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Therapeutic clowning began as a profession in the 1980’s, in Winnipeg and New York City simultaneously. Since then, professional companies of hospital clowns have sprung up all over the world.
Dr Clown hires professional performance artists who have a background in theatre, clowning, dance, or music. They are then trained by Dr Clown to deal with issues pertaining specifically to the hospital context such as the health-care environment, confidentiality, the psychosocial make-up of the patients and their families, the objectives of health-care workers, and hygiene and disease control regulations. Each therapeutic artist must undergo a medical and police record screening, as well as submit to a code of ethics to ensure that they are suitable to work in a hospital setting.
Though the clowns themselves are not therapists, the resulting benefits of their work can be considered therapeutic. Without pretending to be an actual treatment, the effect of laughter, relaxation, and the use of imagination on a patient’s nervous system can be beneficial to a patient’s immune system.
Each of our artists creates a clown-doctor character, and gives it a comical name such as Dr. Super Bill, Dr. Frogge, Dr. Pouding, and Dr. Giggle, to name a few. They wear simple, colorful costumes under their trademark white lab coats. Wearing no make-up and just a red nose to differentiate them from the real doctors, they make their rounds twice a week in pairs.
What DO therapeutic clowns do?
The clown-doctors’ role is not one of entertainment but one of empowerment. Rather than focus on performing magical, musical, or other tricks, such as juggling, the clowns will reverse roles with the patient. Hospitalized patients are surrounded by a multitude of experts who take care of them. When the clown-doctors visit, the patient becomes the expert. Clown-doctors are vulnerable and clumsy, and often need the patient's help or advice to get them out of a fix. This allows the patients to take care of someone else, which in turn restores their confidence and self-esteem.
Through their regular weekly presence, clown-doctors form close relationships with long-term patients, their families, and staff, and are missed when they are absent.
Through their level of language, their vocabulary, and the accessories they use, therapeutic clowns help relieve the stress of hospitalization by transporting the patient into a world of imagination, mischief, and play, thus allowing the patient to see the hospital environment through a different, more positive eye.
The therapeutic clowns maintain a positive image by recognizing their own limitations. Each game is custom-designed to evoke a play on the patient’s limitations and illness, but the clown is the vulnerable one that needs help, and the patient holds the key to making them better. Negative emotions are not judged or curbed, but are brought into the game.
What DON'T therapeutic clowns do?
Therapeutic clowns do not impose their presence, nor do they force the patient to laugh. Patients can say no to a clown.
The artists cannot compensate for shortages in staff, or for levels of pain that cannot be controlled. While they can certainly distract patients, bring them some comfort, help reduce their stress, or be their confidante, therapeutic clowns know that they cannot replace family, psychological, or religious support.
Finally, clown-doctors are not there to compete with staff, but rather to complement patient care through humour, imagination, fun, and tenderness.
Example of a Dr Clown pediatric visit
At the nurse's station: "We're glad you're here," says the head nurse. "Hasan has to go down for surgery right now, and none of his family could be here. He's scared to go alone, can you go along with him?"
Dr Frogge and Dr Quenouille are delighted to accompany their eight-year-old friend whom they know has been hospitalized for a few weeks. They invite him to be part of their official hospital parade, and he accepts. Since neither of them knows how to march in a parade, they ask Hasan to show them. Hasan explains, and laughs as they end up walking right into the wall and into each other in a vain attempt to march. The clowns give Hasan a shaker, a pair of maracas to the orderly and bells to the nurse, leaving Dr Frogge on the kazoo and Dr Quenouille on her flute, and off they go in a motley parade down to surgery. They wave and smile at everyone they pass, all of whom respond with a wave and a huge grin. Hasan enters the operating room, still humming the marching tune.
Example of a visit with an elderly patient
“Mrs C, in Room 645, fell and has been bedridden for several days. She is very down in the dumps. I think she could do with a visit from the Doctors, “ says the nurse at the desk.
Dr L’Air de Rien and Dr Se-Pense-Bien are delighted to see their old friend again and hope that her fit of the blues isn’t too serious. “Mrs C! It’s us! Can we come in?”
Mrs C heaves a heavy sigh; she recognizes the voices of the clowns who have been coming to see her for years and invites them in.
“Mrs C, they told us you tried to throw yourself on the ground again. What exactly is it that you are trying to do?”
“Oh, no, my young friends, this time it’s really not funny.”
“Let’s see . . . what are you going to tell us this time . . . you’re not going to complain again? Don’t go thinking that we want to hear all your problems.”
“Oh! You know, I feel like dying. I’ve had enough. I’m good for nothing now. And I keep hurting myself worse and worse. Oh! I hate being stuck in this bed.”
“Sleep on the floor then.”
“Ha ha . . . You know I’m too old for that. »
“Oh no, you’re not. We could come and camp out with you.”
“Ha ha! I didn’t think you would be able to make me laugh today. Okay, you can have your cookies.”
“Thank you, Mrs C!”
As they munch on their cookies: “Mrs C, do you know why you aren’t dead yet?”
“What nonsense are you going to tell me this time?”
“Well, we think that maybe you don’t really know how to die. If you want, we can help you practice. Here, lie down like this, with your hands together on your stomach. That’s good. Close your eyes. Great. Ah, yes. You really look dead now! Bravo. Okay, now your soul is coming out of your body and going up to heaven. It tickles a bit as it goes through the clouds. And now you’re at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter is there, and an angel. St. Peter says, ‘Hello, Mrs C. Do you know how to sing? Because we need someone for the choir. Show me how you sing.’”
And so Mrs C warbles happily, “Glo-ooooo-ooooo-ooooo-ria! In Excelsis Deo!” while the two clown-doctors cover her in kisses and quietly leave the room. Mrs C is smiling now.
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