when working in socially deprived areas or with people in crisis situations, it is essential to develop strategies that provide relief.
To help students overcome precisely these practical hurdles and show them ways to relieve stress, Prof. Dr Carl Heese from the Faculty of Social and Health Sciences is running a special humour seminar as part of the Social Work degree programme.
The aim of the seminar is to help students find cheerfulness and reasons to laugh even in difficult situations, thereby building a certain resilience to stress.
Seven steps to success
The seminar follows the seven steps of the humour training programme “The 7 Humor Habits Program” (7HHP) developed by psychologist Paul McGhee, who argues that humour can be consciously cultivated.
This enables people to draw on humour in everyday life, as well as in a work context or during particularly difficult times, such as illness or bereavement, to shift their perspective and thus cope better with the situation. Prof. Dr Heese also describes the programme as an approach to building life management and stress management skills.
During the accompanying programme for the practical semester, students worked through the stages of the 7HHP programme over six sessions, delved into the theory and specifically trained their sense of humour through behavioural exercises.
For example, students must examine their own sense of humour and ask themselves whether it leans towards the good-natured, ironic or sarcastic. Another exercise in the seminar involves expressing one’s own cheerfulness through hearty laughter.
In addition, there are homework assignments, such as deliberately seeking out ‘ordinary’ moments or things in everyday life and approaching them from a humorous perspective. Prof. Dr Heese refers to a ‘humour lens’ that students put on in such moments.
“Ultimately, the crowning glory of the programme is to gradually apply the humour skills developed to stressful situations,” says Prof. Dr Heese. Students are able to identify stressful situations at work and put their humour skills to the test.
Lasting effects
Although students initially have to push themselves out of their comfort zone or may even be sceptical about the seminar, the overall feedback has so far been overwhelmingly positive: thanks to the seminar, participants report greater self-awareness, a sense of relief in their practical work, and even the development of lasting resilience to stress.
The seminar not only perfectly complements social work students’ practical placement, but also imparts skills that are of great importance in their professional lives beyond their studies.
Prof. Dr Heese also emphasises that everyone can benefit from the 7HHP model, whether in a private context or at work.
Particularly in a professional field that deals with people’s lives on a daily basis, humour can play a key role. The seminar demonstrates that this ability can be developed in a targeted manner and that students can continue to benefit from humour even beyond their practical placement.
