Pilot Concept Website — Association in Formation.
No board has been constituted, no courses are currently offered, no certification program is accepting enrollment, and no membership is yet open.
A Message
from the Founder
Adam Zimmerman — practitioner, scholar, and the person behind this initiative.
Why I Built This
Therapeutic clowning is one of the most evidence-supported, least formally recognised disciplines in modern healthcare. Practitioners work in hospitals, palliative care units, rehabilitation centres, and long-term care facilities around the world, and yet there is no international body that sets standards, validates training, or provides the kind of professional infrastructure that comparable disciplines take for granted.
I built this concept because I believe that gap is both unnecessary and harmful. Harmful to practitioners who deserve professional recognition. Harmful to the institutions that employ them without a common standard to rely on. And most importantly, harmful to the patients and families who deserve to know that the person at their bedside has met a recognised standard of care.
The International Association of Healthcare Clowning is not yet an organisation. It is a proposal, a carefully researched, evidence-grounded, professionally designed concept for what such an organisation could and should be. This website is a pilot pitch, shared openly so that the people who would be most affected by it can engage with it, question it, and ultimately help shape it.
I am not approaching this from the outside. I am a practitioner. I have been in the rooms. I know what this work asks of a person, and I know what it gives back. That experience is the foundation of everything proposed here, and it is what keeps me committed to seeing this through.
If you are a therapeutic clown, a healthcare administrator, a researcher, an educator, or simply someone who believes this field deserves better, I would genuinely love to hear from you.
Adam Zimmerman, Ottawa, Canada
Curriculum Vitae
Adam Zimmerman's professional background, academic credentials, and practice history.
© 2026 Adam Zimmerman. All rights reserved. Shared for informational purposes only.
The Foundation Behind the Concept
IAHC was not designed in the abstract. It was built from the intersection of direct practice, academic research, and sustained engagement with the international field.
Practitioner
Years of direct practice as a therapeutic clown in paediatric and adult healthcare settings, building the lived understanding that underpins every framework proposed here.
Scholar
Graduate-level academic work in healthcare and expressive arts, culminating in the position paper Medicine, Not Magic — the evidentiary foundation for IAHC.
Advocate
A sustained commitment to professionalising the field — establishing standards, training pathways, and ethical frameworks that protect practitioners and the populations they serve.
Connector
Extensive engagement with the international therapeutic clowning community, from hospital programs in Canada to organisations across Europe, Israel, Brazil, and beyond.
Architect
The conceptual design of IAHC — its certification tiers, competency framework, code of ethics, and governance model — reflects years of research, consultation, and iterative thinking.
Read the Position Paper
Medicine, Not Magic (Zimmerman, 2025) is the academic foundation for IAHC — a graduate-level examination of the evidence base for therapeutic clowning and the case for a professional association. Shared freely for informational purposes.
© 2025 Adam Zimmerman. All rights reserved. This paper may not be reproduced or cited without the express written permission of the author.