Together we are the change, building a sustainable future for the sanctity of play, and dignity of care.
IAHC is being built by and for the global community of healthcare clowning practitioners. Founding members shape the standards, inform the training frameworks, and secure their place at the front of the queue when certification launches. Join now, while there is still ground to break.
What Founding Membership Gives You
IAHC membership is the foundation of everything: training, certification, resources, community, and recognition. Founding members also get a direct voice in shaping what we build.
A Global Network, Being Built Now
As a founding member, you are part of the network from day one. The IAHC member directory is being designed as a searchable, global database of practitioners, researchers, and institutions. Your profile will be among the first when it launches.
Resource Library Access
Practitioner members will receive priority access to the IAHC resource library as it is developed: clinical guidelines, practice tools, recorded lectures, research summaries, and member-only publications. Founding members help shape what gets built first.
First in Line for Certification
Membership is the gateway to IAHC certification when it launches. Founding practitioners will have priority access to the proposed grandfathering pathway, a portfolio-based route that honours existing expertise. The grandfathering window is proposed at no less than 24 months from formal ratification.
Events and Symposia: Priority Access
When the IAHC events programme launches, including the proposed Annual World Symposium, regional workshops, and online CPD webinars, founding members will be notified first and receive priority registration and discounted rates.
Peer Community
The IAHC member forum is being built as a moderated, professional space for case discussion, peer support, and research sharing. Founding members will be the first to access it, and will help set the tone for the global conversation.
Shape the Standards
Founding members have a direct voice in what IAHC becomes. From the Standards of Practice to the certification framework and training pathways, the people who join now are the people who help decide what the global standard looks like.
Choose Your Membership
Three tiers designed for every stage of practice, from those just discovering the field to established institutions building formal programs.
Associate Member
For students, volunteers, and those new to healthcare clowning who want to connect with the global community as it forms.
Indicative, subject to board ratification
- Your name in the founding member record
- IAHC newsletter and research updates as they are published
- Discounted registration for IAHC events and webinars (when scheduled)
- Access to the free-tier IAHC resource library
- Voting rights at the Annual General Meeting once ratified
- A direct voice in shaping the standards and direction of the field
Practitioner Member
For active healthcare clowning practitioners who want to help build the global standard, and be first in line when certification launches.
Indicative, subject to board ratification
- Everything in Associate membership
- Priority access to the full IAHC resource library as it is developed
- First access to training registration and CEU pathways when launched
- Priority eligibility for IAHC certification when the credential opens
- Priority access to the proposed grandfathering pathway for established practitioners
- Early access to peer community and professional network as it grows
- Priority notification for IAHC events and symposia
- Use of IAHC Founding Member designation
Institutional Member
For hospitals, healthcare organisations, and training institutions who want to help shape the international standard and position their programs within it.
Indicative, subject to board ratification
- Up to 5 individual Practitioner memberships included
- Institutional listing in the IAHC directory when established
- Input into IAHC standards and accreditation framework development
- Priority eligibility for organisational recognition under the proposed grandfathering framework
- Discounted group training registrations when available
- Recognition as an IAHC Founding Affiliated Institution
- Consultation access for program development as the framework matures
All memberships are billed annually. Reduced rates available for practitioners in low- and middle-income countries. Get in touch for details.
A Community Being Built Across Every Region
The IAHC member directory is being designed as a searchable, filterable database of practitioners, researchers, and institutions worldwide, making it easy to find colleagues in your region, identify potential collaborators, or locate a mentor.
Directory access will be available to all IAHC members. The network below represents the regions we are building toward. Founding members from each region are welcome now.
Growing
Europe
Growing
North America
Growing
Latin America
Growing
Asia-Pacific
Growing
Middle East & Africa
Growing
Other Regions
Where the Community Will Gather
From an annual World Symposium to regional workshops and online webinars, the IAHC events programme is being planned. Dates, locations, and pricing will be confirmed once the board and operational structure are in place. Founding members will be notified first.
IAHC World Symposium: Planned
The proposed flagship event of the IAHC calendar: three days of keynotes, workshops, research presentations, and networking, bringing together practitioners, researchers, and advocates from across the globe.
Evidence Update: Healthcare Clowning in Geriatric Care
A proposed webinar reviewing current research on healthcare clowning in aged care settings, with a panel of practitioners. Format and scheduling to be confirmed once the IAHC events programme is established.
Reflective Practice Intensive
A proposed in-person workshop on reflective practice frameworks for healthcare clowning. Location, format, and scheduling to be confirmed once the IAHC events programme is established.
Clowning at the Threshold: Palliative & End-of-Life Practice
A proposed practitioner-led webinar exploring the unique ethical and relational dimensions of healthcare clowning in palliative and end-of-life care contexts.
The Conversation That Moves the Field Forward
The IAHC member forum is being built as a moderated, professional space for case discussion, peer support, research sharing, and the kind of collegial conversation that only a global community can offer.
The forum will be organised by clinical setting, discipline, and topic. The sample threads below illustrate the kinds of conversations we are building this space for. The forum itself will open to founding members once the platform is established.
Join to access the forumWhat approaches have others found effective with non-verbal patients in ICU settings? Looking to discuss techniques that don't rely on verbal cues...
Forum opens to founding members
New systematic review published in Arts in Psychotherapy, with significant findings on geriatric settings. Worth discussing the implications for our proposed framework...
Forum opens to founding members
Thoughts on how the proposed SOP-4 ethical conduct domain should handle dual-role situations, for example a nurse who is also a trained healthcare clown on the same ward?
Forum opens to founding members
Be a Founding Member of the Global Standard
Healthcare clowning is practiced in hospitals across more than 40 countries. It deserves a unified professional identity, a portable credential, and the infrastructure to sustain it. IAHC is being built to provide exactly that, and founding members are the people who make it happen.