Somatic Foundations of the Trager® Approach
Dates: April 10-13, 2025
Location: Kokemäki Seurahuone in Kokemäki, Finland
Instructor: Roger Tolle
Language: English with Finnish translation
Contact: Sirpa Jauhiainen, tsirp.jauhiainen@gmail.com, +358 50 3380 226
Notes: This 4-day, 24-hour class is open to everyone!
It serves as the Mentastics portion of the Trager Certification Training Program, and offers new students a rich introduction to the essential principles that underpin it.
Class Description:
Somatic movement experience is at the heart of Dr. Milton Trager’s remarkable life work, teaching new, positive body experiences through informed, intuitive touch and movement. The remarkable potency in his enveloping hands was often described as “light as a dancing cloud.” Those of us who studied with him and applied his Approach to working with a wide variety of clients in different settings discovered that behind the apparent simplicity was an integrated application of essential somatic movement principles.
He coined the term “Mentastics” (contraction of mental and gymnastics) to refer to a wide variety of movement and awareness processes, explorations, and movement experiments at the heart of his work. These have informed, structured and given meaning to the practices of thousands of students around the world since 1975.
Those who spent years studying with Dr. Trager, including Master Somatic Movement Educator and Therapist Roger Tolle, recognized a body of work in which every touch provides both safety and meaningful challenges to unconscious habits, where a wide variety of innovative movement coaching invites clients step by step into new, more playful and functional life patterns, and where movement discomfort dissolves as the body’s simple, natural, graceful design takes over. At the heart of this work is the joy of coming from a deeply peaceful inner state while leaning into aliveness and connection in all interactions. Roger brings an enthusiasm and passion from 40 years in private practice and teaching the Trager® Certification Training Program in 16 countries on 5 continents.
This class focuses on the somatic movement foundations of Trager’s presence, touch, and movement through integrated practice of the essential principles, including:
Fully embodied presence
Softness in attention, intention, contact and movement
Weight - sensing lightness and groundedness
Fluidity in tissue and movement patterning
Balancing floating in the sweet center with playing at the edges
Artful transitions in speed, size, density, intensity
Taking out the slack in the three-dimensional biotensegral web
Integrating meaningful movement into both professional and personal life activities
Connecting to ourselves, our partners, the earth, and to the life forces of the universe
The class also introduces the benefits of studying the Trager® Approach
Replacing restrictive movement habits with natural, graceful movement patterns.
Reframing daily self-care exercises as opportunities for mindful embodiment and self-development.
Equipping participants with practices to better navigate stress and cultivate resilience.
Integrating somatic practices into spiritual exploration and creative expression.
Addressing the somatic dimensions of trauma, depression, and anxiety, offering pathways to healing and transformation.
Enriching both professional and personal relationships (platonic and intimate) through embodied presence and attuned connection.