The gentle movement practices known as Tai Chi and Qigong (TCQG) are based on ancient Taoist philosophies that promote longevity, health, vitality, and well-being. Because they foster body awareness, they are known as internal arts.

Body Psychotherapy

Tai Chi For Recovery ™ is a highly specialized, neuroscience-based trauma-recovery service reflecting Dr. Baxendale Ball’s dedication to body psychotherapy, traumatology, and martial arts. Known in the martial arts world as Sensei Traci Baxendale Ball 松濤館, our company founder established the Tai Chi for Recovery Program, the first Tai Chi program dedicated to trauma survivors. Tai Chi and Qigong are just two examples of ancient somatic and expressive arts whose incredible healing effects have been known for centuries.

Movement As Medicine

The gentle movement practices known as Tai Chi and Qigong (TCQG) are based on ancient Taoist philosophies that promote longevity, health, vitality, and well-being. These practices focused on harnessing energy (Chi) and breath (Qi) are thought to date back to at least the eighth century BCE in China. Because they foster body awareness, they are known as internal arts. TCQG is reparative, therapeutic, cathartic, and transformational. Robust evidence exists for this medical exercise, often called meditation in motion. The focus on five elements (earth, wood, fire, metal, and water) corresponds to maintaining or restoring health in the organs (liver, spleen, heart, and kidneys).

Interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB) gives us insight into how and why TCQG works. Demonstrated effects include ‘down-regulation’ or soothing/relaxation from chronic stress or complete exhaustion. TCQG can also ‘upregulate’ the nervous system out of dorsal vagal states (DVS). DVS describes someone who has collapsed into non-movement out of fatigue or hopelessness.

Common Symptoms

Trauma affects not only the mind but also the physical body. Traumatic experiences are stored in the body, leading to various somatic (medical) and psychological symptoms, chronic pain, and disease. Addressing the body in the recovery process allows for the release of stored tension and toxic stress, promotes emotional regulation, and enhances overall healing. TCQG helps people to be aware of their body, which is the first step in taking action to heal it.

Our Approach

When we are not feeling our best mentally, our body, posture, and movement tell this story. This is called a somatic narrative. During TCQG and other body psychotherapy sessions, new action sequences encourage students to reach for the sky, glide, reach out for connection, pause in the present, flow, feel empowered, stay grounded, set a boundary, work through difficulty, practice tolerance, or unfold from chronic stillness and expressive movement. TCQG restores a healthy somatic narrative. Over time, the fluidity you learn in TCQG or expressive movement (for example, dance) translates to everyday life. You have an embodied sense of flowing around obstacles and moving through difficulty.

Tai Chi gives me permission to slow down. It gives me peace, power, and a sense of community.

Through Tai Chi I practice three main movements and feel everything in my body settle.

TaiChi sets the tone for my day when practiced in the morning and wraps up the day nicely when done in the evening. It's a great tool to help clear the mind.