Comedy for Coping

Name of author(s), affiliation and email address)

Dr Dieter Declercq: University of Kent (dd324@kent.ac.uk)

Dr Una Foye: Kings College London University (una.foye@kcl.ac.uk)

Jade Peters: University of Kent (J.H.Peters@kent.ac.uk)

Dave Chawner: Comedian (info@davechawner.co.uk)

Synopsis

Dave Chawner, number 1 best-selling author and professional comic, sensitively uses comedy to talk about his lived experience of anorexia. Dave, alongside a team of academics from University of Kent and Kings College London, has designed Comedy for Coping – a six-week interactive online comedy course aimed at people with experience of an eating disorder. Alongside the course, the team will be exploring how comedy can be used to support recovery.

The course is fully funded by the British Academy to help evaluate the impact of this comedy workshop on recovery and identify which specific workshop components impact on recovery.

Purpose of the course

To build confidence, communication, and connect with other people. The course combats loneliness and literally provides a platform for participants to stand up for themselves.

What does it involve?

• An interview prior to starting the course (pre-course interview).
• 6 weeks of comedy workshops that will occur weekly and homework to support the comedy workshops.
• An interview 3 months following completion of the course (post-course interview) to reflect and discuss your experience with the research team.

Who can take part?

To participate, you need to be fluent in English, over 18 years old, and have/had experience of an eating disorder.

Unfortunately, you cannot participate if you are currently attending inpatient or day patient (this applies to both NHS and the private sector).

To ensure representation of a variety of lived experiences, we strongly encourage men and people from BAME and other minority groups to get in touch.

How can someone take part?

For more information about the course, please contact Jade Peters at J.H.Peters@kent.ac.uk.