Sustaining the Heart of Health
Shifting the healthcare paradigm from an interventional model to a preventive one.
Phoenix, ArizonaField BulletinAugust 2021
Articles · Field report
For the last 7 years, I have been traveling with Dr. Patch Adams, the world’s most recognized humanitarian clown, and 100 other clowns from around the world, to participate in the Belén Festival. This is a community health project that educates people, promotes wellness, and brings joy, hope, and healing to this impoverished community in Iquitos, Peru.
Clowns conduct dozens of workshops (from the art of trapeze to puppetry); they paint murals, create art projects, and visit hospitals, prisons, and orphanages. In addition, for the last 4 years, clowns who also are health care professionals conduct mental health clinics in the streets.
Read the full report →Level 1
The psychobiology of how laughter, humor, playfulness and spontaneity affect the brain and strengthen the immune system: setting the stage to open lines of communication, facing vulnerability and embarrassment, sharing your truth in words, silence, pantomime and movement, and curbing judgement to listen actively.
Level 2
The continuing exploration: accessing your unconscious mind and its intuitive wisdom, trusting that the heart knows things the mind cannot conceive, developing a clown character, and working with props, voices and puppets.
Level 3
Levels 1 and 2 are a prerequisite. Truth Fairies create a safe space and make a connection even in the hardest times: identifying people's strengths and resilience, creating new endings to old stories, setting boundaries, and focusing on taking one step forward. Graduates receive a certificate and a personal flag.
Clinic
Where the training is used. Fifteen minutes with a health professional to talk about anything on your mind, with no scheduling, no paperwork, no diagnoses and no prescriptions, brought directly to communities with little or no access to care.
Clownvets – A film by Esteban Rojas produced by Patch Adams. Every day in the US, over 20 Veterans commit suicide due to Post Traumatic Stress. This movie was just released on YouTube.…
The Clown/Fool/Jester is a recognizable figure in every culture in recorded history. The clown is an archetype, a human characteristic that’s biologically embedded in the mind, universally…
From Clinical Psychiatry News, October 2014
The clown/fool/jester is a recognizable figure in every culture. The clown is an archetype, a universal image that’s embedded in the brain. These images dwell in the unconscious mind. They…
For the last 7 years, I have been traveling with Dr. Patch Adams, the world’s most recognized humanitarian clown, and 100 other clowns from around the world, to participate in the Belén…
The inaugural Clown Town Healing Fest, a visionary health care festival, proved to be a practical demonstration of the future of health care. One of its many innovative aspects is the…
Ever had a patient who not only got better but used the insights she gained from talking with you to help others in distress? I have just such a patient in the Peruvian Amazon.
Frontline Medical News, October 14, 2016, by Carl A. Hammerschlag, MD
To provide a brief overview … we go to a neighborhood, set up our space, and walk the streets with a bull horn. We announce our presence – “we are mental health professionals, and we’re…
Portrait of a Psychiatrist — Series Editor, H. Steven Moffic, MD
The question of whether to self-disclose in my work as a community psychiatrist is a non-issue—it must be done. No matter how well-intentioned and well-trained you are, the community wants…
The word for health in the Navajo language is “hozho.” Hozho is also the word for truth, beauty, harmony, balance, and the great spirit.
In addition to being a psychiatrist, I’m also a humanitarian clown. For the last 30 years, I have traveled the world with my friend and holy brother, Patch Adams MD, perhaps the world’s…
Clinical Psychiatry News, October 2014
The clown, fool and jester is a recognizable figure in every culture. The clown is an archetype, a universal image that is embedded in the brain.
The Healing Corps
The clown is an archetype, a human characteristic that is biologically embedded in the mind, universally present in the human psyche.
Clinical Psychiatry News, November 2013
We are in the midst of enormous changes in health care delivery, ushering in a cultural shift from a prohibitively expensive interventional health care model to one based on prevention.
Field report from the Belén Festival, Iquitos, Peru
A community health project that educates people, promotes wellness, and brings joy, hope and healing to this impoverished community in Iquitos, Peru.
Frontline Medical News, October 14, 2016
By Carl A. Hammerschlag, MD. Ever had a patient who not only got better, but used the insights she gained from talking with you to help others in distress?
Co-founder
An internationally recognized psychiatrist, author and humanitarian clown who worked for many years in Native American communities. He devised The Healing Corps curriculum.
Co-founder and Executive Director
A community organizer, performance artist, humanitarian clown and LGBTQ+ activist who operationalized the curriculum and directs the organization.
Email[email protected]
Telephone480.382.0605
Mailing address3104 East Camelback Road #614, Phoenix, AZ 85016