Past Projects

2008

Southern Arkansas Center on Aging (SACOA) Falls Prevention

A grant secured by the Southern Arkansas Center on Aging (SACOA) trained 25 participants as Tai Chi Easy Practice Leaders for 24 counties located in the southern half of Arkansas. The grant is based on falls prevention and linking to wellness, blood pressure, immune, stress, anxiety, and quality of life.

Self-Care and Stress Mastery – Qigong and Tai Chi for the Justice System (In Prisons)

Through small and more substantial contributions, inmates, upon written request, are provided with a 16 page guide book outlining a beginning self-care and stress mastery practice based on Qigong practices from The Healer Within. The Healer Within Foundation works in collaboration with the Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi and the Prison Dharma Network. Since the project’s inception, we have served inmates from Texas, Pennsylvania, and California with these learning materials. Inmates are encouraged to share ideas and practices in the areas of self-care, meditation, and compassionate communication with each other, to create pockets of peaceful, empowered living throughout the prison system.

2007

Santa Barbara Demonstration Project

Since the National Expert Meeting on Qi Gong and Tai Chi was held in November 2005, the National Expert project team has delivered symposia at several conferences related to aging, physical activity, and wellness, and has begun two community demonstration projects. One of the demonstration projects in collaboration with the Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi compared residents’ reactions to two identical 12-week Qi Gong/Tai Chi programs in Santa Barbara, CA. One program was taught as a traditional Tai Chi program. The other was identical, however the instructor used language that is more easily understood by individuals who are less familiar with Asian terminology and practices; or in other words, using terms that are more frequently used in contemporary Western physical activity programs.

The participants for the study were residents of Valle Verde and the Vista del Monte Active Retirement Community. Valle Verde is a nonprofit continuing care retirement community in Santa Barbara, CA. Vista del Monte has approx. 210 residents, with a minimum age of 62.

The project team will compare residents’ responses and attitudes towards two identical physical activity programs: (1) a traditional 45-minute Tai Chi/Qi Gong program at Valle Verde, and (2) a 45-minute “Slow Movement Exercise” program at Vista del Monte that features the same activities as the traditional program, but is taught using conventional physical activity terminology. Each class will include 10 to 30 participants. All subjects will be invited to participate in the pre-test and post-test surveys and the Senior Fitness Tests prior to and following the intervention. A subset will be asked to participate in focus groups. Results are still being evaluated.

2006

Release of the National Expert Meeting on Qi Gong and Tai Chi Consensus Report

The Consensus Report of the National Expert Meeting on Qi Gong and Tai Chi details the framework for evidence-based Qi Gong and Tai Chi programs that local aging organizations can implement and disseminate widely. The report concluded that “there is growing evidence that Qigong and Tai Chi practices may be among the best forms of physical activity for diverse populations because they are low impact, low cost and easy to learn.”

2005

National Expert Meeting on Qi Gong and Tai Chi

Through funding from the Archstone Foundation, the National Blueprint Office at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, the National Council on Aging, and the Institute of Integral Qigong and Tai Chi convened an expert meeting to identify the challenges of integrating Qi Gong and Tai Chi programs into the aging network and identifies the necessary components of an effective program to meet the needs of diverse populations with varying functional abilities.

2004

Circle of Life – Cottage Hospital Parish Nurse Health Educator, Santa Barbara, California

Rebecca McLean, Executive Director of The Healer Within Foundation, and author and national trainer of The Circle of Life is trained seven Cottage Hospital Parish Nurse-Health Educators in Santa Barbara County as Circle of Life Facilitators. This endeavor supported the nurses in their own health, self care, life balance and well being and to positively change the health and lives of the hundreds of people that the nurses serve each year (families who uninsured, at risk for disease, Type II diabetes support groups, county clinics outreach, Latinos, seniors, teens, etc.)

Circle of Life – Breast Resource Center, Santa Barbara, California

Rebecca McLean, Executive Director of The Healer Within Foundation, and author and national trainer of The Circle of Life provided twelve Circle of Life support group sessions to Breast Resource Center in Santa Barbara, California clients over a six month period and training two volunteers as facilitators with pre- and post -medical testing of the participants.

Tai Chi and Qigong Physical Activity for Active Aging — National Council on Aging

Roger Jahnke OMD, author of The Healer Within conducted and directed an eight week national pilot of teaching Tai Chi and Qigong for seniors collaborating with the National Council on Aging, at twenty pilot locations across the United States, including Santa Barbara. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign assisted with the pre-test assessments and post test assessment evaluations.

Before and During 2003

Wellness, Life Coaching and Health Coaching in Prisons

Starting in 1998 Health Action, the enterprise “wellness” company owned originally by Dr. Roger Jahnke and Rebecca McLean, began to do volunteer work in a number collaborative contexts including Wholistic Stress Control Institute in Atlanta to help encourage tolerance and stress control among youth and families. Also, Dr. Jahnke delivered a series of workshops to the inmates at Folsom Prison in Self-care and Wellness Coaching. This work led to the founding grant to create the Healer Within Foundation from Center for Integrative Health Medicine and Research (a generous grant from Lucy Gonda). The most impressive outcome of this early work was the incorporation of the Circle of Life Coaching System for the inmates of Folsom. At its high point over 100 prisoners were participating in the program which was reported as the “only” program that inmates were allowed to do without direct scrutiny from prison guards, social workers or psychological counselors.