The Canadian Association of Therapeutic Clowns

(a) The Statement of Principles of the Association is:
We the undersigned professional therapeutic clowns representing therapeutic clowning programs across Canada, viewing ourselves as colleagues, joyfully and earnestly band together to declare our commitment to the creation of a Canadian professional association of therapeutic clowns.
We believe that clowns trained to work specifically in health care settings can and do provide great benefits not only to the patients, residents, their families and staff, but also to the health care environment itself. The therapeutic clowns' intention is not to feel fulfilled in their art, but to use their artistic skills solely for the benefit of those they encounter, embodying and evoking imaginative and creative energies that are often compromised by illness and hospitalization.
With their focus on the imaginative and the creative, therapeutic clowns offer new opportunities for play and laughter, for self-expression and self-acceptance, for mastery and empowerment, and for moments of tenderness and comfort. We believe that these interactions have an impact on everyone's experiences and perceptions, and thus help to humanize the health care setting.
We honour and respect those we serve (patient, resident, family and staff), and offer ourselves as resources they may freely choose to access. We believe that we are co-creators with them, and that the joy, creativity, tenderness, and wealth of benefits arising from our exchanges are a collective creation of all involved. As therapeutic clowns, we see our role as being supportive and inspirational in nature, facilitating and encouraging emotional well-being. The patient, resident, family or staff member is the one whose imagination and creativity we wish to foster, celebrate and set free.
As members of the health care team, we believe in the practice of family-centred care and adhere to the rules, regulations and policies of our respective health care institutions. We work in collaboration with the health care staff, exchanging information and insights that allow us to more effectively meet the needs of each individual. As professionals, we are committed to on-going training and development both in the art of therapeutic clowning and the health care field.
We embrace play as central to coping and healing. As therapeutic clowns we offer unique opportunities for appropriate and spontaneous play. We embrace joy, laughter, sorrow, tenderness, loneliness, fear, hope the whole spectrum of human experience. We do not seek to banish misfortune but rather to walk attentively and lightly with those who choose us as companions.
We seek to meet and engage with those who choose our company as individuals, each of whom has unique qualities, circumstances and needs. We honour the whole person, taking into account that their illness or present state is only one aspect of their being. We seek to connect with the individual, not the illness or condition, and to help them re-connect with the wholeness of their own being.
Our work can make a positive impact on an individual's well-being, but we do not seek to "fix" people or situations. The therapeutic clown is not a therapist, but is a faithful companion and fellow pilgrim on the journey and in the mystery of life. We encourage others to move outside of their present circumstances towards a place of balance, to see the possibility of joy, hope, vitality, and wholeness in the midst of sorrow, stress, illness, dysfunction and even death.
We will do everything possible to facilitate such creative courage. We will seek to evoke from those we encounter the unique potential that lies within each meeting, that all may be enriched.
We believe that there are many ways to do this work. We acknowledge a variety of styles and approaches to therapeutic clowning. As professionals we abide by a code of ethics and receive appropriate remuneration for our work. We embrace our commonalities and differences, and pledge to encourage the growth of this work through dialogue, conferences, articles, research and professional exchanges.
We desire that therapeutic clowning take shape and root throughout Canada, and in so doing express itself uniquely within its own environment and local culture.
To this end we freely offer our knowledge, expertise, skill and commitment to work towards establishing standards of practice, and to further the growth of the profession of therapeutic clowning in Canada and throughout the world.