Thanks Shootingstar - I do appreciate your comments and advice and am finding them quite helpful. As there is only one class I can find - I have to go with that one as I don't think this is something one can learn properly from a video. Fr Guy IS teaching a Chen form right now, but that isn't all he is teaching, he is pulling the warmup from other styles. I will proceed cautiously and avoid those movements I know would be bad for me. Thankfully, I DO have a good idea what will hurt me.

Hopefully my positive experience will continue, but I was really struck by his focus on both flowing movements and proper form. There was an interesting discussion on how to deflect an opponent's movement (and some interesting examples), and also how this can be also used to deflect negative energy - just as you said. Very interesting and I can already tell that it requires the level of focus that I need/prefer.