The US Trager Association

The Trager Approach is a pleasurable, gentle and effective approach to movement education and mind/body integration. The Trager Approach helps release deep-seated physical and mental patterns and facilitates deep relaxation, increased physical mobility, and mental clarity. The benefits of a Trager session are long-lasting and cumulative, with subsequent sessions allowing for deeper and longer lasting changes.

At the beginning of your session, your Practitioner enters into a state of awareness that Dr. Milton Trager termed "Hook up," a state similar to meditation. From this state of mind, your Practitioner uses touch and movement to communicate with your body and mind the feeling of a freer and easier way of being and moving.

There are two aspects of The Trager Approach. In one aspect of the work, usually referred to as the "table work," you, the client, lie on a well-padded table in a safe, comfortable environment while your body is supported and gently moved within its pain-free range of movement and natural rhythm. You may choose to be fully clothed, or partially clothed and appropriately draped.

The quality of touch and movement is such that you experience the feeling of moving effortlessly and freely on your own. As your body and mind receive these soft movements, tensions disappear and new movement patterns become possible.

The other aspect of the Trager Approach, called Mentastics, involves instruction in the use of self-care movements. Mentastics is taught both in private sessions and in group classes.

For more information, read Jack Liskin's article, "The Principles of the Trager Approach" - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.