Trager Approach
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The Trager Approach is a mind-body approach to movement education. It is a system of gentle, rhythmic movement and touch aimed at facilitating deep relaxation, increased physical mobility, and promoting the body's optimal performance. There are several aspects of the approach: one in which the client passively receives the movement work on a padded table from a Trager practitioner; and another aspect, in which the client is taught to actively explore comfortable, free movement for themselves, is called Mentastics. Underlying to the basic aim of psychophysical integration in the Trager Approach, is a form of neuromuscular re-education called Reflex Response. This aspect of Dr.Trager’s work actively involves the client in awakening the connection between mind and body.
Contents
Development
The Trager Approach was the creation of a single individual, Milton Trager, M.D. He first encountered its principles intuitively during physical exercise, at the age of 18. He then spent the next 50 years, first as a lay practitioner and later as a medical professional, expanding and refining his approach. Dr. Trager died in 1997. Dr. Trager's first student, Betty Fuller, became the first teacher of his work and, with Dr. Trager, organized the Trager Institute in 1979. Dr. Milton Trager's work is now carried on by Trager International and the instructors and certified practitioners of the Trager Approach.[1]
Principles and Aims
Dr. Trager's manner of manipulating the body was not a technique or a method, in the sense that there are no rigid procedures which claim to produce specific symptomatic results. Rather, it is an approach, a way of learning and of teaching movement re-education. He stressed that his clients should come to him ready to absorb a lesson, instead of simply receiving, passively, a treatment. The Trager Approach is not concerned with moving particular muscles or joints, per se, but with using motion in muscles and joints to produce particular sensory feelings—positive, pleasurable feelings which enter the central nervous system and begin to trigger tissue changes by means of the many sensory-motor feedback loops between the mind and the muscles. The effects of a Trager session are intended to penetrate below the level of conscious awareness, and by consciously integrating the felt-changes, bringing it into the daily life. Dr. Trager noted that the immediate results of the session could be reinforced and deepened later by clients exploring simple movements that recalled the bodily sensations of the session. The essence of a Trager session is the projection of a calmer, more attentive, more meditative feeling state from the sensibility of the practitioner to the sensibility of the client. Dr. Trager called this hook-up.[2]
Reflex Response
The Reflex Response aspect of the Trager Approach was an integral part of all the work that Dr. Trager did. It was only separated out as advanced work when the Trager training became more formalized. Much of MIlton Trager’s early work was with young people who had polio and cerebral palsy—re-awaking or developing new coordinated movement possibilities where neurological connections were dormant, damaged, or deadened.[3] Through play and challenge, Reflex Response work activates and balances neuromuscular connections engaging the client/patient in their own healing. At one extreme, Reflex Response is used to stimulate the body’s protective spinal reflexes in a frozen or paralyzed limb; and at the other extreme, lesser stimulation can refine the coordination patterns required for smoother hand-arm movement in a Parkinson’s patient or a competitive athlete. From gross balance issues to fine vocal articulation, Trager Reflex Response work may be used to complement medical treatments. And of 2010, the original method is taught the original way; every trainee has to submit to a basic training that has 3 base levels AND the Reflex & Response basis training.
After al, it was dr. Trager himself who said (in an American owned “tape”); only for training purposes was Reflex Response divided from the base training;
“In praxis there is NO DIFFERENCE - THE TRAGER METHOD IS REFLEX RESPONSE.” The tape shows his emphasis on principles within his method.
And the fact that the practitioner of this method has to earn “every penny”.
It is therefore connected, hard and satisfying work.
Without doubt. It remains to be seen if we can release this milestone tape from the USA without editing, as dr. Trager shows some daring moves underlying his ability to connect to what is needed and possible.
Practitioner certification
Since the incorporation of The Trager Institute in 1980, nearly 2000 practitioners have been trained. In 2001, the Trager Institute became Trager International, an organization and identity change, embracing a worldwide mission of coordination of 13 national associations and the educational oversight of Trager training. The national associations are: Association Québécoise de Trager Inc (Quebec, Canada), Associazione Trager Italia (Italy), Israeli Trager Association, Mouvement Trager France, Svenska Tragerföreningen (Sweden), Trager Canada, Trager España (Spain), Trager Nederland (Netherlands), Trager UK (United Kingdom), Trager Verband Deutschland (Germany), Trager-Verband Schweiz (Switzerland), Trager-Verein Österreich (Austria), and the United States Trager Association including the following countries: United States of America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Namibia, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Thailand.[4]
The certification of Trager Practitioners is administered by the national associations. Worldwide minimum core requirements are specified by Trager International, but certain national associations may have additional requirements based on local laws. For example, the United States Trager Association's certification program takes a minimum of eighteen months to complete.
A Trager practitioner receives a minimum 409 hours of training of which 226 are supervised. The core training includes a Level I Training (six days), a Level II and III Training (each five days), Mentastics training (three days), and a six day Anatomy and Physiology training with a period of fieldwork and evaluations after each of the three levels of training. The fieldwork consists of giving and documenting a total of at least 90 Trager sessions without charge, and receiving at least 30 Trager sessions. There are also ongoing continuing education requirements after becoming a certified Trager practitioner.
Typical session
A session typically lasts from 20/40 minutes to one and a half hours. The client wears underwear or light, loose clothing and lies on a padded table in a comfortable environment. The practitioner makes touch-contact with the client, both as a whole and partly with individual limbs and segments. The central feature of the work is the sensory quality of the physical contact consisting of gently coaxing elongations, softly penetrating compressions, and a pleasurable rhythmic rocking, sending resonating ripples throughout the body's fluid structure.
After getting up from the table, the client is given instruction in the use of Mentastics, a system of simple, effortless movement sequences developed by Dr. Trager to maintain and enhance the sense of lightness, freedom, and flexibility that was instilled by the table work. This extends the effects of the lessons learned in the session and gives something useful to explore in the context of daily living.[2]
Benefits and Cautions
The Trager Approach is reported to help release or re-balance physical and mental patterning, to facilitate deep relaxation, and to increase physical mobility and functional awareness. The Trager Approach has been reported to ease or help manage a wide range of conditions including: stress, back and neck pain, limited movement, muscle spasms, headaches, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, post-polio syndrome, cerebral palsy, physical/emotional trauma, sports and other injuries. Beyond physical problems and experienced-limitation, competitive athletes, dancers musicians, singers, and those interested in personal growth have benefited from the awarenesses gained in Trager movement education.
Trager movement therapy is an approach that predominately uses light, gentle, nonintrusive movements: compressions, elongations and rocking. Reflex Response elicits calm an coordinated movements. Balance and strength are the basis and can be challenging.
There are relatively few contra-indications to the sensitive use of the Trager Approach. There are the following cautions: active thrombophlebitis (blood clots), recent surgery on joints (less than three months). It might not be advisable for a client to receive a Trager session if he/she is in a severely debilitated state, is extremely frail, or has had recent hospitalization for a severe illness.
Notes
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- Archive material describing the Trager Approach from the original Trager Institute site accessed 1998 (used with permission): trager.com.
- Claire, Thomas, Bodywork: What Type of Massage to Get and How to Make the Most of It, New York, William Morrow, 1995, ISBN 0-688-12581-6.
- Juhan, Deane, MA., The Trager Approach: A Comprehensive Introduction, 1993, self-published, available through The United States Trager Association.
- Liskin, Jack, Moving Medicine: The Life and Work of Milton Trager, MD., Barrytown, NY., Station Hill Press, 1996, ISBN 0-88268-196-6.
- Trager, Milton, MD, with Cathy Hammond, Movement as a Way to Agelessness: A Guide to Trager Mentastics, Barrytown, NY., Station Hill Press, 1987,1995, ISBN 0-88268-167-2.
- Trager International (official site) worldwide information on trainings and National Association links: trager.com.
- United States Trager Association (official site) for a description of the approach and the Certification Program: tragerus.org.
External links
- Trager International
- United States Trager Association
- The Federation of Therapeutic Massage, Bodywork and Somatic Practice Organizations. The United States Trager Association is a founding member.it:Approccio Trager
