Meet the founder
🎤 TEDx Speaker 📚 2× Amazon Bestseller 🏆 Laughter Professor 🌍 15+ years · 500+ companies

Shareen Richter

Africa's leading Laughter & Happiness Professor. The person who turned laughter into a board-ready science — and built a whole Sandton space around it.

Work with Shareen See corporate work

WhatsApp: +27 82 337 3777

Shareen Richter — Founder of HappiSpace
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"Laughter Professor" Named by Dr Madan Kataria, founder of Laughter Yoga
+ years in practice
+ companies served
Amazon bestsellers
% avg cortisol drop
Her story

From burnout to board rooms

Shareen Richter didn't discover laughter coaching by accident. She discovered it the hard way — through her own burnout, her own nervous system in revolt, and the startling realisation that the thing that saved her was something people had been told not to take seriously: joy.

Armed with an Industrial Psychology Honours degree and two additional business qualifications, she set out to build what no-one else had: a scientifically rigorous, professionally facilitated approach to workplace wellbeing that could speak the language of HR directors and CFOs.

"Laughter is not an add-on. It is a measurable intervention. And the cortisol numbers agree."

The result? A 15-year body of work spanning 500+ companies, a TEDx talk, two Amazon international bestsellers, a Sandton venue purpose-built for nervous-system recovery, and a title — Laughter Professor — given to her personally by Dr Madan Kataria, the founder of Laughter Yoga, in recognition of her mastery of the field.

Today HappiSpace is Shareen's flagship: the venue, the corporate experiences, the Felt Shift Method, and an AI-powered production studio that's turning her work into one of Africa's most distinctive wellness media brands.

Shareen Richter facilitating a laughter coaching session

"Dr Madan Kataria personally named Shareen the 'Laughter Professor' — the highest recognition in the field of laughter coaching."

Credentials & recognition

The science behind the smile

These aren't just titles. They're 15 years of field work validated by institutions, publishers, and the world's foremost authorities in laughter and wellbeing.

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TEDx Speaker

Delivered a TEDx talk on happiness, resilience, and the science of human wellbeing — putting laughter coaching on the global stage.

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Twice Amazon Bestseller

Two books achieving Amazon International Bestseller status — practical, science-backed guides to joy, resilience, and nervous-system reset.

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"Laughter Professor"

Title bestowed by Dr Madan Kataria, founder of Laughter Yoga — the highest recognition in the global laughter coaching field.

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Industrial Psychology

Honours degree in Industrial Psychology plus two additional business qualifications — the academic rigour behind the joyful practice.

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Media & press

Featured on ETV South Africa and in major SA business publications. A recognised voice on workplace wellbeing and resilience.

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500+ companies served

15+ years of corporate facilitation across South Africa's biggest brands — from Eskom to Pfizer, Momentum to UNISA.

Her methodology

The Felt Shift™

The Felt Shift™ is Shareen's proprietary framework: a measurable nervous-system reset delivered through laughter coaching, breathwork, and somatic movement. It's not comedy. It's not laughter yoga. It's a science-backed intervention with before-and-after proof your board can actually read.

Cortisol drops an average of 31.9% (PLOS One, 2017). Endorphins spike. Social trust scores climb. The room visibly, measurably shifts — and Shareen captures it in an anonymous report your HR director and CFO can share in their next board pack.

Read the full methodology →
What makes it different
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Peer-reviewed science

Cortisol reduction, endorphin release, and social bonding — all backed by published research, not wellness folklore.

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Board-ready reporting

Anonymous before-and-after data captured during every session. ROI your auditor can sign off on.

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Built for corporates

No fluff, no candles, no trust falls. Designed for South Africa's most demanding boardrooms and HR teams.

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Meet Mr Frazzle

The world's most relatable stress character — and Shareen's co-host

Mr Frazzle is HappiSpace's signature character: a sweet-but-grumpy worry-bundle who personifies cortisol overload. Rainbow mohawk (calm), full red (frazzled). His on-screen Frazzle Meter ticks down in real time as Shareen guides him — and the audience — through The Felt Shift™.

He stars in the HappiSpace podcast, lives on this website as an interactive helper, and is built from scratch with AI production tools that Shareen's team develops in-house at The HappiSpace Studio.

Meet Mr Frazzle on the podcast →
As seen & heard

In the media

Shareen's work on laughter, resilience and corporate wellbeing has been featured across South Africa's leading platforms.

📺 ETV South Africa 📰 SA Business Publications 🎙️ Keynote speaker circuit 📻 Radio interviews 🏆 Small Business Awards SA finalist

"Shareen doesn't just bring energy into a room — she changes the chemistry of it. I have the cortisol data to prove it."

— Shareen Richter, on what she learned after 15 years in the field

Ready?

Work with Shareen

Whether it's a keynote, a team reset, a venue hire, or something you haven't seen on any other wellness brief — start here.

Book a session See corporate packages WhatsApp Shareen

shareen@laughtercoaching.com · +27 82 337 3777 · Sandton, Johannesburg