Arlene Faulk is a teacher, writer, storyteller and accomplished business woman. Well known for her inspiring Tai Chi teaching, she uses using her calm, clear voice to support and uplift students, helping each to be in the moment and relax from the stress and pressures of the day. The longevity of her students’ participation attests to her impact on their well-being and their ending each a class by wanting more. More calm. More centeredness. More coping ability.
She was once thriving as an upwardly-mobile career woman in a male-dominated corporation, while she hides increasingly severe health problems. As economic downturns batter her business environment, Arlene’s body faces its own dramatic downturn. She lands flat on her couch for two years. With a daunting label of multiple sclerosis — which took 21 years to diagnose — she has no road map for what to do, where to look. She jumps into the scary unknown, having no idea what would happen.

"Take a specific step forward, with all the fears and unknows, because the unknown is where the possibilities are."
Arlene Faulk
Enter a health care professional who really cares and possesses extraordinary healing gifts. For the first time Arlene feels like she is more than an object on an examining table. That led to Tai Chi, to walking again, to getting off all medications, to teaching Tai Chi, to building her own thriving business.
Now Arlene has captured her dramatic personal story in a memoir, Walking on Pins and Needles: A Memoir of Chronic Resilience in the Face of Multiple Sclerosis. Faulk recounts how she regained mobility, embraced the power of Tai Chi, and took back control of her life. She continues to teach Tai Chi, write her award-wining blog, and speak about her story and ways to inspire anyone going through their own personal health and healing journey.
Follow Arlene on Facebook and Instagram for news on her book and events, as well as Tai Chi classes, tips and observations about keeping our balance in life.
Arlene is also available to speak to your group or on your podcast. Call 312-642-0722 or use the Contact form.
Writing
Arlene Faulk has had a passion for writing from a young age beginning in the 8th grade when she wrote and published her class newsletter, The Tattler. She earned a BA in Journalism from the University of Iowa, reporting on everything from Led Zeppelin concerts to protests of the Vietnam War. She went on to receive an MA in Speech Communication from the University of Kansas. Arlene has been writing her award-winning Faulk Tai Chi blog for a decade and she will release her first book this year.
- Walking on Pins and Needles: A Memoir of Chronic Resilience in the Face of Multiple Sclerosis by Arlene Faulk. Now available in paperback or e-book.
- What a Year and What to Do with Lingering Fear, April 19, 2021
- Managing Stress, November 5, 2020
- The Beginning, A Piece by Arlene Faulk in Celebration of 20 Years at Heartwood, May 20, 2019
- “A Gentle Reminder,” You Heal You: Inspirational & Miraculous Healing Stores of Modern Day Warriors (book chapter) by Jane Doyle, 2016
- Faulk Tai Chi Blog

Learn more about Arlene’s classes at Faulk Tai Chi.