Your First Qigong Session in Hallandale Beach: What to Expect, What to Wear, and What to Confirm

What the practice lists and charges, what federal guidance says about safety and instructor training, and the questions to ask before you pay

*Image: 2015-05-04 people doing Chi Kung exercises in a park in Kaohsiung by Sun Taro, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.*

Qigong is slow on purpose. The federal summary of the practice describes slow, long, deep breathing, movements that stay gentle and smooth, and attention held on the body. A first session asks you to stand, breathe and follow along, and clothing is the part you control.

At South Florida Qigong in Hallandale Beach, a first visit means choosing among six listed offerings: chi gong massage, tea ceremonies, healing teas, fire massage, chi gong classes, and event work. Only the massage carries a published rate, $100 per hour. Classes are listed at Feeling Free Academy in Hollywood, and the page reviewed on October 26, 2026 does not say how that academy relates to the studio at 1117 E Hallandale Beach Blvd Suite 3.

Sessions run daily from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and booking happens through a WhatsApp message with the provider confirming availability, so the page answers the logistics but leaves the money and the training unstated: the class price, the venue for each class, the organisation behind the "Certified Practitioner" line, and any Florida massage licence are all things you find out by asking.

What a qigong session involves

NCCIH describes qigong as a practice developed in China thousands of years ago as part of traditional Chinese medicine, built on exercises intended to optimize energy within the body, mind and spirit. It has psychological and physical components and works through regulating the mind, the breath, and the body's movement and posture. In most forms, breath is slow, long and deep and may switch from abdominal breathing to breathing combined with speech sounds, movements are gentle and smooth and aimed at relaxation, and mind regulation includes focusing attention and visualization.

The summary separates dynamic techniques from meditative ones. Dynamic practice focuses on movement of the whole body or of the arms and legs. Meditative practice can be done in any posture that can be held over time, involves breath and mind exercises, and uses almost no body movement. Tai chi counts as one of the hundreds of qigong forms when it is performed for health, alongside Baduanjin, Liuzijue, Hu Yue Xian, Yijin Jing and medical qigong.

That distinction is the first thing to ask about when you book a class. A standing dynamic set and a largely still meditative session ask different things of your knees, your balance and your clothing. The listing says "Various options" for classes, so the form, the session length and the number of weeks are all confirmed in the same message.

Choosing among the six listings

Each offering on the page is a different purchase, and the descriptions are the practice's own.

• Chi Gong Massage, at $100 per hour, is described as deep bodywork combining meridian therapy with breath awareness, covering the full body including the face and specific muscle groups.
• Tea Ceremonies are described as a traditional ceremony treated as a conscious, meditative practice, available privately or for groups, with pricing on request.
• Healing Teas are personalised blends of what the page calls legal herbs and flowers, matched to your constitution, with a consultation on request.
• Fire Massage is described as an energetic activation technique for circulation and deep relaxation, performed with expertise and safety, with pricing on request.
• Chi Gong Classes are private sessions and group classes at Feeling Free Academy, with the options and schedule unstated.
• Events and Collaboration covers work as a tea master for wellness events, retreats and gatherings.

The rate for the massage is the only price on the page. Five of the six offerings are quoted when you ask, so the first WhatsApp message is where the cost of a tea ceremony, a fire massage or a block of classes gets settled. The page names Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Broward and Miami-Dade counties as the area it serves, with in-studio sessions at the Hallandale Beach address. It is published in English, Russian and Spanish.

What to wear and what to bring

The site's FAQ answers the clothing question directly: "Wear comfortable clothing and arrive a few minutes early. For tea ceremonies, just bring yourself."

Nothing in the federal description calls for equipment, a mat or special shoes. Breath, posture and attention are the whole apparatus, which makes loose clothing that lets you breathe deeply and lift your arms the practical choice. Three details are worth confirming in the same message: whether shoes stay on, whether a chair is available for seated or meditative forms, and whether a session includes any floor work.

Safety and the pregnancy caution

NCCIH reports that qigong appears to be a safe form of activity, with many studies showing no negative side effects among people with chronic diseases and older adults. A review of adults with neck pain included two studies in which qigong and other exercise groups had similar side effects, occurring in less than 10 percent of participants, including muscle pain, soreness and headache.

Pregnancy is the case the summary singles out. There is no research on the safety of qigong during pregnancy and extremely limited research on practising it while pregnant, so the guidance is to talk with your health care providers before starting, and to expect that some movements may need to be avoided or modified.

The summary also advises against using qigong to postpone seeing a health care provider about a medical problem. The practice's footer reads: "All services are wellness-focused and do not constitute medical treatment. Consult a healthcare provider for medical concerns."

The instructor question

Qigong instructors do not have to be licensed, the practice is not regulated by the federal government or by individual states, and there is no national standard for qigong certification, according to the same summary. Various organisations offer training and certification programmes with differing criteria and levels.

That makes the credential line on the page the thing to test. The site lists Aleksandr Popov as a "Certified Practitioner" under Eastern Healing Arts and does not name the certifying organisation. NCCIH's guidance on choosing a practitioner recommends finding out the practitioner's education, training, licensing and certifications, and notes that the credentials required for complementary practitioners vary widely from state to state and from discipline to discipline. It also suggests asking whether the practitioner will work with your conventional health care providers, explaining your health conditions, and checking with your insurer rather than assuming a service is covered.

For the class, the useful questions are which organisation issued the certificate, how many hours of training it required, and whether that training covered people with your condition.

If you book the massage

The massage is the offering with a published price and the one with the clearest federal safety language. NCCIH reports that the risk of harmful effects from massage therapy appears to be low, while noting rare reports of serious side effects including blood clot, nerve injury and bone fracture. Some of those cases involved vigorous types of massage such as deep tissue work, or people at increased risk of injury such as elderly people.

Massage is a licensed profession in most of the country. NCCIH counts 45 states and the District of Columbia as regulating massage therapy with a licence or certification requirement. Florida's Board of Massage Therapy publishes the licensed massage therapist path, which runs through an application, a background check and an examination. The practice's page does not state whether the practitioner holds one, so ask for the licence number and check it against the state's licence lookup before a first appointment.

The research NCCIH summarises is about massage therapy in general, and none of it isolates chi gong massage. NCCIH lists low-back pain, neck and shoulder pain, knee osteoarthritis and headaches among the conditions studied. A 2014 evaluation of 9 studies with 404 participants concluded that massage therapy, continued for at least five weeks, improved pain, anxiety and depression in people with fibromyalgia and had no effect on sleep disturbance. That finding covers massage styles in general, and the practice makes no outcome claim for its version of the service.

Fire massage and the teas

The page describes fire massage and healing teas without citing any research, and neither federal summary reviewed here covers fire massage. The page calls fire massage an "ancient energetic activation technique for circulation and deep relaxation" and says it is performed with expertise and safety. It links no study for the circulation description. Ask what it involves, what is lit, how close the flame comes to skin, and what training covered it.

The teas raise a different question, because herbs are ingested. NCCIH's guidance on herbs and medicines reports that some supplements decrease the effects of medicines and others increase them, including unwanted side effects. St. John's wort interacts with many types of drugs. There is uncertainty about whether Asian ginseng interacts with calcium channel blockers and other blood pressure medicines, statins and some antidepressants. Concentrated green tea supplements can reduce blood levels of atorvastatin and nadolol, and goldenseal may change how the body processes metformin. People taking medicines with a narrow therapeutic index, including digoxin, cyclosporine and warfarin, are advised to tell their providers about any herbal supplements.

NCCIH also notes that the FDA is not authorised to review dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness before they are marketed, and that many supplements have not been tested in pregnant women, nursing mothers or children. Ask what is in the blend, how much of each herb, whether it is brewed as a tea or taken as a concentrated supplement, and tell your clinician or pharmacist what you are drinking.

Before you book

The questions that map to the gaps above:

• Which offering are you booking, and what does it cost?
• For a class, how long is a session, how many weeks does it run, and is the form a standing set or a seated meditative practice?
• Which address does the class use, the Hallandale Beach studio or Feeling Free Academy in Hollywood?
• What training does the instructor have, with which organisation, and for how many hours?
• For the massage, does the practitioner hold a Florida massage licence, and how much pressure is typical?
• For the teas, what is in the blend, and is it brewed or taken as a supplement?
• What should you wear, and is a chair available if you need one?

Booking runs through WhatsApp, and the page says the provider confirms availability in reply, so one message can carry all seven. The $100 hourly rate, the daily hours and the class options come from the practice's page and can change, so reconfirm them when you book. The qigong summary was last updated in February 2022, the massage summary in May 2019 and the dietary supplement guidance in January 2019.