Behind the Laughter

Born in California and raised .everywhere. With a father in construction "everywhere" really meant "everywhere" - throughout the US . Even today, as a well established and internationally recognized therapist & laughter coach, Annette Goodheart's odyssey continues. She has never stopped exploring the world around her or her co-inhabitants.

Her first "career" was as an artist. Her first commission came at such a young age (13) she couldn't even be legally paid for it.

Working in oil, acrylic and watercolor, Annette's accomplished "life" as an artist spanned slightly more than two decades. The inherent loneliness of that world decided an inherently gregarious person to break back into this world. It began in 1970 with peer counseling and workshops in cathartic laughter and continues today as she coaches, guides, instructs and lectures on the positive benefits of laughter.

Annette Goodheart is one of life's rewarding "un-conventionals". She lived on board her own sailboat in Santa Barbara harbor for thirteen years (whose construction she directed and which she christened the "TeeHee"). A motorcycle enthusiast and rider for fifteen years, she remains a first class scuba diver and gardener.

Her latest adventure has her moving lock, stock and computer, south to the country of Mexico and the old colonial city of San Miguel de Allende. There she plans to continue all her therapy, coaching, teaching (both laughter classes & art) with the large population of ex-patriots and the wonderful natives of San Miguel while continuing to travel the world doing Laughter Coach training.

While her proudest accomplishment is her own self-sufficiency, the most important thing to her is "connection"; connection with herself, with others and with the world in which she lives. The words she feels that best describe her most important personal qualities are "empathy" and "outrageousness".

With her two felines - Pauline and cross-eyed Shirley, & a six pound canine (a Maltese named Barbra) traveling companion-she looks ahead to a second book (on laughter and spirituality), seeing her first book ("Laughter Therapy: How to Laugh About Everything in Your Life That Isn't Really Funny") translated into Spanish, Dutch, Danish, German & Swedish (it's already out in Japanese), returning to art (with a focus on portraiture), and continuing to laugh her way around the globe. Relaxed, convivial and a barely dormant (usually active) volcano of laughter Annette reflects, and wholeheartedly embraces, the joys of laughter which she preaches. For Annette Goodheart laughter isn't locked away in a folder marked "For Professional Use Only".it's always there and it's always ready to be shared.