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WHO WE ARE

Laughter Heals is grounded on a  practical approach to emotional and mental reset. Through a method that blends honest dialogue, guided inquiry, and intentional laughter, we help people step outside the patterns they’ve been stuck in and reconnect with something more natural—clarity, presence, and real ease.

This isn’t about forcing positivity or escaping reality.


It’s about changing your relationship to it.

Image by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦

No fluff. Just tools that work.

Most people are living inside patterns they didn’t consciously choose.

Stress, pressure, old narratives—they run in the background, shaping how we think, feel, and show up. And most solutions stay in the mind, which is why they don’t last.

Our work is different.

Through Laughter Heals, we use intentional laughter as a real, physical tool to interrupt those patterns and create immediate shifts in the body and mind. Combined with guided inquiry and honest conversation, this work helps people reset, gain clarity, and reconnect with a more grounded, natural state.

We are not here to give you something abstract or overly “wellness-focused.”

 

We are here to give you something that works—something you can feel, and something you can take with you into your daily life.

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Craig Shoemaker, Founder

Like most people, I’ve experienced the weight of stress, pressure, grief and the quiet narratives that shape how we see ourselves and what we believe is possible. What I discovered is that lasting change doesn’t come from overthinking—it comes from the body.

That’s where laughter comes in.

What began as a bullied, fatherless child discovering that laughter could instantly transform pain into connection became a life mission. That mission led me to an international career as a stand-up comedian, actor, producer, writer, keynote speaker, executive coach, and founder of both nonprofit and for-profit organizations devoted to healing through humor.

I have performed on Broadway and at the Hollywood Bowl, appeared on virtually every major television platform, won Emmy Awards as a writer and producer, and built a reputation as one of the most recognizable comedians in America. 

More importantly, I founded Laughter Heals, which has spent more than fifteen years bringing laughter to cancer patients, hospitals, veterans, wounded warriors, and caregivers.

Image by Mohammad Mardani

Return to self

At some point, most of us drift away from our natural state—
the version of us that feels light, present, and fully alive.

Life happens. Stress builds. Stories form. And without realizing it, we start living inside those patterns.

Laughter Heals was created to bring people back.

Not through surface-level positivity, but through something real and built into all of us: laughter.

My work combines intentional laughter, guided inquiry, and shared human experience to help people release what they’ve been holding, shift their perspective, and reconnect with themselves in a way that feels natural and sustainable.

This is about more than feeling good for a moment.
It’s about remembering who you are underneath everything else—and having tools to return to that, again and again.

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HAVE A QUESTION? WE'RE HAPPY TO HELP.

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