SW 680B Chi Kong (Qigong) and Human Services
Home SW 693 Social Work Research II SW 680B Chi Kong (Qigong) and Human Services Spiritualities and Human Services SW 690 Soicial Work Research I

 

GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK

 

SW 680B Special Topics in Social Work

Chi Kong (Qigong) & Human Services

 

Fall 1999

S. W. Alternative/Elective Instructor: Douglas Chung, MSW, MA, Ph.D.

Code #:4362     3 Credits      Office: 25 Commerce SW, Grand Rapids, MI

Prerequisite: none     Office Hours: by appoint. Email:chungd@gvsu.edu

Monday 6:00 - 8:50 PM     Rm. 417 EC      Tel.: (616) 771-6559

 

I. COURSE DESCRIPTION

Social work and other human services are the helping professions dedicated to treating all individuals with a holistic perspective to promote human health, freedom, dignity, and other well-being. Yet we have little understanding of how the mind, the body, and the spirit are related to each other; how biology and culture interact in the production of psychosomatic symptoms; how to cure and prevent chronic illness, psychosomatic illness among general population and various somatic styles among the population (Shorter, 1994).

A serious need in social work and all helping professions under the intense competition, exploitation, military action yet fully interdependent world is the various universal generalist practice models integrated with ontology, research and a professional vision to achieve a mutual aid universal society. Thus, we not only need a general problem solving framework for all helping professionals from an interdisciplinary perspective, but also culturally sensitive to world community with mission to transform a conflicting world into a peaceful and harmonious global community for common human survival and the well-being of each individual. The general global practice model, therefore, should derive from an ontology which is compatible with contemporary science. The goal of an individual or part development should also integrate with collective growth. The ethics and knowledge development should also be integrated to prevent the popular abusive application of knowledge which leads to all kinds of human problems.

This course is designed to meet that need by applying the Qigonology (Qigong values, knowledge and technology) to manage the energy and integrate the body, emotion, mind and spirit for problem-solving, self-actualization and social transformation. Chi Kong is an intuitive approach to know the truth through meditation for self-examination. Chi Kong therapy holds that the principal determinant of health, emotions, motives, attitudes, intellengence, spirituality, and behavior is an energy (chi) dynamics of mind and body, of internal and external energy fields which is a conscious and sub-conscious process. The problems that people encountered are considered to be problems of engergy dynamics of body and mind. The essence of Chi Kong Therapy is that it requires the practitioner to adjust and modify the "disturbed energy dynamics" as the primary force in the human life for the health concern, problem solving and potential development.

This course is particularly designed for the study of health issues of the mind, body, and spirit, and concerns of personal and social transformation important to the human services community. This course provides students with the values, knowledge, and skills related to the mind, body, and spiritual dynamics from Chi Kong (Qigong) perspective.

The major purpose of the course is to learn and apply the Chi Kong Therapy in human services. Chi Kong has the characteristics of utilizing the individual will, chi (energy), posture, and spirit through certain process of movement and stillness for mind, body, and spiritual integration. Attention is given to appreciate the Chi Kong's multiple functions such as health maintenance, shape keeping, self-adjustment, disease prevention, anxiety, fear, and pain management, self-curing, longevity, martial art, self-expression and performance, meditation, mental reframing, hypnoses, special talent (extra-ordinary function) development, human potential development, group treatment, community mental health, effectiveness and efficiency promotion, and social transformation. Emphasis will be on self-healing based on individual and group practice. Healing from within explores alternative therapies, combining Eastern Chi Kong meditation and Western group therapy, that use the mind to improve the healing capacity of the body in the treatment of disease and mental reframing. Students are challenged to learn, practice, and gain its benefits and apply the Chi Kong Therapy in the suitable human service practice situations.

Chi Kong is an ancient Chinese interdisciplinary science which integrates medicine, biology, physics, philosophy, psychology, religion, human services, social work, culture, martial arts, and sciences. It is an intuitive approach of knowing and learning the truth. It is a meditation through which it intends to explore human nature for self-awareness and self-improvement; relate with the great Nature for life meaning searching and self-actualization. It is an art and science of how to live with a quality life through effective utilization of internaal and external energies. It is a martial art through which various technologies were developed for defense and offense. It is a medicine to prevent diseases, cure illnesses, maintain youth and flexibility, rehabilitate and enhance human potentialities. It is a mind and body integration for self-disciplinary, mental reframing, psychotherapy, systems balancing, and harmony. It is a practical way of human unification between the person and the environment; between the human beings and the universe; between the micro self and the macro self (Nature/Ultimate). When Chi Kong practice is integrated with worldviews and ontologies, such as Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Christianity, then it developed into various spiritual chi kong therapies, i.e. Confucian Chi Kong, Taoist Chi Kong, Buddhist Chi Kong, and Christian spiritual healing.

Different spiritualities and ideologies, therefore, can be utilized in exploring issues related to social welfare vision, social issues that related to class, race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and opportunities for human development. Each religion or philosophy's social transformation technologies with various developmental approaches and models can be highlighted to help the Chi Kong Therapists in their work with religious/philosophical population particular and general population as well as in solving problems encountered, actualizing individual potential, and achieving the world peace. It means using the ontologies as theoretical bases for culturally sensitive Chi Kong Practice.

Chi Kong is, therefore, an integration and application of self development, ontology, methodology, life philosophy, and mythology. It is an ideal contemporary interdisciplinary approach to integrate social and natural sciences. Simply speaking, Chi Kong is a self-discipline method which aims to integrate the individual personality through adjusting the breathing, posture, mind, and spirit for physical, emotional, mental, behavioral, social, spiritual, and cultural transformation.

Relations with other courses:

This course helps students to experience the intuiative learning of energy dynamics for stress management, self-healing, mind and body relations, conflict solution, health promotion, mental reframing, psycho-social therapy, and personality integrity. Therefore, it is a part of practice series, known as Chi Kong Therapy. This course also helps students to examine the correlation between the length of Chi Kong practice and the individual health concern on a single subject basis; evaluate the impact of Chi on the garlic growth among various comparison groups; and other research projects. Therefore, it is an applied research course series in health. This course also examines the impact of Chi Kong practice on the macro level to see how much health, economic, social, and cultural benefits may have on a national level. The policy implications of Chi Kong professional education, certification, role, ethics, rules and regulations are discussed. Therapeutic concerns of the individual differences, readiness, cultural norms, and social environment are explored while learning the various spiritual Chi Kong Therapies. Therefore, it integrates human behavior and social environment course series into Chi Kong practice and therapies.

Since Chi Kong is a cross-cultural phenomenon, this course becomes a global, inter-disciplinary advanced generalist model.

This course, therefore, is not only served as an elective course for social work students, it is also an inter-disciplinary elective course for all helping professional schools, such as Criminal Justice, Education, Nursing, Physical Therapy, Psychiatry, Psychology, Public Administration, and even Business Management and Marketing.

II. COURSE GOAL

The overriding goal of the course is to train students to become Chi Kong Therapists that perform and evaluate their Chi Kong Therapeutic interventions in both individual, group and large systems. As the pioneers of Chi Kong therapies, they may create a brand new social mechanism to cut down sky high medical cost and promote overall human well-being.

III. COURSE OBJECTIVES: COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

After taking this course students will be able to:

Knowledge

1. Understand the historical evolution and philosophical foundation of different Chi Kong schools, related theories, relationships with human services, and the concomitant emergence of Chinese medicence and Martial Arts practice.

2. Understand the ethics of Chi Kong Therapy and its relationship with the helping professional ethics.

3. Acquire an integrated perspective of current public health, medical abuses, cost, health insurance, welfare policies and services as they were and continue to be influenced by health concepts, values, attitudes and beliefs, as well as economic, political, cultural and technological conditions of society. Learn how chi kong can help to cut down the cost and solve the issues?

4. Learn the relationship among human mind, body, and spirit and their relationship with social functioning.

5. Understand the structure, function(s), and auspices of various religious/ideological world views and how they influence Chi Kong practice related to social welfare, Chi Kong history and schools, and the character of the social and medical provisions it dispense, thus, various models of Chi Kong practice under various world views, such as Confucian Chi Kong, Taoist Chi Kong, Buddhist Chi Kong, Christian Chi Kong (spiritual healing), Medical Chi Kong, Martial Arts Chi Kong, Yoga, .... etc. for culturally sensitive Chi Kong practice.

6. Appreciate how Chi Kong practice impacts on and is impacted upon the human body, families, organizations and programs in which social work and human service workers practice. How can chi kong improve and integrate the mind and body through various belief systems?

7. Understand how various world views and social work programs embrace and operationalize implicit theories and assumptions about the causal relationship between structural and environmental factors and enhanced or impaired social functioning. How can chi kong help to enhance these social functioning through culturally sensitive Chi Kong practice?

8. Appreciate the role that prejudice, discrimination, racism and ethnocentrism has played in the distribution of relative privilege and powerlessness and be able to translate this knowledge into action through mental reframing -chi kong state in various practice settings from various world views.

9. Understand how various religions as well as other belief systems that can be utilized as sources for model building for social work practice through the culturally sensitive Chi Kong social work, i.e. 12 Steps Chi Kong.

10. Understand a relatively human diversity in terms of religions and ideologies which have profoundly influenced human behaviors from Chi Kong perspective, & how can Chi Kong help.

11. Understand the various Chi Kong Types & Methodologies in terms of their core values, theoretical assumptions and transformation technologies which facilitates to gain insights and solutions of how to solve the problems through Chi Kong Universal Generalist practice.

Skills

1. Ability to demonstrate the skills of Chi enhancement, mind stillness, ways of breathing, and forms of body positures for anxiety reduction and energy management for life transformation.

2. Ability to demonstrate the Chi Kong Therapy as the Universal Generalist practice.

3. Ability to integrate human mind, body, and spirit through the use of human thoughts, breathing, and positure.

4. Ability to organize an engergy field and lead a Group Chi Kong Therapy.

5. Ability to integrate research knowledge and skills to bear on substantive Chi Kong Therapy on various issues/levels.

6. Ability to distinguish the symptoms of illness and the indicators of Chi Kong Healing during the Chi Kong Therapy.

7. Ability to integrate social welfare vision and the development and improvement of social policy and Chi Kong Therapy based upon various spiritualities.

8. Ability to recognize, select, recommend or refer the Chi Kong methods and networking systems of Chi Kong schools under a particular belief system for the situational needs.

9. Ability to evaluate and manage social conflict situations in various practice settings from Chi Kong approaches.

10. Ability to derive policy implications from Chi Kong Therapy's tradition as guideline development for policy and program design and evaluation.

11. Ability to apply model-building based upon different cultural contexts, religions/ideologies to serves as culturally sensitive Chi Kong models for various client population with different belief systems.

Values

1. Develop a commitment to learn and respect the surrounding teachers, parents, peers, things, plants that served as network to the self. (Chi Kong students learning from all systems.)

2. Commit a life long moral development as a means for life long Chi Kong practice and advancement.

3. Develop a life long self-improvement through Chi Kong practice for self-actualization as well as helping other through self- help.

4. Appreciate all forms of life which are living in an (oneness) interdependent network - Non-destructive and non-killing life.

5. Appreciate the simple, small, natural, and unique way of life.Therefore, respect and honor the poor, minorities, and discriminated ones.

6. Commit a life long mental reframing toward a positive life where micro self and macro self unified and merged. Thus, appreciate both the individual self and the collective identity of "WE". Cooperation, team work, thus, favored.

7. Appreciate the build-in capacity of self-healing in human physical and mental systems as a natural gift. Therefore, favor the mind application of self-healing through mental reframing in mind and body relationship. Self-determination for/and self-healing are encouraged.

8. Appreciate the syncronicity of collective energies for group therapy for its significant therapeutic outcomes.

9. Develop a commitment to Engergy Field Organization for goals and mission of massive health needs through group Chi Kong Therapy.

10. Appreciate the Chi Kong Therapy as universal generalist practice can be applied for enhancing individual and group social functioning and international peace and human development.

11. Appreciate the Chi Kong state that fundamentally create physical, psychological, and mental environment which shape the Chi Kong practitioners' self-awareness, human behaviors and personalities, in turn, it develops and fosters new insights of mind and body - a new life science of Chi-Kongology/Qigonology.

12. Develop a commitment to social justice, equity and planned change for minorities of color, women and other populations- at-risk which derived from any world views.

13. Be committed to searching for the excellence of human performance under a Chi Kong or spiritual vision of universal welfare community by utilizing its special General Transformation Methods of social intervention in the endless social improvement underlay in its own world view.

14. Appreciate the differential functions, implications and impacts of various Chi Kong methodologies on various health populations-at-risk (e.g. cancer patients, HIV positive, Blood disese patients, teen, women, aged, poor, disabled, etc.) from a universal generalist social work perspective.

15. Appreciate the wide varieties of transformation technologiesoffered by various traditions for the situalional adaptation.

IV. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

Lecture, demonstration, study groups, group learning exercises, class discussion involving question and answer periods, vedio tape observation, evaluative research on self Chi Kong practice.

V. TEXTS AND HANDOUTS To be announced.

Chung, D. K. (1999). Qigong Therapies. Draft in process to be published.

Chung, D. K. (1997). PQQD Wisdom Qigong: Lecture and Demonstration. Grand Rapids, MI: The Asian Center.

VI. COURSE ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

Your course grade will be a function of your performance in the following study outcome areas:

1. Daily Log of your Chi Kong Practice & health concern - 15%. Form attached by the end of syllabus, 3 months X 5%.

2. Mid-term Oral examination and demonstration. 20% or Read and critic a Qigong related book article, write a summary report & orally present it in the class. See Book list in references.

3. Experimental Chi Kong study in garlic growth under Qigong intervention. 15%

4. Evaluative Research Project of your own Chi Kong Practice with AB single subject design which should include:

a. your baseline data - description of your health condition or problem(s) before practice Chi Kong, and research question(s) and research objective(s);

b. your goal(s) of health improvement (Program Design);

c. your plan of Chi Kong Intervention - type of Chi Kong chosen, quantity of daily practice, time and location of practice, research design - i.e. AB, sampling;

d. your implementation - homework #1 daily log (data collection), data analysis;

e. Conclusions and recommendations. 40%

5. Participation. 10%

Participation means full and active discussion with classmates in a manner which contributes to their learning. The participation grade is based on (a) class attendance, (b) class contribution, and (c) completion of in-class learning exercises, e.g., weeklu log reviewing and discussing or meditating in class. Class contribution is based on the frequency and relevancy of student input. Each absence will result in the loss of 1% of the grade.

6. Grade Scale:

A = 100-95 A- = 91-94 B+ = 88-90 B = 84-87

B- = 81-83 C+ = 78-80 C = 74-77 C- = 71-73

D+ = 68-70 D = 64-67 F = 63 & Below

 

VII. COURSE SCHEDULE

Week Date Topics/Reading Assignment

    9/6/99 Labor Day no class

1        9/13/99  Course introduction, You, Me, and We

What is Chi Kong/Qigong? History, values, functions of Chi Kong;

Chi Kong as a value based helping profession;

Personal Experience - Chi Kong as Energy Management;

Baseline Data - My own health status; What I ought to know before ...

Chung's Qigong Therapies (QT) Ch 1-2

2        9/20/99 Social work Ethics, Values, Knowledge and Skills &

Chi Kong's Ethics, Values, Knowledge and Skills

Chi kong practice among multicultural settings

Chi Kong Therapy as Advanced Generalist Model for

Global Interdisciplinary Practice

How to evaluate my own Chi Kong Practice

Group Practice - IQ-PQQD (motion CK) for healing

Group Practice - Meditative Qigong;    QT ch. 4-6

3.         9/27/99 Chi Kong's Theories/Assumptions

From Yin Yang Theory to Bioenergy;

Attributes, Principles, Types and Trends of Chi Kong; Group Practice - PQQD

How to increase my energy (Chi) - Kneeing Wall Chi Kong, Walking Chi Kong, Pulling Chi;    QT, Ch 3

4.         10/4/99 Mind, Body, and Spirit - Oneness concept

The Healthy Cell Concept and AIDS Therapy;

On going Chi Kong Practice Evaluation;

Chi Kong Sound Therapy - Battered/Depressed people;

How to balance the internal and external energies?

Group Practice - PQQD - Cleansing Your Energies ;    QT, Ch 6-7

5         10/11/99 Healing by Thought & Mindful Mind

P1a due Conversation Therapy - healing through dialogue;

Mental reframing - There was a farmer....

The positive mind leads to healthy body, the negative energy leads to illness;

Group Practice - PQQD - Cleansing Your Energies;

Mini Chi kong research on garlic growth/videotape;     QT, Ch 6-7, 16

6         10/18/99 Chi Kong Group Therapy - Healing other/together

It's not an issue of how much Chi do you have for healing but how can you facilitate the healing;

Group Practice - Chi Kong & IQ development;    QT, Ch 8

7         10/25/99 Chi Kong Group Therapy - Healing other/together

Cycling the Chi - Visualization; Group Practice;

Mid-term Oral Examination and Demonstration    QT, Ch 8

8        11/1/99 Chi Kong Sound Therapies

Chi Kong and Community Health Care System ;

P3 due Mental Health and Substance Abuse;

How much medical care cost can be cut down by Chi Kong Practice? Can you estimate the benefits?

Group presentation on garlic project - videotapes QT, Ch 9

9         11/8/99 Five Elements Chi Kong for harmony

p1b due Taoist Philosophy, ontology, ....

Taoist Conflict Management; Unification through Chi Kong Practice;

Group Practice - Mind/Body Integration Chi Kong      QT, Ch 11

10         11/15/99 Simultaneous Chi Kong - Auto-Vibration for healing

Group Practice; Qigong Therapy for Substance Abuse and rare diseases

11         11/22/99 Chi Kong Therapies for prostate, allergies, ....

Chi Kong Therapy for cardiovascular diseases QT, ch 17;

Chi Kong as Empowerment Tool for helping Poverty;

Group Practice - Mind/Body Integration Chi Kong.

12         11/29/99  Project presentation - Sharing practice experience

Community Practice - Qigong networking for mutual aid, volunteerism, home care, personal enhancement;

P4 due preventive medicine, agricultural production promotion, creative arts and career development, extra-ordinary performance.   

13.        12/6/99  Diet, Lifestyle, and Chi Kong

Chi Kong ways of elimiting fat & shape keeping ;

Dinner Party - Your Vision and My Vision;       Your Family and My Family; Chi Kong Network for community well-being;

From here on - You may join the practice/support Group Contact:

The Asian Center at (616) 771-6559 for further healing, training and information. Or Email address:Chungd@GVSU.Edu

Chi Kong Healing Class, Workshops, Instructors Training

Class, and Correspondence class are available in town or out of state. Individual Chi Kong Therapy by appointment.