Seated Tai Chi: Awakening Stillness and Well-being
Course Summary
Tai Chi can bring us to a quiet center in our being. It is as though our ailments disappear during the Tai Chi session. While the movements you learn are significant in this process, creating a stillness environment is equally crucial.
During the course, you will learn how to guide seated Tai Chi sessions for people in your care. Prior knowledge of Tai Chi is not needed. Ideally, your main commitment is to practice the movements yourself every day from the point at which to start the course.
With practice, both you and the people who participate in the seated Tai Chi sessions will experience less anxiety, increased relaxation, and feelings of well-being.
People facing cognitive decline may also experience enhanced memory ability and/or postponement of symptoms. Physical outcomes may occur such as less pain, lower blood pressure, and better sleep. These benefits may extend to reduced stress and more focus on life balance.
Audience
The course is suitable for therapeutic activity professionals, working in memory care settings, who would like to add a new dimension to their work. Nurses working in rehabilitation settings also benefit from the course.
In our approach, both you the teacher, and the participants benefit from Tai Chi stillness practice.
When
Self-paced learning
September 2, 2024 - September 23, 2024
The first part of the course is comprised of on-demand videos which can be followed at your own pace.
We recommend that you practice the movements shared in these on-demand videos each day for at least two full weeks before the interactive part of the course begins. This means you start following the on-demand lessons by September 9, 2024.
Weekly live interactive Zoom sessions
September 24 - October 22
Each Tuesday, 08:00-08:40 EST
The second portion of the course involves five -40-minute interactive sessions, spread over five weeks. During these sessions, you receive feedback to help you feel more comfortable performing the tai chi movements, work out how to organize sessions for people in your care and begin to guide sessions on your own.
Monthly Zoom check-ins
November 19, 2024 - January 21, 2025
One Tuesday each month at 08:00-08:40 EST
In the final part of the course, participants share and learn together based on the knowledge being acquired from running the seated Tai Chi programs at your homes.
Additional Resources
Between the weekly sessions, we share films on the scientific background and research, as well as films to help deepen participants' understanding of the movements.
How
The entire course is available via an online education platform. The live interactive sessions are delivered using Zoom. These sessions are recorded and made available to you. There is a course handbook and you are welcome to reach out to the course instructor with specific questions.
Price
This course is CA$ 549 / US$ 399, plus taxes where applicable.
Registration
Please complete this form to express your interest in taking part in the Course
Outline
On-demand videos
Self-paced learning - Available September 2 - September 23
Introducing the main concepts
A thirty-minute introduction:
- What is Tai Chi
- What is Stillness
- What is Narrative Care
- Follow along exercises
The Stillness Environment
Thirty minutes on the guidelines for Creating a Stillness Environment:
- No expectations
- Co-Creating—We are together
- Music
And:
- Follow along exercises
Relaxing into Stillness and Narrative Care
Thirty minutes on the guidelines for the Relax-into-Stillness Movements
- Softness—Loose Joints
- Comfort Zone
- Narrative Care
- Follow along exercises
The Movements
The Movements- Wu Chi—Breathing
- Reach
- Wave
- Moving the Ball
- Wave Hands Like a Cloud
Weekly Zoom Sessions
Practicing together
08:00- 08:40 EST, Tuesday, September 24
The focus is on practicing the movements together and feeling increasingly comfortable doing them. We briefly revisit the guidelines for creating a good stillness environment.
Practicing together
08:00- 08:40 EST, Tuesday, October 1
The movements are led by participants. We discuss how putting this new knowledge into practice is going. And together we help each other to make improvements.
Organizing a session
08:00- 08:40 EST, Tuesday, October 8
The movements are led by participants. We begin planning how to organize the first seated tai chi session. You learn from a home that has already implemented a seated tai chi program.
Guiding the first session
08:00- 08:40 EST, Tuesday, October 15
The movements are led by participants. We begin to hear back about participants promoting and guiding first sessions at their homes.
Regular seated Tai Chi sessions
08:00- 08:40 EST, Tuesday, October 22
The movements are led by participants. We discuss how putting your new knowledge into practice is going. We help each other to make improvements. Participants share feedback on their first sessions guiding residents. We learn how to continue providing sessions programmatically to residents each week.
Monthly Zoom Check-Ins
08:00-08:40 EST, November 19, December 17, January 21
In this final portion, we meet to share the knowledge that you are acquiring from guiding seated Tai Chi sessions at your homes.
Lead Instructor
Dr. Gary Irwin-Kenyon
Dr. Irwin-Kenyon was born in Montreal, Quebec, and completed his early studies at Concordia University. He did his doctoral work at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He then became a postdoctoral Fellow at the Andrew Norman Institute for Advanced Studies in Gerontology and Geriatrics, University of Southern California. He was also a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Linkoping, Sweden, and has been a frequent visiting scholar in Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
Dr. Irwin-Kenyon was the founding Chair and Professor of the Gerontology Department at St. Thomas University, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He is a Fellow of the Andrew Norman Institute for Advanced Studies in Gerontology and Geriatrics, University of Southern California. Gary is listed in Who’s Who in Canada (Grey House Publishing) and the United States (Marquis Biographies Online). He has authored, co-authored, or co-edited six books, including Narrative Gerontology, Storying Later Life, Restorying Your Life, Ordinary Wisdom, and Pathways to Stillness.
Dr. Irwin-Kenyon has over 20-years experience guiding both standing and seated Tai Chi in long-term care.
Host and Instructor
Rahzeb Choudhury
Rahzeb Choudhury is the founder Lifelong Inspiration. Lifelong Inspiration develops ideas, services, and solutions to advance a person-centred agenda. In the dementia care space, their work covers new product and service development around dementia design, care personalization and non-drug interventions that maintain or improve quality of life, such as this course.
About Tai Chi
Tai Chi is a holistic art from China, which has been developed over hundreds of years. As a set of physical movements, it is designed to relax the body. Movements are soft and slow and act to loosen the joints and gently stretch the muscles and ligaments.
Combined with deep breathing the movements release the Qi and improve blood flow. In this context, Qi is vital energy for life that we all possess but we cannot benefit from it until we relax. It is trapped in our bodies through stress and tension.