About Silver Lotus
An Institute Without Walls
Silver Lotus Training Institute is a community of teachers and practitioners dedicated to sharing Tai Chi and Qigong through thoughtful instruction, continued learning, and community outreach.
We are an institute without walls. Rather than being centered in a single studio, our teachers bring these practices into senior and community centers, wellness programs, private settings, and other gathering places throughout the coastal communities of southern Delaware.
This approach reflects something that has long been at the heart of Silver Lotus:
The practice belongs in the community.
Our Story
Silver Lotus Training Institute was founded by Susan Hamadock, MA, MSW, in 1993 as an adjunct program of The Women’s Mental Health and Wellness Center in Silver Spring, Maryland.
The Institute's earliest programs focused on yoga and teacher development. Silver Lotus offered its first Yoga Teacher Training program in 1994 and later became registered with Yoga Alliance at both the 200- and 500-hour levels. Over the years, more than 100 yoga teachers were trained through the Institute.
Silver Lotus was also home to Svadhyaya Yoga, a highly individualized approach to teaching developed by Susan Hamadock.
As Susan's own studies and interests evolved, so did Silver Lotus.
The Institute eventually turned its focus to Tai Chi and Qigong, developing leadership and teacher-training programs while expanding community-based classes taught by a growing group of certified instructors.
Today, Silver Lotus continues that tradition in southern Delaware, carrying forward more than three decades of teaching, learning, and community outreach.
Our Mission
Our mission is simple: to make Tai Chi and Qigong accessible to as many people as possible.
We believe these practices should be welcoming and adaptable. Our classes are often intentionally small, allowing teachers to provide individualized attention and help students explore movement in ways appropriate to their own abilities and experience.
We welcome people of different ages, backgrounds, abilities, and levels of experience.
Our Approach
We honor the traditional roots of Tai Chi and Qigong while recognizing that every person arrives with a different body, history, ability, and experience.
Our teachers encourage students to learn with curiosity rather than expectation—to listen to their bodies, move with awareness, and allow understanding to develop through practice.
We are less concerned with perfection than with awareness, balance, connection, and the joy of learning.
A Tradition of Learning
Learning has always been an important part of Silver Lotus.
Our instructors begin with a strong foundation of training and certification, but their education does not end there. Teachers continue to deepen their knowledge through ongoing study, professional training, personal practice, and work with respected teachers and organizations in Tai Chi, Qigong, movement, and related disciplines.
That commitment to continued learning allows Silver Lotus to remain rooted in tradition while continuing to grow.
We do not simply want to preserve practices from the past.
We want to honor their depth, continue learning from them, and keep them alive, relevant, and accessible for the people practicing them today.
Everyone Is Welcome
Silver Lotus has always believed that these practices should be available to people with a wide range of abilities and life experiences.
Our teachers strive to create supportive environments where students can explore movement, breathing, balance, awareness, and stillness without pressure to perform or compare themselves with others.
Come as you are. Learn at your own pace. Find your own practice.