Teacher Trainings
Over the years, I've developed a number of train-the-trainer programs related to my Tai Chi and Qigong work, and particularly suited for mature adult clients. Activation/wellness staff participants for these programs could come from corporate in-house and broader networks. Thus associate health and fitness professionals would also benefit from adding these skill-sets to their repertoire.
generally, what's needed is space large enough for movement in place, sitting, short walkabouts, and lying on yoga mats – minimum 30 sq. ft. per person. Maximum 30 participants.
All participants receive a manual. A group-based practical exam concludes the all trainings. Certification from Blue Mountain Energy Arts (affiliated with the American Tai Chi and Qigong Association) is optional. I recommend a six-month follow-up day or half-day for review and more exercises.
My fee for organizations is negotiable and would include any travel and printing expenses. Contact me re the fee for any given public program.
I am willing to deliver these trainings at centres anywhere in Canada, the U.S., or internationally.
Clients have included Chartwell Retirement Residences, Amica Mature Lifestyles, Jarlette Health Services, Raglan Village, Bay Haven, and the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka, Ontario.
** Tai Chi Fit for Seniors Teacher Training
(Two days - 16 hours)
In 2012, I developed and led a unique, Qigong-based, two-day Healing Qi certification program (see below) for the fitness leaders of the Simcoe/Muskoka YMCA in Barrie, Ontario. This became the foundation of my Tai Chi Fit for Seniors classes. Students from that training still offer Healing Qi at the Barrie YMCA, primarily to seniors. For me, as my direct personal classes evolve, (I have been teaching this activity at three Collingwood retirement centres for four years). so do the train-the-trainer programs for recreation/wellness personnel working in mature adult community, clinic and retirement settings.
Tai Chi Fit for Seniors is a fun, engaging yet easy-to-learn Tai Chi style; a relaxing, low-impact yet dynamic dance exercise suitable for older adults. It plays within a sequence of 18 flowing mindful movement postures, Qigong (Chi Kung) breathwork, visualizations, self-healing and pairs practice that cultivate vital energy, alertness, strength and balance.
Any activity is a complex of energy flow, mobilized muscles (physiology), inspiration, intention, sensing, feeling and thought. Tai Chi Fit for Seniors addresses all aspects of an effective bodymind healing movement session. Its elements aim to cultivate internal harmony and vitality. Choreographed tastes of an 18-move Tai Chi short form (standing or sitting), dynamic and static bite-size Qigong exercise sets, sound and breathwork, mindful floor exercises and pairs practice (where appropriate), visualization, and self-healing all act to energize and awaken multiple intelligences, thus nourishing the brain.
Tai Chi Fit for Seniors Teacher Training Equips recreation and wellness personnel and allied professionals in mature adult group settings with sufficient theory and practices to teach Tai Chi Fit for Seniors to clients on an ongoing basis.
** Healing Chi Teacher Training
(Two days - 16 hours)
The program content combines the power of dynamic and static Qigong with Eastern breathing practices, mindful floor exercises and body-based meditation, interpersonal energy games, and simple self-healing practices, plus optional specialized Nordic Walking – all customized to suit your clientele. Realistically, since Qigong, like yoga, is a subtle art, such a course will equip trainers with a basic and not yet expert grasp of fundamentals like intention, posture, alignment, finding balance, centering and grounding, and of course, the core skills to work with a broad repertoire of exercise forms. This will afford the capacity to help clients a great deal. Also, everything learned will be potentially generative, that is, open to creative elaboration by trainers according to talent and previous experience with mindful exercise.
At some point, organizations or individual participants could opt for advanced training wherein Healing Chi trainers would review material, share field experiences, learn new exercise sets, and explore how to work with the important growing feeling of internal energy that usually builds with practice.
**fallSTOP: Qigong for Fall Prevention
(One day - 8 hours)
No surprise: balance is critical for fall prevention. “Balance” itself is a whole systems process, tied to physical posture and alignment, full-body movement synchrony, attentional flexibility, emotional equilibrium, optimal physiology, vital energy free flows, and compensations and counterweights of many kinds. Qigong helps to activate layers of somatic intelligence to serve all these systems. This program is a distillation of TCFS with particular focus on balance maintenance and restoration protocols.
Qigong (Chi Kung), the sibling of Tai Chi, is particularly useful for improving seniors’ coordination and balance to avoid falls by first helping them inhabit their body with awareness, thus regaining often vulnerable stability and confidence, and also demonstrating ways to reorient the body should they slip or trip. Participants in this one-day (8-hour) training will learn how to effectively teach the basic elements of a fallSTOP: Qigong for Fall Prevention program: prep and close, static and dynamic Qigong exercise sets, breathwork, partner and group work, self-healing, and relaxation/stress release protocols. Again, I recommend a six-month follow-up day or half-day for review and more exercises.
** Introduction to "the Body Electric": Qigong for Organizational Settings
(Two-hours to half-day)
Qigong (Chi Kung) mini-workshop, perfect for your wellness/recreation staff at company training events. Qigong, a forerunner of Tai Chi, has the special advantage of having a very broad menu of shorter, hence easier to learn and practise, exercise sets that can be presented “bite-size”, either for general health and fitness, or issues like fall prevention, chronic pain or dementia.
Qigong strengthens the body, develops muscular fluidity and coordination, and heightens proprioceptive awareness, focus and alertness. It relieves stress, boosts the immune, respiratory and cardiovascular systems, increases bone density and joint flexibility,and generally increases the body’s innate healing abilities. Exercises can be done standing, moving, walking, sitting or lying down.
In this class, participants will experience specific exercises that help them embody for your clients fundamental Qigong principles like relaxation with alertness, posture & alignment, breath and sensation, visualization, centering and grounding, feeling the three-dimensionality of self and space, working with gravity, and moving with the whole body.
** Better Walker Walking with Tai Chi Principles
(2 Hours)
This mini-workshop shows at-home and retirement community residents who use walkers/rollators and their caregivers how to improve their posture, body awareness and mobility via simple adjustments to how they use their bodies and walkers. Benefits include cardiovascular improvement, reduced musculoskeletal tensions, better balance and ease of movement.
As a separate but related segment, I can also introduce a brand of specially designed assistive walking poles, Urban Poles, complementary to walkers/rollators, that can safely add flexibility of movement for many people, and exercise the upper body to boot. Follow-up personal assessment (there are contraindications) and any necessary training would be provided later for anyone interested and able to use this equipment.
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Let's explore how we might partner to serve your clients.