Stacy Müller is a tai chi and qigong teacher who was born in California, who lived in worked in Switzerland for 35 years and who now lives in Denmark. «Gold Mountain» is a chinese term for California and is the name that Stacy has chosen for her qigong business identity.

Stacy Müller grew up in Palo Alto, California and studied graphic design at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. She is a descendant of a Swiss emigrant and obtained her Swiss passport the 1970s. She spent most of her adult life living and working in Zurich – where she raised her children and where she ran her own design business for 23+ years. In 2022, she moved up to Denmark, and now lives on the magical island of Ærø.

I’ve written in both languages on this website. Most personal information is in English (my mother tongue) but many of the Tai Chi and Qi Gong posts are in German. This is because I teach these methods to therapists in Switzerland and want to make it possible for these students to reference this information. My group classes in Denmark are currently being taught in English (and a little Danish) and important information pertaining to these is translated into Danish.

When I mention certain Chinese acupuncture point names and Tai Ji principles, I try to include translations or practical explanations. Instead of keeping the «magic» of Chinese medicine shrouded behind esoteric phrases, I prefer to explain the energy concepts as simply as possible.

Both! She was trained as a graphic designer and worked in various advertising agencies as an art director from 1986 to 1994. Thereafter, she started her own small business and worked directly with clients for 23 years. In 1996 she started learning tai chi and has continued with this “hobby” since then. When health issues forced a decision on continuing her design work, she intensified her tai chi and qigong studies and got teachers certificates for both areas. For a while, she was juggling movement classes in many locations in the Zurich area and design work at home. In 2017 she was hired as a tai chi therapist in a rehab clinic to work with patients suffering from chronic pain as well as other serious health issues. Since then, she has stopped doing professional design work. So you could say that she has made her hobby into her profession and her profession into her hobby.

In 2006 she had a stroke. This was unexpected — she was 43 years old and otherwise healthy. Nonetheless, this event landed her in the hospital, then in rehab, and later in a clinic to treat the post-stroke depression – six months away from home and family! In the years thereafter, she slowly resumed her design work, albeit for chosen clients with looser time schedules. It was during this time that she intensified her tai chi and qigong teacher training and practice.

But there’s more – She also suffered a herniated disk (L 4/5) at the age of 40 and it took two years for the pain to become manageable. She was able to reduce the residual, persistent pain by increasing her movement (an hour of walking daily and swimming twice a week). She promised herself that if she could learn to walk without a limp again then that she would hike over the Gotthard Pass. After doing so, she was inspired to continue solo hiking in the alps.

Hat Trick! – in December 2020 Stacy had Covid. Upon returning to work, she suffered from fatigue, a racing pulse, dizziness, high blood pressure and other worrisome symptoms. It took almost 2 months to feel «normal» again. During this recovery period, she noticed that she often felt better on the days that she had to work (doing gentle movement). She’s convinced that the soft activity of qigong (as well as the intensive breathwork that occurs while practicing) has helped her through this difficult episode and that this sort of gentle movement is a viable method for increasing energy without overtaxing one’s system.

Stacy Müller’s small business «Art Direction Stacy Müller» was started in 2004 and officially closed at the end of 2017 – 23 years of exciting design work for interesting clients and with amazing collaborators.

Stacy Müller worked at the Rehaclinic Bad Zurzach (renamed ZurzachCare in 2021) from 2017 to 2022. She loved this challenge, as well as the opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary team and with fascinating patients. But even as a 50% job, it was extremely strenuous, and so she started to consider other options …
In 2022 she decided to move to Ærø — together with her husband. They have been finishing construction on a wooden boat in Denmark for years and felt that it was time to move closer to the ocean. Not quite ready to retire completely, Stacy is continuing with Qigong and Tai Chi lessons in Denmark and also travels to Switzerland every once in a while to teach her methods to other therapists. When she’s not teaching, or sanding boat parts, she’s learning Danish and also enjoying a much slower and healthier life in a very quiet and beautiful place. Less is more!

Stacy and her husband have bought a historic replica of a 1884 schooner and are creating their “floating holiday home”. This has led to a number of smaller boatbuilding projects (all sorts of D-I-Y as well as maintenance) and the documentation of these projects can be seen on the website Emma-Sailing (yet another «work in progess», but you can have a look at https://emma-sailing.ch/). Now that we live on Ærø, our boatbuilding projects will intensify, as hopefully will our sailing activity.

Are we going to leave everything behind and sail around the world? Not so soon! I’m pretty sure that the boatbuilding projects and the many local destinations will be keeping us busy here for a few more years.

Well then, please contact me.