In the early ‘90s, researcher and family and palliative care physician Dr. David Kuhl sat with a 25 year-old man with end-stage AIDS as he called his father from the hospital.

“I heard nothing but silence on the other end as he told his father he was dying of AIDS.” The young man passed away a few weeks later and his father never came to see him.

The questions raised by this experience would inform the next chapter of Dr. Kuhl’s work:

What kind of man would desert his dying son? Would I behave any differently?

What drives men and fathers to behave and engage in the way that they sometimes do?

Dr. Kuhl began to investigate the impact of relationships and the role of group work in psychotherapy, particularly Irvin Yalom’s research and writings on safety, inclusion, and trust in group therapy.

1993

Dr. David Kuhl co-founds one of the first palliative care programs to include HIV/AIDS patients, and begins to incorporate relationship-based education into his practice.

2015

With military transition and trauma expert Dr. Duncan Shields, Dr. Kuhl co-founds Blueprint, with seed funding provided by the Leon Judah Blackmore Foundation and the Mohammad H. Mohseni Foundation, and stewardship from Dr. Larry Goldenberg, founder of the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation.

2024

Results from Blueprint’s flagship First Responder Resiliency Program, delivered to over 400 first responders from 57 public safety organizations, provide evidence of the program’s profound impact on participants’ health and wellness.

Today, Blueprint is a 7-person organization on the road to charitable status.