agedcare

Brisbane: Aged Care Chair Chi Training

We still have some places available for our upcoming Brisbane Chair Chi Aged Care Training on the 17, 18 August.

This is an ideal workshop for aged care lifestyle staff, physiotherapists, diversional therapists, and carers who work with the elderly.

Here are the details:
Fee: $352 (includes GST) per workshop – includes comprehensive work book/manual
Location: Queensland Council of Social Service Ltd (QCOSS) River Tower, Ground floor, 20 Pidgeon Close, West End
Dates: Mon 17 August (Level 1), Tue 18 August (Level 2)

Options
1. Attend Level One workshop
2. Attend Level One and Level Two workshops on consecutive days. To attend Level Two you must complete Level One first.
3. Onsite workshops available – please contact us for details

Feedback from a Recent Workshop
‘Our residents are enjoying their new Chair Chi sessions and are very enthusiastic – they look forward to exercises on a Thursday and are seen performing some of the skills when walking up the corridor’!
Jennie Guthrie

Registration
Please register here to ensure a place in a workshop/s

Bendigo Workshops: Chair Chi Training Level 1&2

By Chris Leave a Comment

If you are searching for an innovative, gentle exercise activity that engages, empowers and enthuses clients both in the aged care and disability sectors then our new Chair Chi Training Program may be what you are looking for.

The reason this program is innovative and very different from other Chair Chi and Tai Chi programs is because, as well as incorporating practical skills adapted from Tai Chi, it also draws on the principles and power of Appreciative Intelligence^®.

There are still places available for our Chair Chi Training workshops which are ideal for lifestyle staff, diversional therapists, physios, carers or anyone else who work in the aged care and disability sectors.

Options:
Level One Workshop – 13 April
Level Two workshop – 14 April (for those who have completed level 1)
Onsite – contact Chris for details

Chair Chi: ‘This is Rubbish’

By Chris Leave a Comment

As we started our Chair Chi session, she looked at me fiercely and muttered to the resident next to her ‘this is rubbish, I’m not doing it’.

I ignored her comment and continued on with the session using my peripheral vision to occasionally check on her demeanor.

For most of the session it didn’t change, she just glared at me and occassionaly fell asleep.

Then it happened.

In the last five minutes of the one hour session she woke up, looked at me and then started to move her arms in time with the movement I was demonstrating.

And to top it off she even smiled!

That was my favourite moment of the day and it made it all worthwhile. Earlier in the day I’d delivered two chair chi workshops at another aged care centre in the morning, had a short lunch and was tired.

Just goes to show you that chair chi ‘rubbish’ can turn into a treasure if you are patient and keep trying.

Footnote: The image here is a generic one and not that of the resident mentioned in this post.

Extreme Yang Chair Chi

By Chris Leave a Comment

I run regular Chair Chi sessions for various aged care centres and the other day I had an ‘extreme chair chi’ experience.

The residents were seated in a circle as I walked into the room. I sat down and welcomed them to our Chair Chi session with the usual banter.

Then it started.

An industrial vacuum cleaner nearby roared to life and drowned out my voice, distracting the elderly residents, and making it very difficult to run an exercise and meditative session.

All I could do was pace myself as my voice couldn’t compete with that extreme noise. I tried to get the residents to focus on me as much as possible but after 45 minutes of noise (only a 10 minute silence inbetween) we decided to wrap up the scheduled 60 minute session. The co-ordinator came over and whispered in my year suggesting it was okay to finish early.

Some days one has to deal with extreme Yang interruptions or end up sucked into the void.

Aged Care: Chi and Parkinson’s Disease

By Chris 2 Comments

I had a very interesting conversation with a resident at an aged care centre during my Chair Chi workshop recently.

He said the 3 key Tai Chi techinques I teach helps him with his Parkinson’s disease. As I told him and others in the group, what I teach doesn’t cure but it helps. And he agreed.

No matter what Chi exercise I teach, I constantly emphasise that what I teach is not a cure but can help you feel better physically, emotionally and pyschologically. And when I ask residents (which includes high care residents) how they feel after a session, they usually say they feel much better.

Even those with Parkinson’s disease.