The Vital Force Archive

JJ Johnson describes the room where he and his wife trained with Marie Dotts, including a jolt of polarity felt during seated Working the Pulley and a thick, slow-moving practice with nurse Holly Trenary.

Mary Cerullo substituted for Sr. Christa's seated Zoom class at the Franciscan Spiritual Center in Aston, and found the familiar main room empty of spirit before the center closed in June 2021.

Lisa Stroyan gathers highlights from the 2021 conference 20/20 activity, where 20 teachers led small groups discussing the tan t'ien, including Sandy McAlister's use of seated TCC and Carmen Brocklehurst's account of her ten-year discovery.

Sue Kenney recounts teaming up with George Manning and Linda Robinson to present on inclusiveness and seated students at the virtual 2021 conference, joining the Q&A from a nursing home wheelchair after two hip surgeries.

George Zimmerman remembers Nicole, who kept a daily T'ai Chi Chih practice through eleven years with ALS, moving without her wheelchair for three years and later practising the movements in imagination alone.

Sharon Sirkis recounts her first Zoom class of seated T'ai Chi Chih, coaching a newcomer's beautiful smile through several movements before discovering it was Melissa's still photo, left behind after she logged off.

Rachel Rilinger, a music therapist covering for a recreation therapist on an inpatient acute psychiatric unit, led Rocking Motion and watched pacing, blanket-covered and muttering patients join staff in flowing practice.

Jeneth Rundle planned a year off from teaching after moving to Oregon, then agreed to teach a neighbor recovering from cancer treatment, a stroke and surgery who progressed from seated practice to standing for a full hour.

Eliza Fulton describes her twice-monthly seated classes, called "Move Free," with Alzheimer's residents at a Colorado veterans nursing home, using paper towel rolls and nerf footballs as props.

Kent Jarratt describes two years of weekly practice in a long-term care facility with Jerry, 99, and two blind residents, adapting movements for wheelchairs, painful shoulders, stroke paralysis and oxygen masks.

Rick Davis, a retirement community chaplain, draws on the Lotus Sutra and Psalm 23 to argue that seated T'ai Chi Chih offers people confined to wheelchairs by aging and illness a renewed experience of chi and inner vastness.

Pam Towne's practical guidance for teaching seniors, covering hearing loss, balance, stamina, footwear, chairs for seated practice, time for social interaction, and knowing the facility's emergency procedures.

Linda Minor describes preparing to teach a seated class for seniors aging in place, practising seated herself, attending Carmen Brocklehurst's retreat entirely seated, and checking the room for armless chairs.

Daniel Pienciak lists practical lessons from years leading two senior memory loss groups: speak loudly, repeat movements six or eight times, walk to each person, and return to favorites like Six Healing Sounds and the Joy Song.

Margery Erickson gathers four teaching moments that made her chi smile, including a beginner who nearly walked out, a mother sharing energy with her handicapped son, and a student off her antidepressant.

Neena Mitchell had been teaching seated T'ai Chi Chih to seniors in Camillus just in case, then ruptured a kneecap muscle and used mental TCC in the MRI chamber and seated practice through surgery and recovery.

Bobbie Anderson returned to her first teacher conference since her husband Andy's death, where a dragonfly, old friends' condolences and seated TCC sessions led her back to teaching.

Darlene Karasik reports from a conference breakout session on seated practice, explaining how sitz-bone weight shifts, elbow training and delayed hand movements teach students to move from the t'an t'ien.

Adabelle Rychtarik recounts the business basics covered at her 2013 Albuquerque accreditation, then describes calling 911 when a new seated student lost consciousness in class and later needed a pacemaker.

Christine Moore recounts how hip tendonitis and a knee injury from a bipartite patella forced her to postpone accreditation, and how seated and mental practice healed her instead.

Daniel Pienciak passes along the techniques he uses most in accreditation courses and intensives: sliding down the wall to loosen the waist, starting beginners on Rocking Motion seated, and leading the weight shift from the knee.

Lisa Stroyan recounts the nervous system collapse that left her unable to walk or drive, practising almost reclined in a gravity chair, and entering accreditation with walking sticks only to walk out normally.

Hannah Hedrick, accredited in 1986, describes teaching at a nursing home, a senior residence, a homeless transition program and a reentry program, and a student who showed her the movements she could do lying down after fracturing her foot.

Nancy Jo Bleier recounts jamming her right leg on a house step in June 2014, the conference, retreat and Seijaku practices she had to cancel, and her slow return through seated T'ai Chi Chih.

After a fall left her with a fractured ankle and an Aircast boot, Margery Erickson practised seated Seijaku and TCC from a stool, feeling energy gather at the t'an t'ien.

Jim Shorr gathers residents' own words from Edgewood Downs in Beaverton, Oregon, on regained balance, practising half the movements without a walker, and the calm the first twelve bring, plus Pyramid Poems on freedom.

Social work student Lauren Robson and a classmate review the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, noting claims about migraines, chi flow, depression and the discovery of seated practice for wheelchair users.

Social work students Lauren Robson and a classmate review the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, noting claims about migraines, chi flow, seated practice for wheelchair users, and lifting depression.

Two social work students report on the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, with Lauren Robson noting migraine and blood pressure claims and another discovering seated practice for wheelchair users.

Social work major Lauren Robson, writing for Amy Schied's social media column, reviews the TCC health benefits page and Twitter feed, noting migraines, joint pain, seated practice for wheelchair users and depression.