Michael Coleman

Michael is the founder of Laughing in San Diego. He leads all the laughter classes and trains all the laughter leaders on behalf of Laughing in San Diego.

Michael was a serious and stressed out attorney when he attended his first laughter yoga class in 2006.  Although at first he felt self-conscious laughing for no reason, by the end of the class he felt so relaxed, calm and positive that he decided to become a certified laughter yoga leader to bring more laughter into his own life and to share this simple but powerful exercise program with others. 

He took the laughter yoga leader training and started his first free community laughter class in Balboa Park in February 2007 which is still going on (although led by other leaders).

Almost immediately, people from businesses, nonprofits and governmental organizations started asking Michael to bring the benefits of laughter to their employees, customers, clients and volunteers.  Michael welcomed the opportunity to bring the physical, emotional, mental and social benefits of laughter to them and designed custom corporate laughter programs for his clients.  Michael's corporate laughter programs range from icebreakers and stretch breaks at large events to 30 or 60 minutes classes or presentations to half or full-day workshops that incorporate stress reduction, conflict resolution, and team building activities.

In April 2007, Michael trained with Dr. Kataria, the founder of Laughter Yoga, to be a certified laughter yoga teacher.  Besides the amazing opportunity to study with Dr. Kataria, becoming a laughter yoga teacher, allowed Michael to train other people to be laughter yoga leaders to help spread the gift of laughter around the world.  Michael has trained hundreds of leaders from across the United States and other countries and continues to offer 2-day certified laughter yoga leader trainings.  

Michael is avaiable to travel to anywhere in the country or around the world to train leaders or bring one of his powerful laughter program to companies and organizations.

In 2011, because of the increasing demand for laughter classes to underserved communities, Michael formed Laughter Matters, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to improving people’s lives through laughter.  Although not currently in operation, Laughter Matters trained 160 leaders, brought 1,200 laughter classes to 200 organizations, and served over 5,000 individuals.

Michael is passionate about the power and benefits of laughter and is happy to share it. He conducts all of Laughing in San Diego's leader trainings and refresher workshops and corporate laughter programs himself and with the assistance of one or more other experienced certified leaders and teachers when warranted.