Name: Jo Eadie

Work Areas: Based in Midlands and Milton Keynes, a keen traveller to all areas

Services: Services: Workshops, Conferences, Health Promotion, One-off afd Special Events

Web: jo.eadie@laughternetwork.co.uk, www.joeadie.co.uk 

Contact: 07816 439 510

Summary: Laughter facilitator, community worker, health promotion specialist.

Personal statement: Jo believes that we can all learn to be happier than we already are, and sees laughter as a key part of developing a happier approach to life. He brings laughter into all kinds of organisations, to make the healing benefits of laughter accessible to all.

He has a background in community work and health promotion, and has also taught for the Open University since 1995. He has written widely on sexuality and health, and in 1999 he completed a PhD looking at the relationship between emotions and the body. He is a patient and enthusiastic teacher, who believes that everyone is capable of developing new skills and abilities.

He runs regular courses teaching happiness skills and developing the capacity of adults to play more. In January 2008 he launched the Nottingham Laughter Club, which has been bringing monthly laughter to the East Midlands – and in January 2009 he launched the Milton Keynes Laughter Club, to extend the laughter effect further south.

His laughter work has included tailor-made sessions for the siblings of autistic children, for adults recovering from strokes, and at daycentres for people with learning disabilities. He has organised laughter-based stress-busting events for businesses and for community mental health awareness events. He is currently working with the Healthy Schools Programme, to develop a series of suitable laughter events for teachers and pupils.

Having lived with M.E. for eight years, he has a particular interest in developing gentle laughter workshops for people with illnesses and disabilities, and organises laughter events around the country for local ME/CFS/FMS support groups.

Jo’s laughter sessions and workshops are aimed at giving people the skills to laugh more deeply, more easily, and more often whenever they need to in their lives.