Perspective can have a global health impact. Cognitive therapy says that we are an interactive system of feelings, thoughts, behaviors, and biochemistry. Humor intervenes to change all four areas as we attempt to do in cognitive therapy. If you don't mind, I'd love it if you could give us a basic overview of the use of humor in therapy. For example, when a client experiences humor in a session, the client learns that the emotional distress of the moment is changed.
Clients can then use humor outside of treatment to lessen the impact of their distressing emotions.
I have asked clients to visualize a situation where they laughed so hard they fell down. This teaches that the client can use the humor to manage their emotions. If the client laughs, then he sees the perspective. If he does not laugh then he does not see the perspective and may need more work. In this way humor can be used as a diagnostic tool.