Trager®

The principles at the foundation of the Trager® Approach are the perfect blueprint for living gracefully in an enlightened state in the physical body.

Trager® is an approach to neuromuscular integration that uses touch and light, gentle, non-intrusive movements in a state of presence to invite feelings of lightness, softness, openness and freedom.  These feelings facilitate the release of deep-seated physical and mental holding patterns.

The following conditions have been successfully treated using the Trager® Approach:

• Musculoskeletal injuries, motor vehicle accidents, athletic injuries, rehabilitation after surgery.
• Chronic pain such as back, shoulder pain and neck pain.
• Neuromuscular disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, rehabilitation after a stroke, and polio.
• Emotional traumas that lead to depression, anxiety, chronic overwhelm.
• Stress related conditions such as headaches, TMJ, and repetitive motion syndrome.
• Helps to increase athletic and artistic performance.
• Helps in treatment of sexual and physical abuse, anorexia and bulimia.
• A spiritual tool for those seeking a closer connection to their own source.

The Origin of the Trager® Approach:

Dr. Milton Trager, the founder of the Trager® Approach to neuromuscular integration, called working in a state of presence “Hook-Up.” He said on many occasions, “IT is a Hook-Up of this power that you are surrounded by. It is a life-giving, life-regulating power that has always been there and will always be there.  And you can’t try to get it.  You can’t try to Hook-Up because to try is to fail. You don’t try.  To try is effort and effort is tension. We don’t try. We just allow it to happen. You are going to feel. It is not the moves I do or the technique.  Drop the word ‘technique.’ [Trager] is not a technique. It is something different.”

In a state of presence, feelings of lightness, softness, and bliss infuse the body/mind, turning technique into an effortless vehicle to transfer these feelings into the client’s body and therefore mind. This is why the Trager® Approach (also known as Trager Psychophysical Integration), operates through pleasurable, effortless, easy movement, which softly and safely introduces the body/mind to what it would be like if it were free to function without restriction.

Unfortunately, as we age many of us forget what this life-regulating power from our source feels like. It falls into the background, soon becoming hindered by the stresses of life then all but forgotten. Most of us shake our heads in wonder when asked what it feels like in our body to be connected to our source.

A Trager® session:

In a private Trager® session with Audrey, no oils or lotions are used.  You lie passively on a well-padded table (your choice of being clothed or partially unclothed) while she (in a state of presence) gently rocks, compresses, elongates, jiggles, and shimmers the tissue in your body. You would experience her playing along the border of restriction and freedom, inviting into your tissue feelings of lightness, of softness, of bliss.

The session would soon become a movement re-education that addresses the physical and nonphysical aspects of your body/mind, giving you a feeling alternative to any erroneous physical and mental patterns you might be holding onto.

You would know this new feeling by the expansive open sensation in your tissue, as if the gravity holding you down had lessened. You would know this by how your joints would seem to have been lubricated, how your breath would deepen, how your mind would quiet.

Dr. Trager taught his students (of which I was one) how to work and play effortlessly in presence.  He developed ways for anyone to put themselves quickly and effortlessly into the present moment, automatically eliciting the feeling of “Hook-UP.” He called these tools Mentastics (a term coined by his wife, Emily, from the words mental gymnastics).

We use Mentastics after the session, off the table, to allow the learning process in the nervous system to continue while you interact in your everyday world or if you’re unable to get a table session. Mentastics take very little time and are performed alongside everything else we do. In fact, when we use Mentastics throughout our day-washing dishes, making phone calls, walking to the mall-we not only regain and reinforce the feelings received during a session, we also independently foster our growth into presence.  The more we live in presence, the more the feeling of connection our source grows, the more we are fed by this energy, the clearer our decision, the more relaxed and the healthier our body, the more creative our mind.

Submitted by Audrey Mairi, Certified Trager® Practitioner