The Vital Force Archive

Teacher news reports 83-year-old John J. O'Connor's accreditation at Mahwah, Justin Stone's first East Coast visit to Convent Station, Marlene Brown's six-day Kentucky wellness retreat, and Patricia Herbig's call for medical evidence of TCC's benefits.

Dr. Tahir Bhatti describes his UCSD School of Medicine fellowship grant to test T'ai Chi Chih against routine care for chronic low back pain, teaching 11 movements in six-week sessions.

Roberta Taggart lays out the five-part hour she developed for seated T'ai Chi Chih with frail elderly students at two senior day care centers, from an opening reading through warm-ups, the form, and closing waterfall visualization.

Virginia Cepeda describes two years of teaching a physically challenged class who practiced daily holding kitchen sinks and chairs, until 14 of 16 students stood and performed unaided in March 1997.

Pat Huseby gives five guidelines for teaching seated Seijaku at a Danville retirement community, from sitting to the chair's edge to placing thought in the t'an t'ien, plus advice for fibromyalgia flare-ups.

Lynn Lind's Deming Headlight report on Beverly McFarland, who took over daily T'ai Chi Chih sessions at the Deming Elderhostel, came to the practice through recurring dreams, and taught a blind woman with her own eyes closed.

Five readers write in, from Jackie Kingsbury spiral-binding her back issues to Mike Wavra asking what seated practice means for a man with MS: what do you do with the feet?

Christeen McLain-Horpedahl recounts teaching seated T'ai Chi Chih at Villa Maria Nursing Home in Fargo from 1985, her daughter Kathryn helping residents form circles, Gail Braaten's 12-week study, and two knee injuries healed without surgery.

Roberta Taggart offers five pointers for new or physically limited students to avoid delayed-onset muscle soreness: staying at 70% of capacity, adding practice time gradually, practising daily, warming up and breathing naturally.

Pamela Butler, a recreation director at Liberty Commons, expected karate kicks and resisted scheduling a class, then watched Ralph Garn teach seniors in Manlius and arranged an eight-week course.

Prompted by Ray Watson's letter in the March issue, Justin Stone recalls teaching partially paralyzed students at Kushi West in Los Angeles in 1975, where some regained sensation in their legs.

Marlene Brown volunteered to lead T'ai Chi Chih at a clinic program for people with schizophrenia, and within four days was offered a paid contract that was later extended twice.

Ruth Marie Arguello-Sheehan, a retired RN, describes her Sun City classes for students aged 9 to 96, watching for unsafe movement after reports of knee, hip and back injuries from other T'ai Chi classes.

Ray Watson describes teaching Mary, a woman in her seventies paralyzed on her left side, who heard him on Batavia talk radio and, combining TCC with visualization and self-hypnosis, regained feeling and began standing.

Paula Weiner, accredited in April 1995 and about to turn 60, describes teaching three night classes a week and leading a Chicago synagogue presentation for 30 seniors, some paralyzed, some arthritic.

Hope Ridley's conference notes on adapting TCC for seniors, wheelchair users, cardiac and arthritis students, including skipping taffies, one-arm Pulley, mental practice, class fees and bringing focus back to the t'an t'ien before standing.

Anne Doering, who has epilepsy, recounts team teaching at the Serenity Shop bookstore with her student Barbara, and catching Louise as a seizure struck her mid-practice.

Lisa Langer's piece from OT Week describes t'ai chi as an occupational therapy intervention, citing studies on postural control in the elderly, rheumatoid arthritis patients, and NIH-funded balance research at Northwestern.

Beverly McFarland describes her fourth-class Taffies and silent practice, Diana and Richard Daffner report free beach practice with dolphins and Diana's flute tape, and Hope Ridley balances quick learners with two students who have MS.

Recovering from foot surgery, Rosalind Braga spent the 9th Annual Conference practicing seated T'ai Chi Chih, and describes the pelvic movement, rooted center and movements that worked best for her seniors class.

Patricia Bough, sidelined by tendinitis, taught her senior center class seated, then standing with a student model, then settled on using Justin's new video so she could circulate, correct and rest her foot.

Carolyn P. Shaw's first teaching after breaking her leg: a two-week class for 19 seniors in the Getaway Program, with Tao Te Ching readings, chair practice, and a man with a lung ailment performing at the final banquet.

Sandy McAlister describes co-teaching a six-hour Clinical Use of T'ai Chi Chih workshop with hand therapist Eva Ching for Northern California physical and occupational therapists treating chronic pain and hand rehabilitation.

Lucille Boman began practicing a week after back surgery, standing still with wobbly legs, skipping Pulling Taffy, until three weeks later she completed the whole form with her group at Santa Margarita Lake.

The La Crosse Tribune of August 2, 1993 profiled Sister Marian Massman, a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration who teaches TCC at the Franciscan Spirituality Center and credits daily practice with suppler limbs and the end of her knee pains.

Press coverage of two teachers: Barbara Riley's classes at the Rossmoor retirement complex, where a student with a hip replacement praised the gentle motion, and Lynne Blackford's full-page feature in the Missoulian.

Esther Kieffer leads four and five year olds with disabilities in Rocking Motion each morning to Daniel Kobialka music, ending with a minute of silence in the dark before the school day begins.

Teachers report in: Denver weighs hosting the 1995 conference, Chris McLain documents blood pressure and anxiety changes in Fargo, Pam Towne heads to Russia, Verna Wenger copes with inoperable cancer, and Daniel Froese adapts movements for wheelchair users.

Barbara Peller describes her first semester teaching T'ai Chi Chih to seniors at three locations, with mid-class rest breaks, chairs on hand, movements talked through aloud, and students encouraged to advocate for their own bodies.

Luis Sanchez teaches T'ai Chi Chih in two retirement communities and one public class, encouraging seniors to move within comfort and answering questions about softness with "are flowers relaxed?"