About Us
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In 1974 Dr Paul Lam, a family physician from Sydney Australia, took up tai chi to control his arthritis. Tai chi helped him overcome his condition, it also improved every aspect of his life. Dr Lam has created a series of Tai Chi for Health programs and produced instructional materials to make tai chi easy and enjoyable to learn. Through his privately owned company, Tai Chi Productions, his team have produced many best-selling titles worldwide.
In 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Council on Ageing recommended Dr Lams program. Many governmental departments around the world endorse them. One of the most sought after teachers, Dr Lam must be the first in history to have travelled over a million miles teaching tai chi.
There are over 10 million people around the world who have enjoyed and benefited from Dr Lams Tai Chi for Health programs.
The Tai Chi for Health Institute was founded in 2010 by Dr Lam and many of his Tai Chi for Health colleagues with the purpose of empowering people to improve health and wellness through the Tai Chi for Health programs. Also to monitor the quality and standards of the training and to provide support for instructors. It is a non-profit organisation registered in Australia and governed by a democratically elected board.
Both organisations have the same purpose and naturally there is close collaboration to save resources. That does not compromise either organisations independence. Dr Lam is committed to supporting the Tai Chi for Health vision and has always personally offered significant discounts to instructors of the program through Tai Chi Productions.
Purpose:
To empower people to improve their health and wellness
Vision: Making Tai Chi for Health accessible to everyone for health and wellness
Who We Are:
The Institute represents all certified instructors/leaders of the Tai Chi for Health programs, it is administered by a director and a governing board consisting of master and senior trainers, instructor, participant (or student) and nominated expert/s. The Institute is a registered non-profit organization in the state of New South Wales, Australia. You can view the minutes from board meetings online
Director:
- Dr Paul Lam MBBS (Univ. NSW); FAMAC
Members of the Governing Board:
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Raymond Tang Ching Lau – Chair and MT representative of Asia/Europe region
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Margaret Brade – Vice Chair
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Jocelyn Simpson – Secretary
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Winnie Lo – Treasurer
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Pat Lawson – MT Representative for USA and Canada
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Rosalie Rudduck – MT Representative for Australia and NZ
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Elizabeth Hill – ST Representative for USA and Canada
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Hillary Simon – Participant Representative
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ABN: 57 939 736 232
- Scroll down for profiles of the Board members.
- You can contact any member via service@tchi.org
Know Our Instructors
What We Do
Our primary focus is to train safe and effective instructors for the program.
Mission:
• Training effective and safe teachers of the Tai Chi for Health programs
• Developing effective programs though research and development.
• Making the world aware of tai chi as a modality which promotes health.
Scope of the mission:
1) Training effective and safe teachers:
a) Certify instructors and updates.
b) Goal #1: Establish and revise criteria for selection of instructors
c) Goal #2: Establish and revise training curriculum for new instructors
d) Goal #3: Establish and revise criteria for maintenance of instructor status
2) Develop and coordinate Senior Trainer certification programs
a) Goal #1: Establish and revise criteria for selection of Senior Trainers
b) Goal #2: Establish and revise training curriculum for new Senior Trainers
c) Goal #3: Establish and revise criteria for maintenance of Senior Trainers status 3) Develop and execute Master Trainer certification programs
a) Goal #1: Establish and revise criteria for selection of Master Trainers
b) Goal #2: Establish and revise training curriculum for new Master Trainers
c) Goal #3: Establish and revise criteria for maintenance of Master Trainers status
d) Training of Master Trainers
Developing effective programs through research and development:
1) Modify existing programs as needed and create new ones as the need arises.
2) Provide support to Master Trainers / Senior Trainers /instructors
3) Serve as consultant for proposed research projects
4) Develop collaborative projects with universities and other research investigators
5) Provide leadership for targeted clinical research in fall prevention, arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, health challenges for kids, etc.
Making the world aware of tai chi as a modality that promotes health.
1) Collaborate with other organizations such as the Arthritis Foundation.
2) Serve as a resource for health policymakers, academics, and practitioners including journalists, teachers, youth and civic leaders.
3) Target universities, key organizations and work sites for instructor workshops
4) Obtain accreditation for CEUs for instructors taking the workshops
Providing support to the missions:
1) Keep a data base for all students utilizing the Tai Chi for Health programs
2) Keep a data base on all research in tai chi for health
3) Create a speakers bureau and PowerPoint presentations to increase knowledge of Tai Chi for Health programs and their benefits Dr Paul Lam
Director Dr Paul Lam, a family physician in Sydney and a tai chi teacher since 1976, is a world leader in the field of tai chi for health improvement. Dr Lam is dedicated to promoting tai chi for health and wellness. He has participated and published over 30 scientific studies by peer-reviewed journals on research relating to tai chi for health. Dr Lam has composed 12 Tai Chi for Health programs that are supported by Foundations around the world including that of Arthritis foundations of Australia, America, Singapore and UK. By 2018 over 10 million people around the world have learned and benefited from one of his programs. Dr Lam has authored 6 books: Overcoming Arthritis, Tai Chi for Beginners and the 24 Forms, Tai Chi for Diabetes, Teaching Tai Chi Effectively, Born Strong and The Tai Chi Way.
Click here for more information about Dr Lam, or contact Dr Lam through service@tchi.org
Board Members
Dr Lau Tang Ching (Raymond)
Chair
Dr Lau Tang Ching is working as a Consultant Rheumatologist in the National University Hospital (NUH), Singapore. He has been the head of the rheumatology division since 2009, Vice Dean (education) of Yong Loo Ling School of Medicine, and Associate CMB (education) for NUH since June 2010. He graduated in 1991 from the National University of Singapore and is a fellow of the Academy of Medicine Singapore (rheumatology) since 2001 and the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh) since 2004. He holds a MMedSc degree in Clinical Epidemiology (University of Newcastle, Australia), and a graduate diploma degree in acupuncture. He is the president of the Osteoporosis Society (Singapore) and the Chair-person of the National Arthritis Foundation. As there is medical evidences that Tai Chi for Health exercises are proven to improve joint pain and function, prevent falls and osteoporosis, he is keen to promote this exercise in Singapore and the Asian region.
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Margaret Brade
Vice Chair
Margaret Brade was the first UK Senior Trainer having played a leading role is establishing Paul Lam’s Tai Chi workshops in England. She continues to instruct and to support the spread of workshops in many ways.
Margaret has a history of voluntary and community work over many years, becoming a full-time occupation in 1994 when, driven by strong values around empowering people to health, wellbeing and independence, she left her career in the private legal sector. Margaret was appointed to the position of Chief Executive of Age Concern Stockport early in 1995 and has established a respected reputation for openness, integrity and positive partnership working.
Margaret has shown great commitment and dedication to preventative activities both in her work and personal life, and particularly champions Tai Chi for Health across the many sectors she works in partnership with. Through her work she has innovated and established ground breaking preventative non-clinical programmes earning national recognition.
Margaret has played an interested role in the development of the Institute from its beginnings. She has used her considerable knowledge skills and experience both as a lawyer and as a Chief Executive in a leading voluntary organisation to benefit the thinking and the eventual structure, principles and policy of the Institute.
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Jocelyn Simpson
Secretary
Jocelyn Simpson has been involved with Dr. Lam’s Tai Chi for Health programs since 2006 as a class participant, then an instructor, now a Master Trainer and Board member, bringing a unique grassroots perspective to the Board. She strongly believes in the mission of TCHI and works to spread that mission throughout the communities within which she serves in the greater Atlanta metro area and beyond. Jocelyn serves on the Programs Committee of the Arthritis Foundation Southeast Region and works closely with the Program Director. As a member of the Board, Jocelyn hopes to contribute even more to help build the future of TCHI and preserve its heritage. Jocelyn holds a BA degree from Ohio University as a political science major with a business administration minor. She continued her post-graduate studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago and worked as a paralegal for several years before entering the health and wellness arena.
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Winnie Lo
Treasurer
Winnie Lo, BSc, was educated at the University of Bradford, UK, and her family immigrated to Australia from Hong Kong in 1990. In 1991 her husband started his community pharmacy business. she had been helping him in running the business from then until 2012 when he sold the business.
Winnie is used to being in contact with patients of all kinds, some of them paying visits to doctors almost everyday, She feels the urge to maintain good health and be positive. So she started her tai chi lessons with Better Health Tai Chi Chuan, a non profit organisation founded by Dr Lam, in 2014 and become an instructor in 2018. She hope that through teaching she can share her experience and the joy of doing Tai Chi with others.
Winnie is enthusiastic at servicing the community through working with non profit organisation, especially in association with the Tai Chi for Health vision.
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Pat Lawson
Master Trainer Representative, USA and Canada
Now a retired Secondary Language Arts teacher in public school in Florida, Pat started practicing martial arts over 48 years ago. After exploring Judo, Karate, and Northern style Kung Fu she finally found that tai chi chuan is where all the aspects come together. Pat started her tai chi journey in 1992, hosted a USA instructor training workshop for Dr. Lam in 1999, and has been practicing the tai chi for health programs ever since. She served terms as Secretary and later President of the Tai Chi for Health Community, a non-profit 501 C3 organization. Pat says, “The quality of my life was changed when I discovered the power of the TCA program.”
Pat teaches in Martin County and as an MT she delivers the program in many areas of the USA. Pat serves from 2018 as the chair of education committee of the Tai Chi for Health Institute.
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Rosalie Rudduck
Master Trainer Representative, Australia and NZ
Rosalie is a physiotherapist, who has worked with people of all ages with many varied conditions throughout her career. Special interests in falls prevention, balance and healthy ageing were furthered during her Graduate Certificate in Physiotherapy (Geriatrics) studies. It gives her great pleasure to see the confidence, strength and balance skills of her class participants improve with the various Tai Chi for Health programmes.
Since March 2010, Rosalie has attended many workshops with Dr Paul Lam and other Master Trainers, and has completed her own training as a Master Trainer with the Tai Chi for Health Institute.
Rosalie now conducts Instructor/Leader training workshops in the various Tai Chi for Health forms in Toowoomba and South East Queensland.
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Elizabeth Hill
Senior Trainer Representative, USA and Canada
Libby Hill was first certified as a TCHI instructor in 2003 and became a Senior Trainer in 2011. She is from Shaker Hts., Ohio USA. She is dedicated to teaching TCHI programs because she believes in their benefits to people of all ages.
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Hillary Simon
Participant Representative
Hillary Simon is a Physiotherapist who has run a Private Physiotherapy Practice for over 30 years. Her practice mantra is “Keeping the local Community Active.” She has a special inte4rest in helping her patients manage their pain. Since 2015, Hillary has attained certification to teach numerous TCH sets and has attended in-depth workshops for 24 Forms Yang Style, 73 forms Sun Style and most recent highlight was attending the 2023 Annual Workshop, studying 42 Combined Forms. An active Physiotherapist and Tai Chi Instructor, as a board member, Hillary welcomes the opportunity to forge a stronger relationship between the TCHI and The Australian Physiotherapy Association, as well as promote Tai Chi through her Practice to her local community.
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