Working with Schizophrenic People

Last September I got a call from a stranger asking me if I would be willing to lead a T’ai Chi Chih class as a volunteer three times a week for two weeks, for their program working with Schizophrenic people. The times the Clinic was open I was already busy, but I figured that I could try it for a few weeks. Little did I know how successful TCC would be for this group.

I was offered a paid three month contract after the fourth day there. This has since been extended to another six months.

My first day was a total surprise: people sitting around in a small space looking sleepy, depressed, and talking to themselves. In other words, mostly out of it.

With much encouragement, I got a few to try Rocking Motion and Bird Flaps Its Wings, then we sat down again. The circles around the platter were huge up, down, out all over the place, but they participated and were very tolerant of each other when a circle would cross their face from someone else. Soon some left to smoke, get a shot or blood test. In other words, my first day was not boring, but also not discouraging. Each day I went, there were new people; some were from the previous day. So it was not TCC as we know it, but we had a start.

On the second week they offered me a [paid position] for three months [duration]. They were impressed with the results in such a short time. They have extended my contract six more months and have opened the clinic on [another day to accomodate my schedule].

The circles have gotten smaller. We still do some sitting down when the medicine gets [to be] too much. Best of all, they stay now most of an hour. We laugh, have fun with TCC and I was even told by one of my students that I was one of his most favorite people. Some days we have good days where we do all 20 moves standing up; some days we mostly sit and still do TCC. We never expect perfection but we sure do get lots of miracles, laughs and hugs.

Thank you, Justin, for sharing T’ai Chi Chih. I know these people could never do T’ai Chi Ch’uan.

In addition to her work with schizophrenic people, Marlene Brown teaches at a Senior Center, Church and G.E. She has also done a 1 1/2 hour TCC class at an all day work shop and introduced TCC to children at a private school.