The Trager Approach is in fact very different. The intention is to support and move the client in ways that elicit a ‘positive feeling’ experience. This only happens in the safety of the relaxation response, where learning something new and meaningful can be achieved, felt and integrated into a new and useful habit. Heavy or so-called good pain is NEVER used. It is an opportunity to have a kinesthetic dialogue about what FEELS better, and better yet. The feeling of spaciousness, lightness, freedom, and connection to oneself are typical reported outcomes.

You initially have an opportunity to share with your practitioner what you are feeling or experiencing in your body, and what you would like to achieve in working together.

Historically client needs, complaints and curiosities are broad in scope and in intensity. I would say generally speaking, people find me because they have tried many other things, including massage therapy, various types of bodywork, physical therapy, Pilates, yoga, stretching. By and large people seek my work because they are ready to try another approach in order to begin to free themselves of chronic tension, and pain. Other instances may indicate a more intensive timeframe, if for instance pain has been present for a longer period, years, decades or whole life. Or if a person has experienced a life event in loss, strong feelings of anxiety, or challenges in helping to resolve past traumas. Each person’s experience, lag-time in integrating the session work varies, requiring follow-up for checking in to determine ideal frequency of session visits.

Generally I ask that a new client refrain in receiving other types of ‘bodywork/massage’ during the initial period in receiving Trager sessions. This permits the experience of Trager touch, movement and presence to be freely undistracted into the unconscious mind and into the body intelligence.

For first time clients I generally ask that they commit to receiving three 90-minute sessions, usually a week apart from each other. By the second and third session, a new client typically developes a new (or renewed) sense of their body, of ‘self’, and how it serves to protect by way of the nervous system’s sympathetic reflex and its contractile forces. When a client begins to recognize that the “danger” is gone and they are safe in their body, tension and pain diminish significantly. Essentially you learn how it feels to be more “at home” in your body.