The Trager Approach Defined

What is THe Trager APPROACH

As children, almost all of us move naturally, joyfully, easily and loosely. The Trager® Approach is an ideal method for rediscovering this feeling of lightness and freedom, allowing us to develop a body awareness that increases our wellbeing and our quality of life.

Trager® induces deep relaxation and can help to resolve physical imbalances. As a mind-body re-education it may be part of a rehabilitation program for injuries or can help to enhance sports or singing performance. It is an experience and learning process that progressively and effortlessly transforms our body and movement perception through new positive sensations.

WHY IS IT CALLED AN APPROACH?

The Trager® Approach is not a technique. It is an individual approach to your very own wellbeing based on the practitioner’s soft, questioning attitude, gentle movements and the experience of something new and pleasant. The more consciously the new Trager®-feeling can be integrated, the sooner new and more natural movement patterns can develop.

WHAT IS A TRAGER SESSION?

A Trager® session combines tablework and Mentastics® movement, and lasts between one and one-and-a-half hours. Gentle touch and movement create an experience that releases and relaxes emotional states and body tensions and pains. This is why Dr. Trager called his work ‘Psychophysical Integration’.

The process of a Trager® session can be seen like a gentle conversation in which we support our client in finding a more comfortable presence in body and mind. From a calm presence, through looking, asking questions and touching, we collect impressions and feelings from the first moment on. These perceptions determine the course of the session, connected to the here and now.

How does The Trager Approach work?

The Trager® Approach engages the neuroplasticity of the brain: new information introduced to the unconscious mind activates positive neurological changes which improve movement patterns.

Physical reaction patterns are created by environmental influences and experiences. Often a person maintains reaction patterns that were once necessary to maintain body balance or even to survive, out of a need for safety, but that are now unnecessary.

Such physical holding patterns also have consequences on the mental/emotional level. Muscular tension can lead from discomfort to pain, loss of elasticity and balance to malfunctions of the musculoskeletal system and the organ systems and a general sense of dis-ease and stress.

The Trager® Approach allows you to become aware of tension patterns and to release them in an effortless way. When you discover a new and more easy way of moving, you begin immediately to feel better. The more consciously the new feeling can be integrated, the sooner you will develop balanced, natural movement patterns permanently.