A Memory Care Facility, TCC & Dementia

Never give up on your dreams. I’d wanted to teach seated T’ai Chi Chih for many years but didn’t know how it would evolve – until April 29th, 2008, when my sister and I moved our mom to a memory care facility in Honolulu. (See the article published in Newsweek from September 22, 2008: “My Mother’s Case of Pleasant Dementia” www.saradavidson.com/MyMothersPleasantDementia.htm.)

I taught mom TCC on many occasions when I visited her in Los Angeles, and she would follow along with joy. But by the time she was age 93, she’d began to get tired and sit down to do TCC or just watch. I’d had so much fun practicing with her that I wondered if the residents of her new memory care facility would like to participate in a class. I offered a pilot program in August that continued for 11 sessions with as many as 21 participants.

I didn’t know how to begin teaching them, though. Fortunately I’d attended the 2008 teacher conference where I took copious notes from Sandy McAlister, who showed me adaptations for the seated form and was so encouraging. I also used the teacher resource list and emailed Blair Laden and Kristina Newcomer, both of whom offered ideas and support based on their experiences. I’d like to share some insights from the class.

At a memory care facility you can teach the same thing over and over again in the same or different ways, and it will always be brand new. I preferred teaching in a circle because it offered a wonderful sense of connection and joy when we all saw each others’ faces while practicing. Sandy suggested that it was important for people to rock forward and backward in their chairs during the form. I called it “priming the pump” or getting the Chi to begin to circulate. I eventually realized that if I got the students rocking prior to starting each movement, their muscle memory would keep them going. The close, with the hands resting on the thighs while taking a deep breath, created a natural high.

Certainly, residents in a memory care facility can easily learn seated TCC and experience the benefits of inner peace, joy, and an increase in their vital force. My next dream is teaching TCC to recovering addicts. I’d like to help replace their negative habits with positive ones. If you have suggestions, send them along. Aloha.

Editor’s note: As Terry’s sister, Sarah Davidson, writes in Newsweek: “Did dementia bring [mom] serenity and the ability to live in the moment – a state I’ve spent many hours in meditation trying to attain? … What intrigues me is the similarity between pleasant dementia and the state that spiritual teachers encourage people to cultivate: acceptance, letting go, being fully present now. Dr. Peter Whitehouse, professor of neurology at Case Western Reserve, says he’s a Buddhist practitioner and finds it ‘fascinating to consider what it means to live in the moment, because in many ways that’s what dementia brings.’”