The Jam for Joy is an improvisation class created for the Parkinson’s disease community by Robert Cochrane, PhD. These games have been tested and shown to improve confidence, creativity and communication.
While they are offered through our nonprofit, Yes, And…eXercise!, we hope you’ll try them in your support group as a way to increase engagement, joy and gratitude. Please let us know how you used these games and how they were received.
More at www.yesandexercise.org.
Dr. Robert Cochrane is a graduate of UNLV's Integrated Health Sciences department. He's researching the effect of improvisation and storytelling on Parkinson’s disease. He received grants from the Parkinson's Foundation and support from the Davis Phinney Foundation along the way. He is a popular, unique and high energy Keynote speaker, bringing joy, optimism and practical tools for people in the PD community to thrive today.
He has a background in filmmaking, with the Artisan Entertainment release, The Playaz Court, and two Stephen King-based short films among his credits. His father, Dan, was diagnosed with PD in 2001, which shifted Robert’s artistic lens to health. He made his first documentary, the award-winning Boys of Summer in 2004. There are two follow up films in the series with the fourth film coming in 2023.
He moved his family back to Walnut Creek, CA, where he grew up. He lives there with his beautiful wife, two teenagers who are, indeed, "all that" and is a proud care partner for his amazing parents.
