About Your Instructor, Parvene Farhoody, PhD

Parvene Farhoody holds a PhD in Learning Processes and Behavior Analysis from an Association of Behavior Analysis International (ABAI)-approved behavior analysis program at Queens College in New York City. She has also been a trainer and behavior consultant for multiple species for 26 years through her business, Behavior Matters, Inc., also based in New York City.

Dr. Farhoody has taught in the public school system and privately (elementary through high school) and has been an Adjunct Professor at Queens College, teaching classes in experimental behavior analysis and the application of behavior analysis in animal training. In addition, she has conducted numerous seminars and workshops in the United States and Europe designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching across species. Her work has always concentrated on bridging the gap between the work conducted in an experimental laboratory setting (the lab) and the applied work that is conducted in real-world situations (the field).

Since 2004, when she was first introduced to and inspired by the work of Keller and Marian Breland, she has been working with chickens in a way that directly follows the Brelands’ procedures. In 2012, after several years of continuous study, she began teaching others a combination of the applied work taught by the Brelands (how) and her own curriculum, which is committed to explaining the Brelands’ work and how it was derived from the experimental analysis of behavior (why).

Since 2012, she has included chickens as a behavior model for teaching scientific principles and improving trainers’ technical skills in approximately half of the U.S. and European workshops in which she taught.

Dr. Parvene Farhoody’s philosophy as a student and teacher is eloquently expressed by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming:

The Proper Approach to Learning Taiji

Whether or not a person learns something depends upon his attitude and seriousness. First he must make a firm decision to learn it, and then he must have a strong will to fulfill his intention. He needs perseverance and patience to last to the end. Even if a person has all these virtues, his achievement might still be different from that of another person who has the same qualities and personality. The difference is due to their manner of learning. If a person practices and then ponders every new thing he has learned, and keeps going back to research and master it, he will naturally be better than the person who never explores what he has learned. Both students may learn a method for changing rocks into gold, but only the first one will know why the method works. The former’s knowledge will continue to grow and he will soon become a master; the latter will always be only a practitioner.

Taiji theory is profound. It takes many years of learning, research, pondering, and practice to gradually grasp the key to the art and “enter into the temple.” However, the more you learn, the less you are likely to feel you understand. It is just like a bottomless well or a ceaselessly flowing river.

There is an ancient list of five mental keys the student of taiji needs in order to reach the higher levels of the art. It is said: (1) Study wide and deep; (2) Investigate, ask; (3) Ponder carefully; (4) Clearly discriminate; and (5) Work perseveringly. If you follow this procedure, you can learn anything, even how to become a wise and knowledgeable person.

Excerpt taken from Tai Chi Chuan Martial Power Advanced Yang Style