Andrea came to T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) after practicing T’ai Chi Chuan for two years. She found TCC less complex and felt the Chi flowing in her body within a few months. She began a 2-year intensive TCC practice and qualified for TCC teacher intensive training.  She completed TCC teacher training in 2003.

Since that time, she has used TCC in her work as a Nurse in various positions. She taught residents in Long Term Care, Veterans in chronic pain, and colleagues at Veteran Affairs (VA), where she offered a weekly class to employees. Andrea also did a short research project for the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Veterans in the 7- week residential program. This short study used tapping on Meridian lines to calm their highly sensitive nervous systems and then allowed them to do about 45 minutes of TCC weekly. Of the 19 Veterans who completed before and after questionnaires fully, the data results show: 50% decrease in Pain, 35% decrease in Racing Thoughts, 39% decrease in Anger, 35% decrease in Anxiety, and 10% increase in Calmness after 1 hour of T’ai Chi Chih practice, thus supporting further implementation of gentle energy services.

Andrea has also been a certified Holistic Nurse since 1999. Since 2010, she has taught TCC at the annual American Holistic Nurse Association (AHNA) national conference. She has also taught TCC at the Midwest Regional Holistic Conference and continues her personal practice to help maintain peace of mind in life’s ups and downs.

Andrea completed a VA PTSD research study as Principal Investigator using a mind-body-spirit method called “Healing from the Body Level Up” (HBLU). HBLU is easiest to understand as the “How to” identify the trigger and break it down into its parts, and then use tapping meridian lines as one of the main treatment methods to calm the body’s nervous system back to baseline.  See www.hblu.org for more info. To this research, she was able to add TCC as a treatment option that a Veteran could choose to calm the nervous system down, besides tapping.

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