Humor, Joining, and Reframing in Psychotherapy: Resolving the Auto-Double-Bind

This article describes how the combination of reframing and joining creates an inherent auto-double-bind within the psychotherapeutic process. Reframing is one of the most frequently used tools in family therapy, and it cannot be used without joining. “Joining” is an essential way of creating therapeutic alliance, which has been acknowledged to be the most important common factor for the outcome of psychotherapy. The article demonstrates how the use of humor allows the therapist to resolve this particular double-bind, using both verbal and contradictory nonverbal communication to join and simultaneously reframe the clients’ views of the world.