The Vital Force Archive

Sr. Rita Jean DuBrey links her early morning T'ai Chi Chih practice to Centering Prayer, recounts her 2001 teacher training with Ed Altman, and quotes student evaluations from eight-week sessions at a hospital complementary therapies center.

Holly Davis recounts how insurance and CPR requirements nearly blocked her from teaching at Eisenhower Memorial Hospital, and how Pam Towne's advice about waivers led to four classes a week.

Six classroom anecdotes from Nancy Jo Bleier, Debbie Cole and Sharon Sirkis, including a hospital student singing rock-a-bye-baby during Pulling in the Energy and a pose renamed the "Cosmic Kick-stand."

Sandy McAlister presented the T'ai Chi Chih segment of a Kaiser Permanente videoconference film on movement therapies, shown alongside Feldenkrais, chi gong and yoga to doctors and nurses in Northern California hospitals.

Judy Hendricks describes practicing T'ai Chi Chih mentally during three weeks of hospital bed rest after her water broke at 6 1/2 months, and the resealed rupture and full-term birth of her daughter Anastasia that followed.

Linda Robinson recounts how a chance remark from a Seattle hospital bereavement coordinator led to paid TCC classes for the recently bereaved, with practical advice on scheduling, candles and group critique.

Hannah Hedrick, a former AMA executive, lays out the folder a teacher should assemble for a hospital interview: benefit statements, the AMA Cultural Competence Compendium entry, Dr. Scotti's letter to Justin Stone, and research citations, speaking of symptoms rather than diseases.

Nancy Vermond reports Hannah Hedrick's conference roundtable on teaching T'ai Chi Chih in chest-high water of 90 to 100 degrees, using ankle or waist weights to stay grounded.

Noel Altman describes choosing a small, quirky conference room with windows and wooden floors over larger HMO spaces, and how teaching in a circle improved group cohesion.

In a letter to the editor, Deanne Hodgson reports leaving her part-time nursing job to teach at twelve locations, joining Arizona Integrated Medicine and becoming T'ai Chi Chih consultant at Scottsdale's Healing Oasis.

Lyn Welch reports growing classes at a hospital and with survivor and MS groups, then describes running her whole TCC practice mentally during an hour-long EEG and puzzling the doctor with unusually even brain waves.

Susan Patterson recounts how Dr. Tahir Bhatti's back pain study at UCSD led Dr. Michael Irwin to test TCC's effect on shingles vaccine response and immunity in people over 60.

Noel Altman describes filling three waitlisted TCC classes at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco, teaching the form over two eight-week courses, adapting for disabilities, and sending students home with Justin Stone's video.

Mary Teetor Zablotny's letter to the San Francisco Kaiser Health Education Department describes practising two or three movements at a time while hospitalized with pneumonia, and the easier stair climbing her asthma allowed after four classes.

Noel Altman relays two blood pressure drops: Jo Trautmann's Texas student Chuck L. reached a diastolic of 79 after four lessons, and Kaiser San Francisco student Nancy C. measured 130/68.

Tara Stiles reports that three Kaiser facilities contracted her, Judy Tretheway and Nancy Reed through Health Education and Behavioral Medicine, including her demanding class for the "Health Challenged."

Carmen Brocklehurst surveys T'ai Chi Chih's reach in 1998: teachers in 42 states and abroad, HMO prescriptions, corporate classes, nursing CEUs, Folsom Prison teacher training and the PBS series.

Teacher notes from Shirley and Cheryl Hall's demonstration for a Cannon Beach children's China unit, Sister Marie-Ann Main's thanks before carrying TCC to South Africa, Paul Ciske on posture, Kaiser classes and Himalayan practice.

Carolyn L. Errie, a self-described controlling person, recounts how her daily morning practice let her calmly stop a hospital nurse from connecting a glucose drip to her diabetic mother.

Stephanie Winter helped her friend Anne through a long natural labor, and when the midwife asked to change the energy in the room she practised Joyous Breath and Passing Clouds.

Teachers in Alaska, California, New Jersey and Virginia report on Seijaku accreditation in Albuquerque, a fifth Kaiser-Permanente site adopting TCC, an Elderhostel group, and a ski club demonstration.

Drs. Lumsden and Matire, with research assistant Baccala, introduce primary care physicians to t'ai chi ch'uan as a low-impact adjunct therapy for osteoarthritis of the hip and knee.

Teacher updates spanning Theda Gillespie's newspaper feature and regional TV interview in New Zealand, Marlene Brown's coaching visits in Lausanne, Kaiser Permanente and corporate classes in California, a Minnesota prison inmate's letter, and Dale Buchanan's new Virginia studio.

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.

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.

Janet Clarkson recounts the balance loss, blurred vision and tingling hands that led to her multiple sclerosis diagnosis at 42, and how Roberta Taggart's class at Kaiser Permanente eased her spasms and pain.

Paula Favorito passes along a Suburban Town News notice for a T'ai Chi Chih course at Holy Name Hospital, where a typo promises twenty simple non-marital movements.

A state-by-state roundup: seated TCC on local TV at Casa Sandoval, Marianne Merritt's classes for California prison staff and inmates, a University of Cincinnati research grant, hospital wellness and community college classes, and an April Seijaku retreat.

Brief notes on seven 1996 conference workshops, from Steve Ridley on refining moves and Corinn Coyde's paired Pulling Taffy practice to Carmen Brocklehurst on corporate insurance liability and Lia Ridley's top-rated dance session.

Judy Jones recounts a lunchtime practice on the grass at Evergreen Hospital's courtyard where a large black dog galloped through the group into the pond during Joyous Breath.