Bernie Warren Ph.D., Professor Emeritus

Bernie Warren Ph.D., is an award-winning researcher and teacher who recently retired from the University of Windsor as Professor Emeritus after teaching in Universities worldwide for over 35 yrs.

Bernie was born in London, England in 1953. Initially he began training to be a Physician but switched to study the Performing Arts and Psychology. He is trained as a family therapist, drama-therapist and dance therapist; and held University positions in both Drama/Theatre and Psychology.

For more than 40yrs Bernie has run countless workshops and seminars on play, creativity, clowning and laughter worldwide. In addition, he has taught qigong & tai chi as both health promotion and for people of all ages living with life changing conditions.

Prior to coming to Canada in 1982 he taught drama and dance in schools in the UK and Ireland. He studied various styles of Dance-Movement and Drama-Theatre in UK, Europe, Canada and the States; worked as an actor, dancer, choreographer and director; and, was the Co-Artistic Director of 50/50 Theatre Company in Montreal and the Artistic Director of Prospero’s Fools.

He has worked in clinical, educational & community settings worldwide with children with disabilities, survivors of sexual abuse, seniors, and with people living with life-changing and life-threatening conditions. He also has run clinical practice supervisory seminars, supervised numerous research projects and acted as external examiner on sixteen PhDs for major Universities worldwide.

In 2001 Bernie created Fools for Health and its award-winning Clown-Doctor and Elder-Clown programs and for 10 years worked in hospitals and healthcare facilities as Dr. Haven’t-a-Clue and is a world-renowned teacher of medical clowns / clown-doctors.

He is an internationally respected author of books and articles on the use of the arts & humour in healthcare and Eastern healing/ martial arts. His books include: USING THE CREATIVE ARTS IN THERAPY AND HEALTHCARE; SMILES ARE EVERYWHERE: Integrating Clown-Play into Healthcare Practice, with Dr. Peter Spitzer; STAND BREATHE SMILE: Simple Breathing Exercises to Reduce Stress and Promote Better Health; and, DRAMA GAMES (REVISITED): a practical introduction to drama games and activities for people of all ages and abilities.

Professor Warren is the recipient of numerous research grants (including major grants from CIHR and SSHRC). He was the recipient of the University of Windsor’s 2001 Alumni Award for Distinguished Contributions to University Teaching the University of Windsor’s 2009 Outstanding Faculty Research Award (Established Scholars/Researchers). He has been included in Canadian Who’s Who since 1994.

Since his retirement from full-time teaching Dr. Warren has been concentrating on his research and writing, and on teaching workshops for professionals and at Universities around the world.