Meet our new Giggle Doctors!

After a busy year of training combining artistic skills and healthcare, our four “Trainee” Giggle Doctors have officially received their Certificate of Advanced Studies and graduated to “Junior Giggle Doctors”, meaning they are in their final months of training!

What is the difference between a Trainee, Junior and Senior Giggle Doctor?

Over 20 supervised visits in hospital

For the past 12 months, Tamara, Ines, Amy and Holly had many shifts in hospitals working under the guidance of more experienced Giggle Doctors. Alongside this, they attended workshop days to build their artistic skills, from magic tricks, to music, improvisation, slapstick and balloon modelling.

Trainee Giggle Doctors work alongside experienced Giggle Doctors to learn the many ways to connect with children going through challenging times in hospital. Through the guidance and experience of Senior Giggle Doctors, they are able to learn vital skills on how to creating playful encounters no matter a child’s illness, disability or complex need.

The Art of the Giggle Doctor

Our Trainee Giggle Doctors learnt how to use techniques including Intensive Interaction. This is a specialised approach to communicating with children with complex, profound and multiple learning disabilities, to ensure they are adept at playful and joyful interactions with every child they meet in hospital.

Amy, Ines, Holly and Tamara are now holders of a Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS) in “The Art of the Giggle Doctor”, awarded by the Accademia Dimitri, which offers programmes in creative and artistic practices. Daniel Bausch, teacher at the Accademia Dimitri and one of the trainers of the Giggle Doctors, reflects on the experience:

What a Giggle Doctor offers is so much more than entertainment. They are trained on how to work collaboratively with the different roles within the hospitals, to complement the work of doctors, nurses and play specialists.

Graduation Day

Our Programme Manager and Impact Measurement Lead, Isabel Squires, shares how special it was to watch our Trainee Giggle Doctors present their personal thesis and graduate to Junior Giggle Doctors, marking their official move into joining the Theodora family.

“One of the things which makes Theodora Children’s Charity a unique place to work is everyone is there for a reason: improving the lives of children in hospital. This was nowhere more evident than last week when four Trainee Giggle Doctors from our team here in the UK completed this phase of their training, alongside nine Trainee Giggle Doctors from Switzerland.”

“Being a Giggle Doctor looks like a laugh, but over the past year, these Trainees have shown an astounding commitment to learning, in nearly four weeks of training modules and over twenty hospital shifts. What they’ve learned hasn’t all been fun and games, but it has all worked towards one purpose – putting each child they meet in charge for a few minutes of connection. What does that look like? You’ll have to ask each child, because it’s never the same.”

“As someone who works largely on a computer behind the scenes, it was invigorating and inspiring to see the Trainees exploring what it means to be a Giggle Doctor in so much detail.”

“Their personal thesis performances were like a Giggle Doctor visit for adults: just like the children in hospital, we were caught up in the moment of each performance. The Trainee Giggle Doctors brought us all to laughter or pulled us into playfulness just as they do for each child they meet. Even as they explored all the challenges they had grappled with in their training through performance, there was a lightness of touch which signalled what they had all become: Giggle Doctors.”  

What’s next for the Junior Giggle Doctors?

Over the next few months after completing the last of their training and progress visits overseen by our Artistic Coordinators, they will be sitting down with Lydia Pfister, our talented seamstress. Together they will design their personalised Giggle Doctor coats based on the Giggle Doctor name they have chosen.

This eagerly awaited moment symbolises the final stages of becoming a fully fledged Senior Giggle Doctor!

Thank you to our funders

A special thank you to the National Lottery Community Fund and Moose Toys for supporting the training of our Trainees. It is thanks to your kind donations that our new Junior Giggle Doctors have been trained to such a high standard, focusing on child-centred play, ensuring vulnerable children’s safety and responding to each child’s needs.