I heard the audience tell Stand-up comic Harpriya Bains that her act had made their day, and made them feel lighter about the monotonous struggles of life. One member of the audience even remarked that attending the show had made her forget her chronic knee pain.

Comments like these made me envious. Wasn’t this what I was supposed to do as a family relationship therapist – make people see their family drama or troubled lives from a lighter perspective? Her use of therapeutic tools that I took years to learn – metaphors, self-disclosure, empathy, and existentialism – were getting her standing ovations and bringing laughter into people’s lives…