Standing in a room full of strangers, making direct eye contact with others, and laughing in their face might sound like a nightmare to some. Members of the Iowa City Senior Center’s Laughter Club have found it beneficial to their
mental health.

The Laughter Club meets every Wednesday afternoon.

“Deep inside ourselves, we have joy and a whole lot of laughs. That’s why we need to get them out as much as we can,” senior center attendee Chris Cotant said. “It’s about remembering yourself.”

The senior center’s goal is to provide space for positive environments like the Laughter Club to the community.

Unless specified, all programs hosted by the senior center are open to participants of all ages. However, a majority of the classes and clubs are designed for an audience over 65 years old.

“After you’re out of the workforce and retired, you lose those natural encounters with other people,” senior center program specialist Michelle Buhman said. “We provide that natural conduit.”

Events like the Laughter Club are designed to give older people a structured time and place to meet people who are looking for the same thing: connection.

In recent years, mental health has become a growing concern for much of the U.S. and, according to an article from the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, older people are among the most at-risk groups.

The research presented in the article discussed the mental health effects of social isolation on individuals 65 and older during the COVID-19 pandemic, describing the impact of pandemic-induced “bio-psychosocial vulnerabilities” among the older population as aggravated forms of previously present afflictions.

Without the added stressor of contracting COVID-19, older people are already at higher risk for cognitive impairment onset by loneliness and neglect.

Caring for the mental health of Iowa City’s older population is a priority for the senior center, but it has become especially imperative in the years following the pandemic.

“Our programs are split between focusing on community engagement, social connections, lifelong learning, and wellness,” Buhman explained.

Specialty art classes, fitness classes, music classes, and more shape the lineup of activities in the senior center’s catalog. each meant to promote engagement and wellness.

The Laughter Club may be among the most outlandish but also the most beneficial.

Buhman leads the weekly laughter club meetings and vouches for its positive mental health effects.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the center still did its best to bring people the connection they needed.

“I was hosting Zoom meetings for our flute club. They weren’t even playing the instrument, they just wanted to see each other and chat,” Buhman chuckled.

For a post-pandemic crowd of members who longed for the joy of companionship more than ever, the Laughter Club offered a solution.

“It’s a space for people to tap into an inner child-like playfulness,” she said with a smile, as if just thinking about the club’s positive reception was in itself a stress reliever.

The club was on a decade-long hiatus until this January when Buhman resurrected it. She cited the pandemic as the core reason for bringing back the therapeutic experience.

Acting as an alternative form of group therapy, the club encourages laughter without the punchline. The initiation of laughter is a group exercise: Participant interaction is prompted by acting out ludicrous scenarios while holding eye contact with one another.

Wooden signs — one reading “Laugh!” — dot the walls in the otherwise empty room, where echoes of uproarious laughter bounce off the walls. In the center of the room, the group sits in a large circle, giggling together in anticipation before the exercises have even begun.

However, laughing voluntarily does not always come naturally. Mercedes Bern-Klug, a professor at the University of Iowa’s School of Social Work and one of the club’s newest members, shared she found her first few visits socially awkward. Bern-Klug is also a specialist in gerontology, or the study of aging and older adults.

“We look into people’s eyes and laugh in their faces. But because everyone else is doing it, it was all of a sudden socially acceptable,” Bern-Klug said. “You can’t argue with the results.”

The group begins with stretches and facial warm-ups, loosening the cheeks and lips in preparation for the group exercises.

The structure of the class is reminiscent of a yoga class, which also promotes serenity and encourage sufficient warmups.

After applying a metaphorical “laughter cream” to their bodies to keep them laughing, members are then prompted to act out a variety of scenarios: pushing around an imaginary lawnmower, acting out their favorite animal, and drinking huge glasses of “laughter milk.”

The imaginary scenarios even included situations that would normally be stressful or awkward, such as opening a credit card bill that was twice the amount expected, turning pockets to show how broke they are, and deliberately missing each other’s
high-fives.

Then, to conclude each exercise, the group joined together in a chant: “Very good, very good, yay!”

Every step of the way, positivity was of utmost importance. Initial nerves over forced laughter for such an extended period quickly dissipated when each participant realized they were there with the same purpose of lightening their moods.

Buhman feels the club has helped her to take stressful events in her life less seriously.

“I found that I can laugh when something doesn’t go right and all of a sudden it doesn’t feel bad; just practicing that laughter and being okay laughing,” she said. “I feel like as we grow older, it’s not as socially acceptable just to burst out laughing.”

For Chi Liang, a club member who moved to Iowa City from Taiwan a year and a half ago, establishing himself in the U.S. has been a challenge, especially socially, and it takes a lot of courage to talk to new people.

Chi shared that participating in the club has made him feel more confident in himself and his abilities.

“After this group, I smile more. It’s built up my internal confidence,” he said. “Because of my personality, I preferred not to speak to strangers. But after this class, I tend to speak more to someone I’m not familiar with.”

The club, like the rest of the senior center, accommodates all community members. The programs are for people of all experience levels and backgrounds.

“It goes beyond our doors,” Buhman explained. “People take fitness classes together or meet to practice their shared interest in playing an instrument, and they start to see the same classmates every week. Soon, participating in these weekly programs develops into post-class lunches or coffee trips. That’s a lasting connection.”

The Laughter Club will host a special public meeting on April 1 in the Pedestrian Mall.