Mental Health Skill-Building Through the Joy of Improv
Created by licensed clinicians and professional improv teachers, Laughing Together uses research-informed methods to deliver effective, engaging workshops that strengthen mental health skills.
Laughing Together’s interactive sessions combine the clinical expertise of licensed therapists with the creativity of expert improv teachers.
Workshops are designed to strengthen:
Social Connection
Emotional Regulation
Creativity & Problem Solving
Confidence & Empathy
Resilience & Distress Tolerance
Communication & Teamwork
Engaging Workshops for Educators, Teams, Students, and School Communities
We understand that every school community has unique needs and goals.
Workshop pricing is dependent on location, size of group, number of facilitators, and length.
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Engaging and interactive workshops for students and youth organizations provide a fun and meaningful way to strengthen life skills. These one-time activities range from 1 to 3 hours in length and create a truly unique learning experience.
Our workshops are designed to address the diverse needs of students and youth organizations, helping them to:
Build stronger relationships with peers and adults
Develop healthy coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety
Enhance creativity and problem-solving skills
Increase confidence and empathy
Build resilience and distress tolerance
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Laughing Together’s Workshop Series not only builds youth skills but also provides the added benefit of ongoing development through recurring sessions. Designed to take place over 8–16 weeks, these sessions allow participants to expand their learning and build upon previous lessons. The series of workshops aids in the development of:
Improved communication and public speaking
Leadership and teamwork skills
Enhanced adaptability and quick thinking
A growth mindset
Strengthened emotional awareness and self-expression
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Our professional development workshops equip educators and teams with practical tools to foster connection, resilience, and engagement in their work. Through interactive activities and evidence-based strategies, participants gain insights into using humor and communication to enhance collaboration, support student well-being, and create a positive organizational culture.
These sessions can be tailored to meet the unique needs of schools, workplaces, and community organizations, helping participants to:
Strengthen team dynamics and workplace culture
Improve communication and conflict resolution skills
Build resilience and stress management strategies
Foster an inclusive and supportive learning environment
Integrate humor as a tool for engagement and well-being
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"Plain and simple, I had a great, great training day today."
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"It was less of 'I want this training to end' and more of 'I want to make sure I will walk away with something that will help me and my profession and help me be better for the kids.'"
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"The program was fun, it was useful."
Chris Gethard
Teaching Artists
Laughing Together has assembled a team of teachers who are working professionals in comedy: actors, writers, and live stage performers. They also regularly teach various disciplines of comedy. With a hard-working and diverse team of teaching artists located on both coasts, Laughing Together is ready and able to get anywhere in the country to help contribute to healthier school environments.
Comedian, Actor, Author, and Podcaster
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Chris Gethard is a comedian, actor, author, and podcaster. He's been seen in films and tv shows, hosts the podcast Beautiful/Anonymous, used to host an eponymous television show, and wrote and performed the HBO special Career Suicide. As a teacher, he oversaw the training center at the New York branch of the Upright Citizens Brigade theater for many years, where his responsibilities included curriculum development, teacher training, and where he began the process of attaining accreditation for the UCB Training Center, the first comedy school to be designated as such. As a mental health advocate, he's spoken across the country and been honored with a few awards, including a SAMHSA Voice Award and the MHS Bell of Hope
Don Fanelli
Actor and Writer
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After graduating with an Industrial Engineering degree and working in the NJ Public School system for two years, Don discovered the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City where he had the honor of performing with the longest running team, The Stepfathers. Don also taught all levels of improv at UCB, traveled the country with UCB TourCo, led corporate workshops for companies like Google, Facebook (Meta) and Anheuser-Busch, and was invited to perform at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal.
Don's most recent acting credits include A League of Their Own, Superstore, Orange is the New Black, and Broad City. He is a father of two younglings which leaves him approximately 60 seconds a week to run, play guitar, watch football, and sleep.
Sarah Claspell
Improv Teacher at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and the World's Greatest Improv School and Improv Performer
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Sarah teaches improv at The World's Greatest Improv School, where she is co-owner, and at Upright Citizens Brigade, where she was Academic Director. Sarah performs regularly with variety show Asian AF, and improv teams The Bozos, Cardinal Redbird, and Voltron. She has taught and performed improv at festivals all over the world. Sarah is also a podcaster and actress who has been in some pretty fun tv shows.
Hope Dobrzynski
Cofounder of The LaughtHER Collective
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Hope is a phoenix originally from the ashes of Long Island, NY currently living her suburban dream right outside of Philadelphia. Hope obtained their Master of Science Degree in Organizational Leadership from Manhattan College, they went onto work for 6 years at the Harlem Children's Zone, a nonprofit organization eradicating poverty in Harlem. Beginning as just an adviser, Hope would eventually revamp and oversee their entire college scholarship operations.
Jamie Rivera
Brooklyn-based performer and improv teacher
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Jamie Rivera is a Brooklyn based performer and instructor at Magnet Theater where he performs regularly in The Armando Diaz Experience. Outside Magnet, you may have seen or heard him in The Second City BoatCo, a Budweiser commercial, Brothers From Another Planet podcast, or The Colbert Report, where Stephen Colbert called him an “unsung hero.” In his spare time, Jamie enjoys toy photography and other geeky pursuits.
Kate Nichols
Comedian and licensed therapist
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Kate is a comedian and storyteller. Her comedy centers around her unique life experiences and her perspective on the absurdities of being human. She is also a licensed therapist who works primarily with trauma in her private practice. Additionally, she curates workshops and public speaking presentations on a variety of mental health topics such as impostor syndrome, authenticity, burnout and understanding stress. She sees comedy and therapy as similar pursuits in people trying to make sense of their experiences and the world around them and enjoys bridging the worlds of comedy and mental health wherever she can.
Hunter Saling
Actor and Comedian
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Hunter grew up in San Diego and started acting at a young age, then finding improv and standup in high school. He and the other members of sketch group Business Casual met in the UCLA Theater program and started working together that same year. They’ve since gone on to have multiple runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, toured around the United States, and collaborated with Funny or Die, to name a few things. Hunter now lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he and Business Casual perform live on a regular basis.
Shannon O’Neill
Produces and Performs in RaaaatScraps: The World’s Best Improv Show in NYC
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Shannon is a veteran performer of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and long time member of the NYC Improv community. She hosted and produced one of the most well known improv shows ASSSSCAT NYC for almost a decade and is a member of the legendary Stepfathers.
You’ve seen her in a lot of tv shows like Broad City, The Chris Gethard Show, High Maintenance, Difficult People, Neon Joe Werewolf Hunter and The Other Two. Her voice was dubbed over in an episode of Man Seeking Woman, which felt like rejection, but this show got her into SAG, so you gotta take what you can get.
You can see her take a dramatic turn in How To Fix a Drug Scandal on Netflix. She is in a wonderful queer thriller called Women Who Kill and she was recently cut from the movie BROS. That is showbiz!
Someone give this talented lady more work. She deserves it.
Shannon wrote this bio.
Christi Somers
Stand-Up Comedian, Comedy Educator & Chief Joy Officer
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Christi Somers (formerly Chiello) is a comedian, educator, and creative consultant whose groundbreaking approach to comedy education is redefining how performers discover and amplify their authentic voices. Her credits include Comedy Central Stand-Up Featuring, This Joka with Will Smith, TruTV’s Late Night Snack, Chris Gethard Presents, IFC’s Comedy Crib, Kevin Hart’s LOL Network*, and the SXSW-premiering film Molli and Max in the Future. Her work has been praised by The New York Times as “Very Funny.”
Named a “New Face of Comedy” by the Just For Laughs Festival, Christi partners with organizations like Stand Up! Girls and Laughing Together to bring the transformative power of comedy to students nationwide. She recently gave her first TED Talk on how comedy transforms fear into strength and currently opens for Nicole Byer on her national tour.
Cory Peter Lane
Actor and Comedian
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Cory Peter Lane is an actor and comedian from San Diego, California. He's a graduate of UCLA's school of Theater, Film and Television. At UCLA he formed the sketch trio Business Casual. The trio has gone on to tour the US and UK, develop content for Funny or Die and is currently developing a narrative pilot starring the trio. Cory also studied clown in Paris at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris. He's a member of the comedy collective Stamptown.
Jeremy Elder
Writer and Improviser
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Jeremy Elder is a writer and improviser from Los Angeles, CA. He graduated from UCLA with a degree in playwriting and directing. Jeremy has written and performed with several online companies including Smosh, Funny or Die, and Snapchat. Now, he performs regularly across the country with the sketch comedy trio "Business Casual". In the world of improv, Jeremy has been performing improv for twelve years, and has been a teacher for five.
Will Hines
Longtime performer and teacher from The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
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Will is an actor and writer in Los Angeles. He has taught and performed improv comedy at the Upright Citizen Brigade Theater in both New York and LA since 2000. He's appeared on several TV shows (Brooklyn 99, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and top podcasts (Comedy Bang-Bang, Improv4Humans). In 2020 he founded his own school, the World's Greatest Improv School.
Rudy Mendoza
Performer, Producer, & Founder of Antojitos Fest
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Rudy Mendoza is dedicated to uplifting and empowering others through improvisation. He is the founder of Antojitos Fest, Chicago's Latin American Comedy Festival, which aims to build community across international borders. He is a proud performer and producer at Logan Square Improv and an improv teacher at CIC Theater. Additionally, he works as a bilingual comedy copywriter at BarkleyOKRP.
Daniela Aguilar
Performer and Teaching Artist
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Daniela Aguilar (she/her) is a performer and teaching artist based in Chicago. She is passionate about improvisation as a social work modality and has facilitated improv and social-emotional learning workshops in Illinois schools, non-profits, and corporations for over five years. She performs in Chicago at The Second City and most proudly at Logan Square Improv with the improv duo Women of a Certain Age.
Kalia Armbruster
Improviser
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Kalia fell in love with improv in 2016, a mere 18 years after trying it for the first time. Now, she co-produces shows like Bad Art and Big-Time Birdhouse and performs as much as she can with teams like Luxury Cruise Singles Mixer, Forever, Foibles and Folly, and Improv All-Stars. Her most persistent goals in life are to make people laugh (especially when the world feels bleak and unforgiving) and spend time with her friends—so it had to be improv.
Caroline Cotter
Comedian, Actor, and Writer
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Caroline is a veteran performer and teacher at the Upright Citizens Brigade in both LA and NYC. She regularly performs on their flagship show, ASSSCAT. She has toured the country with them where she performed and taught workshops.
As an actor, Caroline has appeared several times on "Conan" as Melody Crafts, an unhinged craft expert. Other credits include, "Late Night with Seth Meyers", "The Break With Michelle Wolf", and "The Chris Gethard Show."
Her writing has been published in the The New Yorker's "Shouts & Murmurs", The Belladonna, and Points in Case.
Comedy Shows:
Experience an unforgettable night of laughter while supporting student mental health! Our comedy shows bring together incredible comedians for an event where humor meets purpose. Proceeds from these shows help support mental health programs for students, helping to create lasting impact through connection and support.
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Donations help support student and educator mental health programs.
Laughing Together is a division of Wellness Together, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Donations to Laughing Together support mental health services for students across the country.