Back in the Day: Thoughts on Broadening the Reach of TCC

Listening to Sue and George describe their experiences during the conference, I was brought back to my roots, to the direction I wanted to go. My field of vision started to open when, once monthly, our youth group visited teens in a detention facility to play games. I was shocked at their setting and educated about their homelife and offenses. I considered becoming a probation officer.

In college I did field work, once with phone help and outreach at a crisis intervention center. Perhaps I’d be a social worker. I was also involved in Big Brothers, Big Sisters, and a program called Volunteers in Probation.

My first job was as a floor supervisor and case manager in a sheltered workshop for disabled adults. Next came a degree in special education. After post graduate studies, my next career took place in a partial hospital program/Adult Day Care facility, as a therapist and case worker for dually diagnosed adults.

What is the point of sharing this resume? All of these careers happened before I knew T’ai Chi Chih (TCC). There were so many opportunities to share TCC in these settings, but it was not yet part of my life.

Then I taught special education in the public school system – learning support, emotional support, and life skills. Half-way through that teaching career I became an accredited TCC teacher. Finally, there were opportunities to actually teach this wonderful moving meditation to support staff and to my life skills students.

Fast forward to today. I’m looking at my own community for places to volunteer and share TCC: adult day care, at free lunch programs, women’s shelters, houseless shelters, support groups, childcare programs, after school programs, senior centers. Have you started to look in your own community to broaden the reach of TCC?