The Trager Approach
(A Mind/Body Approach)

 

Trager increases relaxation and mobility

through touch, movement

and an open meditative state.

 

*The Trager Institute was founded in 1980 by Dr. Milton Trager and Betty Fuller to ensure that the Trager Approach would be preserved and practiced as consistently as possible.  Located in Mill Valley, California, the Institute is the international center for the Trager Approach, distributing materials and information about Trager work and its practitioners, and providing professional training and certification in the Trager Approach.   Trager is practiced in more than 20 nations throughout the world.

 

 

The Trager Approach:   A Lighter Way of Being

 

          *What is Trager  work?  Think about softening, deepening.   Think about lengthening, expanding, relaxing.  Think about light, lighter and lighter still.   Think about a dancing cloud.

                  

                   “Trager leaves my body with a new relationship to gravity.   My neck grows, and chin lowers, my shoulders push back, my chest expands and my knees become bouncy….World class swimmers access this feeling right before the big race while standing on the blocks.   They jiggle, shake and rotate their joints, and then they give it one hundred and ten percent.”

                                               (champion triathlete from British Columbia)

 

         

*A session takes from 1 to 1 ½ hours.   No lotions or oils are used.   The receiving person may be partially or fully clothed and lies on a well padded table in a warm and comfortable environment.  The practitioner gently and rhythmically moves the person’s body in such a way that the person actually experiences the possibility of being able to move that freely, effortlessly and gracefully on their own.

                  

“Trager work makes all the difference in how I feel.

          I’ve been in a life-long state of contracture and Trager work

          helps me to go beyond that.”

                                                                             (concert violinist)

 

The Trager Approach:  An Open Meditative State

 

*Milton Trager, MD has spent his life as a lay practitioner and later as a medical professional, expanding on his discovery of the Trager Approach.   With clients and patients he explored the effects of gentle movement on the nervous system which he associates with the unconscious mind.

         

Milton Trager, MD’s work is directed towards reaching the

unconscious mind……. “Every move, every thought communicates

how the tissue should feel when everything is right.  The mind is the

whole thing….That is all that I am interested in…..  I am convinced

that for every physical non-yielding condition there is a psychic

counterpart in the unconscious mind, and exactly to the degree of

physical manifestation.”

                                                                   (Milton Trager MD)

 

            *Perhaps the most unique aspect of the Trager Approach concerns the state of the practitioner in relationship to the person receiving the work.   The Trager practitioner adopts a relaxed and open meditative state of consciousness that Dr. Trager nicknamed “hook-up”.   It is this connection above all that Dr. Trager imparts to his patients and teaches to his students.   And it is this feeling of calm, peaceful connection that is the essence of the Trager Approach.

 

 

The Trager Approach : A New Point of View

 

          *Comparing the Trager Approach to other types of bodywork is like comparing rainbows to thunder.   In some bodywork disciplines, the practitioner will often work deeper or harder into the muscles when tightness or resistance is encountered.

        The Trager Approach is exactly the opposite.  When tightness is encountered, the practitioner actually works more lightly to help the person recall the feeling of what it was like before it was tight.   Trager work is a mind/body approach using touch, movement and an open meditative state for relaxation training and improved mobility.

 

                       

 

“…….four  years ago, I was stricken with intense muscle spasms

on a business trip.   Several doctors and physical therapists later/ I was diagnosed as having a ruptured disk…..  After almost three years of

muscle spasms, the doctor replaced massage therapy with Trager  work

 to re-educate the muscles and added physical therapy for strengthening. 

After six months the muscles are stronger  and much more pliable.  

And I  finally feel I am on the road to recovery.”

                                      (corporate vice president with ruptured disk)

 

 

The Trager Approach:

The Movement Sends the Message

 

          *The Trager Approach is a way of learning and teaching through movement.   Clients come to absorb a lesson, as opposed to receiving a treatment.   The Trager practitioner uses the hands to communicate a quality of feeling to the nervous system during the table work and guides the person to move with that feeling on their own.

 

                        “….I am able to improve my condition….by recalling the feelings

….my body experienced during the last session…..It is a process full of hope.

The whole idea of intercepting harmful messages between the brain and the

Muscles and breaking the circuit, is intriguing and opens up new fields of

possibility.”

                                                  (Retired 77 year old with Parkinson’s Disease)

 

        To communicate, practitioners use the language of movement and touch: gently rocking, swinging, stretching and pressing.   They work within the person’s pain-free range to provide a sense of how it feels to be able to move freely and painlessly.

       

“I have learned how to relax tight muscles myself by being

conscious of the stress in other parts of my body in relationship to

my shoulder and upper back pain.   For example, I was used to holding

on to the steering wheel (of my car) for dear life.   Now I can lighten

up, relax and let go……I am more conscious of what I have been

doing to myself.”   

                    (Certified Public Accountant with a serious back deformity)

 

 

 

The Trager Approach:  You Can Take It With You

 

As part of a Trager Session, or in special classes, one can receive instruction in the use of  Mentastics * Self-Care Movements on their own.   These simple, effortless movements help people create for themselves the same feelings awakened by the table work.   

 

 

The Trager Approach:  A Method for Every Body

 

           The Trager  Approach often achieves excellent results for people with a wide range of conditions, such as everyday aches and pains, poor posture, limited movement, aging, stress  and muscle spasms.    And it is great for the pure enjoyment of it.   

 

“I talk of how the work is a form of neuromuscular re-programming and movement re-education which can be used to reduce pain and increase range of motion of joints, the patient’s sense of well-being, the patient’s sense of how powerful they can be to effect their own health….”

                   (Mark Hoch, MD, a Family Physician in Private Practice)

 

          The Trager Approach has also helped many people with serious conditions including back pain, depression, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, post-polio syndrome and Parkinson’s disease as well as sports injuries such as tennis elbow and on-the-job ailments such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

It became clear to me months before I ever heard of Milton Trager that even though I understood what  was wrong with me, I was struke…..After my third session, when I awoke the next morning, I felt as though I caught the wind and changed its direction.”

( A person with clinical depression who gave up antidepressants with The Trager Approach)

 

 

 

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“Milton Trager’s work

 

will benefit anyone

 

wishing to lead

 

a healthier and

 

more dynamic life.”

 

Deepak Chopra, MD

 

author of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind

    

This text is from the Trager Brochure