What is a Trager session like?

A session involves both table work (similar to a massage) as well as personal movement explorations off the table. Before you jump on the table, we will begin with an inquiry of, "how does your body feel right now?, or "what is your body telling you in this moment?" I want both of us to have a clear understanding to use as a baseline for our time together.

During the table work, you will lie comfortably on my table as I move you with gentle rocking, shimmering, elongating, bouncing, or very slow movements. I feel for how your body responds. Where do you feel stuck? Where do you feel open and connected?
We will work together so that you can receive the most benefit from the session. It is very important for you to feel the movement of your body as I move you. Your awareness is the key learning objective of our session. If you can gain a sense of how you move in our session, then you will gain a deeper understanding during your everyday activities.

Your safety is of highest priority. I do not want to engage the autonomic nervous system (fight, flight or freeze). This means that during our session, it is very important that you always feel comfortable and at ease. Pain is never a way to help a muscle to release, NEVER. Your nervous system is already familiar with pain, we would only increase it's knowledge of that sensation. Our work together is to offer new possibilities of sensation, like lightness, softness, open, free, fluid, and longer. It is always appropriate for you to speak up and let me know that something either doesn't feel good, or it's about to not feel good.

Before you leave, we will once again check into how your body feels differently now. We will play with some moves that you can do at home, called Mentastics (mental-gymnastics). This time is very important, it anchors the new sensations into your awareness. You will then have the memory of this new feeling quality and you can recall it at any time. The more you recall it, the faster the pattern changes. The process is now in motion. Further sessions will deepen this new connection with yourself and continue your journey to joyful and comfortable movement.

           The enigma of changing habits... you have to get somatic.
   Somatic means relating to, or affecting the body. The Trager Approach is a form of somatic education. It helps release deep-seated physical and mental patterns and facilitates deep relaxation, increased physical mobility, and mental clarity. It's the awareness of your body in motion and how it feels that can change a habit. Chronic pain and other physiological symptoms including inflexibility and limited range of motion can be a neurological pattern that has become stuck. Humans tend to repeat what is familiar, even if it's not necessarily good for them.
When we can slow down and focus on specific feeling qualities, and are very sensitive to the small details, it allows us to get below the surface of habitual patterns.  Maybe the way you get out of your car everyday, or how you sit in front of your computer has created a gripping pattern in your hip or hamstring muscles. Not until you notice the pattern, and then change the pattern, will the pain begin to diminish.

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