Zappo Diddio Whiterabbit Dickinson

Qi Gong and Cognitive Reframing - I have devoted the last thirty years to working and volunteering in youth enrichment, development, arts and recreational settings as a class room teacher, after school director, summer camp counselor and director, sports coach, children's hospital clown, art teacher and mentor to hundreds of children and child care professionals. My gifts in working with young people center around helping them to understand and heal the traumas they’ve experienced in their young lives as well as the generational traumas they’ve inherited.

Spending my childhood summers at Camp Winnarainbow, I learned the joys and benefits of living and learning in a diverse artistic community. There I developed a passionate commitment to pay it forward by sharing the life changing experience of creative kindness with as many children as I could possibly reach. I have served for 30 years on the adult staff at Camp Winnarainbow, many of those as Assistant Creative Director, apprenticing under Wavy Gravy, who has been my greatest mentor in youth work. Wavy has taught me the healing miracles that arts, humor and loving kindness can bring into the lives of our youth.

From 2004-2012 I volunteered as a hospital clown with Dr. Patch Adams and Gesundheit Institute. We traveled throughout Central and South America visiting children in hospitals, orphanages and juvenile detention centers. Working and playing with children surviving through the most unimaginable life circumstances gave me the opportunity to cultivate a combination of compassion and care that has profoundly deepened my mastery in working with young people.

During those same years I served as Director of the after school program at Coronado Elementary School in Richmond, CA. Under my leadership the program grew from a chaotic and unsafe environment to a thriving community full of artistic expression and mutual respect. The foundation of our program was a commitment to kindness and love and every student knew those words well. Because time spent in nature has such healing benefits to heart and mind, I formed ‘The Breakfast Club’, a weekend program bringing our students out on day trips into nature. In the summers I helped hundreds of students receive scholarships to attend Camp Winnarainbow, many of whom have gone on to serve on the teen and adult staff at our camp.

Though the years I have worked in countless Bay Area schools and youth programs, working directly with children in need of support regulating big feelings and emotions which often translate into disruptive behavior. I also work with families learning how to understand and guide their children challenged by life shattering anger and grief that is almost always related to trauma and generational wounds.

After being diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2011, I began to study Wild Goose Qigong at Wen Wu School in El Cerrito, Ca. When I began this practice I could hardly walk one city block and extreme physical and emotional pain governed my life. As time passed, and my practice strengthened, I began to recognize how truly powerful and effective qigong is as a path to healing not only physical illness but also mental and emotional pain and trauma. I now have over 12 years of consistent practice and learning, my health is nearing complete recovery and I am in training to become a certified teacher of Wild Goose Qigong.

I am a writer of poetry and songs and stories, a visual artist, a film maker, and a gardener. I am a comedian, singer and story teller, offering my muse through the format of solo performances consisting of heartfelt, and comedic stories about my own childhood in a hippie commune. In my teaching and guidance with all people, I constantly employ the tools of my artistic mind, sense of humor and kindheartedness.

It is my goal in life to work together with like minded people in an effort to provide youth and young adults with opportunities for true healing and lasting wellness through qigong, mindfulness practices and artistic life enrichment. To provide young people experiences that stimulate self love, forgiveness, kindness and compassion towards all people and the planet. My goal is to nurture strong leaders for a peaceful and sustainable culture.