Dr Good reckons he's got the best medicine for our stressful lives - a big dose of laughter!

And to prove how effective his potion is, he regularly doles it out to ease the pressure of our daily lives.

Wyke psychotherapist Dr Peter Good prescribes tickling the funny bone as the best way to look on the bright side of life.

He is a specialist in laughter therapy and has a PhD in the history of laughter.

Now he is to take his message to the masses by staging a special one-day course at Brighouse.

He said: "Laughter is good for you, there is no doubt about it.

"It draws people together, opens up new levels of meaning and encourages people to do silly things in their life.

"Ultimately, it is about taking life's misfortunes a bit less seriously and finding a way of coping.

"If you don't laugh you would just stick your head under a pillow."

Dr Good is not afraid to practise what he preaches!

In traffic jams - that stress-inducing bane of modern life - he will often reach into his glove compartment for the clownish ginger wig that he wears to amuse other motorists.

"Traffic jams are so stressful, but people see me in the wig and they do a double take or smile and it releases some of the pressure."

Life in general is something that can always benefit from a dose of abject silliness.

He once armed his 12-year-old nephew with the answers to the fiendishly difficult crossword his parents were attempting.

They were dumfounded by the youngster's word prowess and there was much merriment afterwards, but there was a serious side.

"They saw him in a whole new light. It was perhaps the first time they considered the child as a thinking, intelligent person."

Equally, Dr Good's partner is not safe from his pranks and on more than one occasion has reached into her handbag to find something bizarre like a tin of Spam nestling inside.

There is a serious side to it all. In America, laughter therapy is widely practised and some hospitals even have 'Goofy' wards, named after the way staff encourage patients to see the lighter side of their illness.

Dr Good admits that a few of his quips have backfired and left him red-faced.

"I haven't caused any accidents, generally it has just been when someone hasn't got the joke."

But, he says, laughter is about an attitude to life: "Laughter is about taking risks.

"Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, but you have to try."

The Laughter Therapy one-day course will run at The Adult Education Centre in Brighouse on April 8. For more details contact 01484 7140219.

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