TRAGER

The TRAGER Approach is a Somatic Movement Therapy modality that helps release patterns of tension held in the brain. Gentle touch, soft weighing, rocking, jostling, and range of motion moves of the body and limbs induce a deep state of relaxation. The results are immediate and tangible improvements in circulation, flexibility, range of motion, and balance.
You will be shown how you can take the resulting sensations with you and recall & recreate them in everyday life.

The science: TRAGER uses tensegrity of the muscular-skeletal system (kinetic chain) & neuromuscular interaction to stimulate neuroplasticity of the brain. The soothing, safe, and comfortable touch almost immediately switches the nervous system from sympathetic (fight and flight) to parasympathetic (rest and digest) resulting in a deep state of relaxation throughout body and mind. The gentle and safe movements create space in the joints to allow lubrication with synovial fluid and increase pain-free range of motion.

After the usual formalities, the TRAGER practitioner first takes you through movements to help you slow your pace and allow you to arrive in the presence, to encourage body awareness, and initiate relaxation in tight areas. Then on the table, she gently brings sensations of softness and weightlessness to your muscles and lightly moves your joints to increase flexibility and fluidity.

A TRAGER practitioner lets your body remember how it feels to be and to move without pain.

After the session your body feels softer and lighter. You are more aware of how it is connected, and how much more responsive it is to movement.

Your body is deeply relaxed, yet you are consciously alert. You can breathe again.

Your body and spirit already feel better.
Your feet are firmly planted on the ground, but
You feel light enough to dance among the clouds.
You are not hurt anymore.
You feel human again.

The TRAGER Approach to Psychophysical Integration is intriguingly versatile. For instance, somebody with severe neuropathy usually appreciates a steady, soft touch with focus and intention, more similar to energy work. Another client enjoys a more vigorous session with firmer touch and more dynamic movements. In Trager work, the practitioner adjusts touch to the condition of the client’s body. Whether it is firm or light, touch is always soft and comfortable because the practitioner’s hands are always relaxed and her/his body at ease. This essentially is the secret behind the sustainability of the TRAGER Approach for clients as well as for practitioners.

No lotions, cremes, or oils are used with this modality. This allows the practitioner to work with clients who are extremely allergic to any kinds of oils, lotions, or fragrances. Clients who are very modest can stay dressed and still receive a session with excellent results.

Ask for a TRAGER demo while you are getting a massage or bodywork session with me.

With Mentastics we focus on and improve movement awareness in our own bodies.
We practice movements which are comfortable, safe, gently flowing, and good-feeling. We explore in our bodies how movements can feel lighter, softer, and gentler.
The principles of Mentastics can easily be integrated in our daily lives making us feel more comfortable in our bodies. It can help improve balance issues and ease many everyday aches and pains like giving yourself your own private, custom tailored TRAGER session.
Practicing Mentastics also helps improve and prolong the results of TRAGER bodywork sessions.

If you have received TRAGER sessions, your are aware that the work is much different from most massage therapy and bodywork modalities.
Learning the craft takes time and practice like learning a new language or music instrument until you "own" the work and move from intuition with softness and ease.
TRAGER is fun to learn and can be healing to body and soul in the process.
A good start is taking a Somatic Movement Explorations / TRAGER Introductory Workshop.

In this workshop you will be introduced to the basic principles of TRAGER Somatic Movement Bodywork and Mentastics. You get to explore these principles hands on with simple practice sessions and receive a demonstration of the work from an experienced Practitioner or Student.
For TRAGER® Introductory Workshops there are no prerequisites for participants. The TRAGER® Intro Workshops are suited for anyone, whether you are interested in the TRAGER® Approach as a potential client or as a Massage Therapist / Healthcare Practitioner. Licensed massage therapists in TX will receive NCBTMB Approved Continuing Education credits.

For a Class Schedule click here

Call for more information on rates, class schedule, and location: 469-338-9748

To find out what participants say about their TRAGER Intro Workshop experience click here.

The TRAGER® Approach is a valuable modality for Massage Therapists, OTs, PTs, DCs, nurses, nurse assistants, Chiropractic assistants, anyone in home health care, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and more. TRAGER® is also a valuable tool for anyone who enjoys practicing the healing arts through touch. Only TRAGER® Certification is required to practice The TRAGER® Approach in TX.

This course of classes takes what you experienced in an Intro Workshop to the next level.
You will learn specific movements and hand positions and a full body practice routine.
Practicing the moves and hand positions within the routine will help you fully integrate the principles of this intuitive, sensitive work.
The goal is to eventually rely on your intuition and sensitivity to follow your client's body's neuromuscular feedback patterns to guide the body into full relaxation, and to allow the brain to replace patterns of tension with new information of the freedom and lightness of pain-free movement (neuroplasticity).

The TRAGER Approach is very versatile.
TRAGER and Mentastics can be offered as separate sessions or the principles can be integrated with any other form of massage, body work, and exercise sessions like Yoga, Pilates, etc.

Once you intrinsically "own" the principles you will automatically integrate them with whatever your professional and personal activities entails. Your work will be easier on your own body and your clients will experience results faster and longer lasting with a more relaxing and enjoyable bodywork session.

Somatic Movement / Mentastics for a better life

An essential part of TRAGER is self-care (Principles of Somatic Movement Awareness / Mentastics).
The principles of Mentastics self care enable you to extend your professional career by preventing work related repetitive use injuries. By applying the principles learned in the TRAGER sessions your clients will be able to prolong and improve the results of the bodywork sessions on their own time.

For more details on the TRAGER Professional Certification Training click here.

I think I’ve taken a quantum step with the Trager class I just finished. The class was tiny, so it was almost like private tutoring. The instructor was George Gottlieb (trained by Dr. Milton Trager), who is an amazing man, and the kind of 78-year-old I would like to become.
I also received about 20 hours of Trager bodywork (and gave around 18.) Trager needs to be done from a contemplative, meditative state, so working on another person is also working on yourself. I feel changed.
Trager works on body parts (muscle, bone, connective tissue), but it also explores how the nervous system and mind factor in. Something that happened to protect a person from trauma (even childhood trauma) may no longer be necessary. Trager suggests (never demands) alternative ways of being.
I’m not sure what the destination is, but the journey is great.
A gigantic thank you to Ruth Bucher of Celestine Therapy - Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork https://www.facebook.com/MassageTherapyByRuthBucher, who coordinated the class and hosted it at her farm and studio!
Dixon M., LMT 2018

At the age of 19 Milton Trager had been developing and working with his method for a few years. He worked with a young polio client and got him to walk again after having been paralyzed for four years, the first of many to follow.
Milton was a mail man with an eighth grade education.

Half a century later, after becoming an M.D. against all odds, he demonstrated his method to the renowned rehabilitation specialist Dr. René Caillet in Los Angeles. Dr. Caillet asked him to write an article about his work for a medical journal. After reviewing Milton’s writing Dr. Caillet told Dr. Trager that his article would never get published: “When you do your work it is scientific; when you write about it, it is philosophical”. To Milton’s frustrations he found that words were [and to this day still are] inadequate tools to communicate the feeling nature of his approach. (Moving Medicine)

Since then, the scientific community has done more research in the field and designated terminology that can be used to describe some aspects of TRAGER work like “neuromuscular response” and “neuroplasticity of the brain”. However, this terminology still cannot adequately explain or describe Dr. Milton Trager’s versatile and compassionate approach that, to this day, helps many people with severe pain and physical restrictions.

I am often being asked if this is energy work. I say, yes it is, but it is also a tangible, direct engagement of the brain, a stimulation to forget negative, restricting patterns of tension and focus on re-learning the positive feelings of freedom, effortlessness, softness, and connectedness in the body.

What immediately attracted me to this work is the gentle, compassionate, and playful touch. As I became more experienced, I started to notice immediate changes in the tissue during the sessions and changes in the whole body of my clients afterwards.
When I talk to people who have experienced a TRAGER session, no matter how long ago, they always remember the work because of how it made them feel.

Again, words are inadequate; the only way to get acquainted with this gentle, yet highly effective modality is to personally experience it in a session with a certified TRAGER practitioner and/or by participating in a TRAGER introductory workshop.

Liskin, Jack. Moving Medicine. Station Hill Press, Inc., NY, 1996
Trager, Milton Trager, M.D., Hammond, Cathy, Ph.D. Movement as a Way to Agelessness - A Guide to TRAGER Mentastics. Station Hill Press, Inc., NY, 1987, 1995
Juhan, Deane. Job's Body. Bryytown/Station Hill Press, Inc., NY, 1987, 1998, 2003
TRAGER Website https://www.tragerapproach.us/

Trager® and the "Dancing Cloud Logo" are Service Marks of Trager International