Riding On Dragons

The brief article below was sent to me by its author, my good buddy Allen (Zak) Zaklad, and I thought it worthy to be passed along.

When I was approaching my Shodan (first-degree black belt in Karate) test in the mid-90’s, I looked hard at what I needed to improve. One big area for me was what I perceived to be my lack of grace or fluidity of motion. So I signed up for a Tai Chi class. It was a 90 minutes per week class and 10-15 people began with me, most rank beginners like myself. Two years later, I had learned the complete 8-minute Yang Style short form, but all the other students were long gone. Since that time, I’ve continued daily Tai Chi practice.

In my day job, I’m a psychotherapist at a Philadelphia agency, working with HIV positive clients. Most have “triple trouble” – HIV, mental health issues, and history of addiction. Many are at least partly disabled due to strokes, arthritis, diabetes, and HIV neuropathy. I thought it would be interesting to offer Tai Chi to clients and staff, so I began doing this in July ’07. Included in my class was a man who had suffered a stroke which had essentially paralyzed one side of his body; he got around in a motorized wheelchair. In a year of classes (he hardly missed any), this man got up out of his wheelchair and now practices the entire form on his own feet. I could hardly believe my eyes! Other clients reported major changes in their lives: more strength and flexibility, more calm, better well-being.

So I looked further into these amazing health improvements. I found a large number of scientific studies just beginning to tap into the mind-body-spirit health enhancements of Tai Chi practice. I found a Tai Chi master, Dr Zibin Guo, who has teaches Tai Chi to people limited to wheelchairs, and I’ve corresponded with him, with mutual admiration. I’ve learned an interesting thing from him: people who can’t move an arm or a leg properly CAN exert the intention to make that particular move, and this intention drives the energy (the ki) that will heal them if they practice diligently.

I also had a conversation with Carol Gittins, who holds a Sixth Degree black belt. She told me of the work she and her husband were doing with Iraq vets suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder; a Tai Chi-like exercise helped them heal as well.

Because of these experiences and conversation, my work teaching Tai Chi has become an urgent path.

(Zak Zaklad, PhD, is a 3rd degree black belt in Goju Ryu Karate and has been practicing Tai Chi for 13 years. He is a psychotherapist working with low-income HIV+ clients.)

Find more stories, told on video, about health recovery using Tai Chi HERE.
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This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 10:39 am by Dick Richards and is filed under Artful Work, Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.