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A Touchpoint of Lightness for Dark Times
Clown for Mental Health is an invitation to explore the relationship between Clown and wellbeing. It's a space where the heaviness you've been carrying and the lightness you've been missing are both welcome, both real, and both part of the work.
It isn't about becoming a better performer. It's about reconnecting with parts of yourself that may have been buried beneath responsibility, self-consciousness, stress, or simply the demands of everyday life. It's about remembering how to feel, express, play, and come alive again.​
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We often hear teachers say, "Clown is not therapy, but it can be therapeutic." Let's just say it: clowning can be profoundly beneficial for our mental health, emotional regulation, and overall sense of wellbeing. That's why more and more teachers with training in both fields are explicitly connecting the dots.
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We're bringing together practitioners who intentionally weave the playful authenticity of clowning into their work - including teachers with backgrounds in IFS, Gestalt, Drama Therapy and other healing modalities. Broadly, their aim is to help people reconnect with their life force, accept themselves more fully, play with the absurd realities of being human, and loosen the patterns that keep them stuck.
Who is it for?
people wanting to experience more joy and lightness in their everyday lives
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people whose creative, playful side keeps getting smothered by fear, anxiety or depression
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people who take themselves and life too seriously and are looking for an antidote
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people wanting to supercharge their agility and resilience for volatile times
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people craving connection with others striving to be better humans in the world
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people who want to harness the combined power of clowning and mental health in their own teaching practice
Series Flow
Sept 12 | Mery Miguez | Coming from Love
NLP practitioner and mindfulness coach Mery Miguez opens the series with a 90-minute session rooted in the belief that clowning is a beautiful tool for coming to know and love our deepest selves. Through clown games, reflective practice and the quiet act of saying yes to what you feel, participants begin to unlearn the conditioning that keeps them at arm's length from themselves.
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Sept 21 | Holly Stoppit | TBC
Holly Stoppit is the creator of Clown-o-therapy and holds an MA in Dramatherapy, bringing two decades of experience at the intersection of clowning and therapeutic practice. Her session will explore the territory of parts work, drawing on her deep expertise in using clown as a vehicle for self-discovery and psychological healing. Full session details to be announced.
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Sept 28 | Panel Session | Clown for Mental Health
With Christina Lewis, Pedro Fabião, Sandy El Bitar and Denni Dennis
Four practitioners whose collective experience spans hospital clowning, drama therapy, palliative care, refugee communities and international performance bring their perspectives to bear on a single question: what can clowning offer mental health? Drawing on work across more than 25 countries and a lifetime of using humor, play and presence as tools for transformation, this panel promises to be one of the most wide-ranging and illuminating conversations in the series.
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Oct 3 | Patrick van den Boom | Virtual Vocal Band
Hospital clown, founder of Clownschool International and pioneer of clowning in dementia care, Patrick van den Boom brings his philosophy of presence and connection to a session exploring the wellness power of breath, voice and movement. These are among our most immediate and accessible tools for shifting how we feel in any given moment, and Patrick's playful, embodied approach makes them available to everyone regardless of experience or background.
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Oct 12 | Jamie Wood | Becoming Whole
International art clown and counsellor Jamie Wood draws on Jungian psychology to explore the parts of ourselves we keep in shadow: the aspects of our character we deem unpalatable, unloveable, or simply too much. In a playful open space supported by music, costumes and props, participants are invited to bring those hidden parts forward and share them, unapologetically, with others. As Jung once said: "The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely."
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Oct 19 | Ailon Freedman | Clown Healing
Guided onto the spiritual path after a near-fatal accident at 21, Ailon Freedman has spent his adult life synthesising yoga, therapy and clowning into a practice he calls Clown Healing. This session moves participants from body warm-up through to structured encounters with failure, shame and vulnerability, using parts work and embodiment to reclaim the shadow aspects of the self. As one participant put it: "I lost three things from your workshop. A stiff body, a numb heart and a disease called seriousness."
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Oct 26 | Sophie Besse | M/Others Who Care
Theatre director, therapist and clown doula Sophie Besse, who has worked in French prisons and with refugee communities across the UK and Europe, offers this session as a playful me-time space for anyone who carries the weight of caring for others. Using a rope as a physical metaphor for the bonds of a caring relationship, participants explore through clown games what those bonds feel like in the body, and what it might mean to end with a clown self-care routine of their own devising.
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Nov 2 | Zuma Puma | Playing with Perception
Award-winning clown, NLP Master Practitioner and founder of Clownlife.org, Zuma Puma brings together clowning, ritual, psychomagic and neuroscience to explore mental health as a creative and transformative process. Rooted in research around perception, mindfulness and the power of the mind, this session offers playful practices that encourage connection, self-inquiry, resilience and authentic expression. For anyone drawn to the sacred and transformative dimensions of clowning, this session will resonate deeply.
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Nov 9 | Suzy Harvey | Wise Fool, Wise Self
Suzy Harvey, specialist in joy and connection and former Giggle Doctor in children's hospitals, closes the series with a session that places the ridiculous and the profound side by side. Through movement, laughter, improvisation and playful writing, participants reconnect with themselves, with each other, and with the collective wisdom they already carry. No writing, performance or clowning experience needed. Come as you are. Whether you feel like it or not.
We Have Designed This Series as…
A Space for Learning
Be inspired by the work of 8 awesome teachers who have made it their mission to harness the medicine of the clown to help us reconnect with ourselves and gently transform the patterns that hold us back and make us miserable.
A Space for Healing
Just being part of the learning journey will itself bring so many positive transformations: Self-expression, Creativity, Humility, Acceptance, Vulnerability, Present Moment Living, Mindfulness, Spontaneity, Connection, Authenticity, Joy, Going with the flow.
Across a series of embodied workshops, you'll explore:
Freeing the body, the face, the voice — non-verbal communication, movement, and play as ways of expressing what words sometimes can't
The art of failure, and why letting go of perfectionism is liberating, not frightening
A community of fellow students of life — bringing both seriousness and silliness to the table
Devising your own clown self-care routine — practical, personal, and yours to keep
The relationships you carry — including a workshop on care and mental health, where you'll explore the bonds you hold (and the weight of them) through clown.