The Art of Adapting

During COVID, we all had to adapt; find ways of applying a colorful zeal to Zoom. Bodywork classes required a lot of vigorous movement to stimulate group qi remotely – keep the students awake! Ensure interaction!

Post-Pandemic Adaptations

Those of us who volunteered sessions for hospital ICU crews continue to teach spontaneous qi classes in neighborhood parks to share our medicine as a way of easing national stress. This has proved to be especially valuable for seniors – and for folks who continue to suffer from the effects of isolation during COVID.

Connie Randolph, LAc, MSAcOM, Dipl. OM, of Austin, Texas, led community qigong most weekday mornings during the pandemic, and on Thursdays post-pandemic. As a spinoff, Connie now offers detox and sound vibration in her own beautifully restful courtyard to “cultivate peace and calm” at a low community cost. She says neighbors keep coming back and bringing their adult children.

What about other ongoing “adaptations” post-pandemic? Curious to see how clinic and school adaptations during COVID continue to integrate successfully, I polled a number of colleagues.

Victor Manuel, LAc, DAOM, of Dallas told me, “I practiced tuina in well-ventilated rooms, either an overly large space or with multiple fans/filters running.” He added: “This prevented me from getting COVID and kept my patients safe.”

After opening the Texas Acupuncture Research Institute in 2023, Victor upgraded his filtration system and uses it when a patient complains of allergies or a sore throat to prevent any “transmission of illness” in his clinic.

Nini Melvin, MA (dance), AOBTA-CI, founder/director of shiatsu school Meridians – Pathways to the Heart (Northampton, Mass.), said: “During the pandemic I transferred my teaching to online classes. Hands on self- healing practices became the focus. I taught theory through self -shiatsu and movement, creating qigong forms to embody energetic principles. Now these practices continue to be the core of my teaching for students, practitioners and clients.”

As someone who immersed her students in nature as a teaching tool, Nini told me her studio is on a river reflecting the seasons, During a Zoom she may turn the computer to face the river and ask students how nature is showing them a reflection of themselves.

Steve Rogne, Dipl. ABT, AOBTA-CI, director of Zen Shiatsu Chicago, told me, “As a school owner, I implemented and still use virtual conversations with prospective students. Via Zoom I can have in-depth explorations of what inspires them to become shiatsu therapists. We can explore curriculum, schedule and tuition possibilities.”

He added: “Using Zoom on my phone, I can walk around, give them a virtual tour, introduce them to instructors and administrators.” He discovered the Zoom format is hugely appealing to prospective students.

Steve continues to allow attendance for his post-grad clinical studies program entirely on Zoom, making it accessible for “students who live as far away as Australia.” With advanced students or graduates who already have solid technique, Steve says he can assess the quality of their concentration and qi touch “as if they were in the classroom.”

Janet Cook, LAc, MS (school psychology), Dipl. OM, of Austin, says she did herbal consults via Zoom during COVID, but returned to in-person as soon as she could to get good pulse readings. She did, however, increase recommendations for Lee Holden’s online qigong instruction to empower patients’ healing.

A Recent Graduate’s Thoughts

Heather (Liz) Ross, MSAcOM, who completed her training at AOMA before it closed in 2024, said, “Once classes went online they never fully returned to in-person again. Online became the norm. Only necessary classes were in person. It was wild to meet people you’d only met on Zoom for a year!” She added, “I definitely prefer in-person classes. COVID was very isolating.”

Liz admitted it was hard to adapt to online classes for hours, and she went stir crazy at home. It wasn’t surprising to learn that depression following AOMA’s closing delayed her boards and she is still working on completing them.

Teaching Qi Remotely?

Curious to see how colleagues achieved the art of teaching qi remotely, it was interesting to see responses range from theoretical / philosophical to movement with creativity. Billy Zachary, LAc, DAOM, AOBTA-RI, who also practices the Korean martial art kuk sool, told me, “I often use a body scan before and after an exercise. It starts with mindfulness, of small sensations in the body.”

Like others who also practice ABT, Billy demonstrates the exercise of “opening and closing the hands” to stimulate qi movement from palm to palm. So easy for the camera to see! This is also one of my favorite ways of teaching students to feel qi quickly and simply. I include swift, circular hand movements, one above the other without touching, which I’ve dubbed “spinning flying saucers.” Fun exercises can often teach students more about qi than hours of theory.

A similar image comes from Randall Sexton, MSN, MBA, AOBTA-CP, psychiatric NP at Irwin Army Community Hospital (Kansas), who also practices zen shiatsu and the Korean martial art hapkido. He said, “Place your hands a few inches apart and rotate your hands as though you are holding the sun or a warm ball. Then move your hands apart and back together again, like pulling taffy.” Randall added that it’s helpful “to teach students the ancient history of qi as well as modern neuroscience thought.”

Matthew Sweigart, AOBTA-CI, founder of HeartMind Healing Arts (California) and author of Pathways of Qi, said, “I simply ‘lead’ qigong movements over Zoom, including full demo of body movements and instruction on when to breathe in synchrony.” But he admits it is beyond his ability on Zoom to monitor if students are actually synchronizing breath with movement.

Linda Y. Qiu, LAc, MD (China), AOBTA-CP, teacher of acupuncture, qigong and medical qigong, said, “We are in qi which can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, felt, or directly known. I guide students to be aware of their senses during qigong exercises or meditations.”

Linda added, “Some students are born seers. Some are born with a great sixth sense. Most students feel sensations with their skin or bodies. A few see qi in various colors. I also show students some videos to explain qi in physics research, which helps them understand qi in modern language.”

A Teachable Moment During Another Health Crisis?

How well I recall a moment in one of my scores of classes in Berlin during the height of the AIDS/HIV scare years ago when subways and buses carried DEI public announcement notices about safe sex. During a brisk day, I decided to take my students outside for a walk to observe every example of qi and the five elements they could spot in a scruffy industrial area with grass growing over disused railway tracks and builders’ rubble.

“Pamela, look!” one of my students yelled, pointing at a huge billboard by the U-Bahn station across the road. The image? I kid you not: It was a line-up of condoms in the five-element colors.

Resources

• Ferguson PE:”From Classroom to Zoom and Much More.” Acupuncture Today, August 2020.
• Ferguson PE. “Be Flamboyant With the Five Elements: Study in 3D.” Acupuncture Today, October 2018.
• Ferguson PE. “Reflections – The Art of Teaching Asian Medicine.” Acupuncture Today, March 2015.