About Al Perry

I’ve spent more than three decades listening to bodies.

And if there’s one thing they’ve taught me, it’s this:

The body is always trying to find its way back to balance.

Sometimes it just needs a little help remembering the way.

I’m Al Perry, a Medical Qigong therapist, bodyworker, teacher, author, and lifelong student of what makes us human. For more than 37 years, I’ve worked with people experiencing pain, restriction, stress, and the feeling that something simply isn’t moving the way it should.

My work combines myofascial bodywork, Qigong, conscious breathing, movement, and an understanding of the energetic body. But I don’t really think of these as separate techniques.

They’re different ways of having a conversation with the same remarkable human system.

I don’t believe I heal people.

That may sound odd for someone in the healing profession to say.

I believe you heal you.

My job is to listen, observe, feel, and sometimes ask your body a better question.

Pain is rarely just an isolated spot that needs to be “fixed.” The body is interconnected through fascia, movement, breath, nervous system, emotion, awareness, and energy. Pull on one thread and something may respond somewhere you never expected.

That’s why no two sessions with me are quite the same.

I’m not interested in forcing your body into somebody else’s idea of correct. I’m interested in discovering what your body has been practicing—and helping it discover another possibility.

Because, as I often say:

The body becomes what it practices.

If it has been rehearsing tension for years, tension can begin to feel normal.

But we can also rehearse softness.

We can rehearse movement.

We can rehearse breath.

We can rehearse calm.

My own life has been part of my education.

My understanding of healing didn’t come only from books, certifications, or ancient teachings. It came from living.

I’ve been a Marine. I’ve known struggle, reinvention, pain, uncertainty, and the humbling experience of discovering that some of the things I once believed simply weren’t true anymore.

My own journey eventually became the foundation for my book, Fractured To Freedom: A Healing Journey.

Along the way, Qigong taught me something that continues to shape everything I do:

Yi leads Qi.

Which means... where awareness goes, energy follows.

And when awareness enters the body with curiosity instead of judgment, remarkable things can happen.

You are not a collection of parts.

You are a living, breathing, adapting whole.

Physical tension can affect emotion. Emotion can change breath. Breath can change movement. Movement can change fascia. And sometimes changing one small pattern creates room for something much larger to shift.

That interconnectedness still fascinates me after all these years.

Perhaps that’s why I continue doing this work.

I’m still curious.

I’m still learning.

And every person who walks through my door teaches me something new about this extraordinary thing we call a human body.

My role isn’t to give you healing.

It’s to help create the conditions in which your own intelligence can emerge.

Sometimes that begins with a breath.

Sometimes with a movement.

Sometimes with a hand placed in exactly the right place.

And sometimes it begins with simply becoming quiet enough to listen.

Welcome to Qiworks.

Let’s see what your body has been trying to tell you.

Al Perry Qiworks — Qigong & Pain Management, 7291 Coronado Drive #6, San Jose, California