The Trager® Approach to Bodywork
The Trager® approach (TA) is a unique form of bodywork developed by Milton Trager that utilizes gentle, rhythmic, rocking motions to help reset the body from a state of tension to a state of relaxation. When the body is injured or tense, it adapts by guarding the area. This can result in decreased range of motion, increased tightness in muscles, and resistance to change. TA recognizes that the unconscious mind is directly linked to how we feel about and move with our bodies. Our physical, mental, and emotional health are all intricately connected. Trauma can manifest in our bodies in the form of physical ailments, disorders, or imbalances. Once we create patterns or feedback loops in the nervous system, they are difficult to disrupt.
The goal of TA is to smooth out the wrinkles in the system; to promote “freedom of movement, freedom from pain, and comfort within the body.” TA practitioners, like Mary, observe how the body is moving and work with you to assist it in moving more freely. This approach aims to optimize relaxation and ultimately re-pattern the way the body moves. Using lateral, side-to-side, swinging motions, the practitioner is coaxing the brain out of holding patterns that manifest in the body causing pain or decreased range of motion. Do you remember the calming effect that swinging had on your nervous system as a child? TA taps into the visceral response we have to feeling our body’s weight as it rocks, sways, jiggles, or moves freely.
As the practitioner facilitates a series of gentle, non-intrusive movements, we can begin to recall feelings of playfulness and a sense of how our bodies felt in childhood-more free. Once given the choice between tension and freedom of fuller movement, the mind (& nervous system) will choose the more pleasurable option. The unconscious mind is reminded that it can move freely, without pain, and enter a more relaxed state.
Mary says, “When I am receiving TA, I feel like I’m in my baby body. There is a feeling of soft, fullness, and freedom.” If this sounds like something you’d like to experience, all you have to do is schedule a massage with Mary and ask for this approach.
Mary Sinclair has been a LMT since 1996. She has recently acquired her Trager® Approach Practitioner Certification through 300+ hours of class study and fieldwork. She has been blending TA into her massage work due to the efficacy of the work and the fortifying effects it has on her own body while working. She is now also offering TA sessions here at UAC. A TA session includes 5-10 minutes of Mentastics or Mental Gymnastics to help create the same types of feelings in the body that are experienced while receiving table work. An essential and unique aspect of TA is recall or realizing that once a more pleasurable sensation has occurred within the body, that experience will always be with us–just waiting to be re-lived.
Watch a Video about the Tragar® Approach:
For More Information about the Tragar® Approach:
https://www.tragerapproach.us/
Contact Urban Acupuncture Center in Columbus, OH For More Information
For more information about how acupuncture, massage therapy, electroacupuncture and other alternative healing treatments can help you, please contact the Urban Acupuncture Center Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist’s team at Indianola Ave, Columbus, Ohio (Clintonville) (614) 725-2488 or click here. Taking new patients in and around greater Columbus, Ohio.