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Clowning Around: Laughter Helps Cancer Survivors Cope
KEITH BROWN/STAFF WRITER STAFF
Asbury Park Press - 7/9/03
THERE'S nothing funny about cancer.
Yet breast cancer survivor Hedda Matza-Haughton credits outrageous, multicolored wigs and big, red clown noses with helping her to win her battle with the life-threatening disease.
After her diagnosis in 1989, Matza-Haughton, would often wear a joke clown nose at regular visits to her oncologists, just to break the seriousness for a minute... continue with this article |
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Best stress reducer? Laughter
by Jill Armentrout of The Saginaw News
February 3, 2005
Laughter is a healing, cathartic release, says social worker Hedda Matza-Haughton. Under her alias "Princess Juicy Joy," this consultant of fun leads workshops and individual coaching sessions using laughter and play to reduce stress and improve health.
She was part of Bay Regional Medical Center's recent "What Cancer Can't Do: The Mind/Body Connection" conference in Bay City and got cancer patients and caregivers to feel good in the face of pain and fear.
"Cancer patients will wonder 'What do I have to laugh about?' You can't laugh all the time in illness, but you can be in control of your outlook," she said.
After she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989, the social worker wore clown noses to her doctor appointments, she said. "It broke the ice, and they saw me as a person."
As the princess, Matza-Haughton wears a crown of smiley-face balls. She comes armed with all kinds of silly props, hats, masks and toys, and encourages people to use them in skits and introductions of their own alter egos.
"They start feeling the physical effects of laughing and then I support it with research," she said. "The shortest distance between two people is laughter."
With her Manhattan-based For the Health of It Consulting Services, Matza-Haughton tells clients to remember what they did when they were younger, close their eyes and experience it. Make lists of what makes you laugh.
"When people in an oncologist's waiting room start watching Lucille Ball clips instead of a heavy film about cancer, they start talking to each other and communicate better with the doctor," she said.
She keeps comedy tapes in her car for commutes and cartoons on her desk...
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