Saving the World

I've spent a lifetime trying to save the world. I've done it from the psych ward, from stages, from therapy rooms, from a recording studio-come-fort I built in my living room, and most recently as I follow my inner calling across continents.

I don't have it all figured out. I'm just like you, in recovery from the trauma of being alive — because being alive is one heck of a journey. I've discovered that laughing together is the deepest work we can do.

I created Hilarapy because I couldn't find a safe space that held all of it — the grief and the giggling, the shame and the silliness, the deep ache to belong and the desperate need to laugh about it all. So I made one.

I create spaces where all emotions are welcome, shame has no power, and connection is king. The work I do allows people to remember the truth — that everyone is enough, everyone is lovable, and everyone belongs. I show up with warmth, wit, and radical honesty — and sometimes that makes a room go very quiet before it erupts in laughter.

My mission is to awaken deep love and connection through authenticity, vulnerability, and humour. My vision is a world where all are free to express their authentic and unique light, and welcome the same light in one another. The movement I am building has one goal: Awaken humanity to love.

I am currently on a walkabout and I invite you to follow along.

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LOVE NOTES FROM LIZZIE

Lizzie Allan Comedy Therapist, Founder of Hilarapy

How I Got Here

(the short version)

I was brought up in England by my emotionally chaotic, gorgeous, divorced, traumatised parents. It was the 80s, and most people were trying to feel okay — usually with booze — in a post-war Britain. We laughed to cope, and by age eight, comedy had become my mission in life.

As a teenager, I started reading spiritual, metaphysical, law-of-attraction books and thought, “Hey, that’s a better way of being successful than slaving away at school.” Alongside this hobby, I was taking my own journey with addiction — light and shadow doing their merry dance.

Back then, my life was an ego-driven cocktail of mystical insight, fear, and self-rejection. I had no idea who I was or how to accept myself. Those ingredients contributed to a severe bout of madness in Thailand in the year 2000 — I was nineteen and completely unprepared for what came next: a life-altering spiritual awakening. But goodness me, try telling a psychiatric doctor that. I felt like a fish in a fishbowl, everyone staring at me. I tried to explain myself, but only bubbles came out.

Shoehorned into the psych ward against my will, I went on to have a vision: a) that I was Jesus reincarnated, and b) that I would save the world with a rap album.

I’m not Jesus reincarnated, and I don’t rap — but it’s on my to-do list.

I got clean and sober in 2010, and to this day, I still actively work a program of recovery to maintain my high-vibrational state — which is important for manifesting the life of your dreams. I have a Comedy Writing and Performance degree from Salford University in the UK, which proves I am funny. I also trained as a therapist, and it changed the way I show up on stage and in all my relationships, especially the one with myself.

I married my two great loves — comedy and healing — and their love child is Hilarapy.

Everything I’ve lived — the chaos, the comedy, the madness, the awakening, the recovery, the spiritual obsession, the law-of-attraction nerdery, the therapy, the humour — has brought me to my purpose: helping people move the fear that blocks their light, and having a really good time doing it.

I live in British Columbia, Canada — and I make it my job to dance with genius.*

*According to the ancient Greeks, genius was a visiting spirit — a mischievous muse that would drop by, stir things up, and vanish once the magic was done.

A young girl with blonde hair smiling, wearing a white t-shirt, dark shorts, and pink shoes with socks, standing on a grassy field with power lines in the background. An older woman is walking away behind her, carrying a folded folding chair.

A woman playing a small brown ukulele on stage, with a black curtain in the background.

A woman with glasses smiling and laughing while interacting with someone, who appears to be a young man, in an indoor setting.

A birthday celebration with a group of people gathered around a table. A young man in a green sweatshirt that says 'SELF CARE' is smiling as a woman in a hoodie presents a birthday cake with lit candles. An older woman with curly hair and a colorful blouse looks on, while other family members are visible at the table with various game pieces and cards.

A woman with short hair, wearing a white sweatshirt with 'HUG ME!' written on it, holding a microphone and smiling on stage at an event with a backdrop that says 'HILARAPY.'

THE MISSION

To awaken deep love and connection through authenticity, vulnerability, and humour.

THE VISION

A world of deep love and connection, where all are free to express their authentic and unique light, and welcome the same light in one another.

THE MOVEMENT

Awakening humanity to love

The Hilarapy Movement is built on one simple truth — human connection is the most powerful force for healing. Real, messy, hilarious, deeply felt human connection. The kind that happens when people share their truth, laugh at their shared shame, and witness, walk with, and lift each other up.

A movement of people shining their light as a declaration of love — illuminating the world, freeing others to do the same.

Join the movement

Get to know Lizzie Allan!

Hilarapy is growing into something incredible. Learn more

This is not therapy.

This is not a comedy class.

This is a therapeutic experience rooted in play, connection, and shared humanity.

Lizzie Allan

Lizzie Allan is a therapist, facilitator, and recovery advocate who has spent more than a decade supporting people through deep personal change using a trauma-informed, relational approach. Her work is grounded in extensive training, lived experience, and a strong commitment to creating spaces that are safe, honest, and human.

Lizzie’s practice is shaped by her own journey through mental health challenges and recovery, including a formative period of crisis in her early twenties that clarified her calling to help others heal with integrity, courage, and compassion. She is the creator of Hilarapy, an approach that integrates humour where appropriate, not as performance or technique, but as a natural expression of presence and connection.

Lizzie blends the depth of a trained psychotherapist with the honesty of a comedian. After navigating addiction, mental health challenges, and psychiatric care, she discovered that humour could unlock healing in ways nothing else could.

With 16 years of sobriety and over a decade of experience integrating therapy with comedy, Lizzie developed Hilarapy, a method that transforms shame, trauma, and old identities into connection, laughter, and freedom.

Known for her ability to hold depth with warmth and steadiness, Lizzie creates environments where people feel supported to slow down, tell the truth, and reconnect with themselves and others. Her work invites authenticity, reduces shame, and supports lasting transformation, allowing lightness to emerge naturally within a grounded, carefully held process.

Lizzie Press Highlights

Thrive Hilarapy Trailer

— (thrive)

Four women smiling and posing together indoors at a social gathering, with a cozy living room in the background.

Nothing Matters, and Everything Matters

— Maria Shriver, Maria Shriver's Sunday Paper

Vancouver-based Comedian Lizzie Allan

— Vancouver Guardian

Lizzie Allan and Lovolution at Heritage Playhouse with Maria Shriver

Lizzie Allan and Lovolution at the Heritage Playhouse

— Coast Reporter

Lizzie Allan Owning Her Own Story, Shining Her Light

— Drishti

Lizzie Allan Vision

— YouTube

Lizzie Allan, Comedian and founder of Hilarapy in Women of Options

Lizzie Allan - Comedian, RTC, and founder, Hilarapy

— Women of Options

Transform Your Shame Into Comedy

— TED

Girls Rapping about Recovery from Addiction | Stop Using Fool!

— Addictive Comedy | Hilarapy Studios

Hilarapy is born.

— University of Salford