Why use the Trager® Approach to massage? A Trager® massage has a way of helping you calm frail nerves, manage pain and increase the chance of correcting past and present ailments. The Trager® Approach to massage has proven quite revolutionary, especially looking at its impressive results and increased practitioner demand for the therapy. Read on to find out what the Trager® Approach to massage means to those who want to try another routine to everyday bodywork, therapy, and recovery.

The Trager® Approach to Massage was created and developed by Milton Trager. It’s a mind and body treatment used for relaxation, stress, pain management and enhanced mobility. Dr. Trager developed and mastered the Approach in treating his own chronic pain and ailments. The Trager® Approach is used in rehabilitation centers as another procedure to massage therapy in treating sports injuries, breathing issues, stress, muscle pain, and weak posture to name a few.

With the Trager® Approach, there are two main aspects; the passive and the active aspect. The Passive work, also called the tablework, has to do with the client lying prostrate on the table while the massage practitioner uses gentle movements to relieve tension. Active work, known as Mentastics® involves the use of mental and physical exercises to relieve pain and distress. Making use of gentle, non-intrusive natural movements, the Trager® Approach enhances deep-seated physical and mental patterns that may have developed in response to accidents, illnesses or any kind of physical or emotional trauma attributed with the stress of everyday life. Trager® therapy stimulates a deep form of relaxation, enhanced physical mobility, and mental alertness.

A session in Trager® treatment usually lasts for an hour or more and puts the client into a state of deep meditation and relaxation while using gentle touches and passive and active movement with the sole purpose of teaching the recipient how to move gracefully and with less effort. Trager® practitioners use firm and gentle touches and avoid causing pain in any form in order to enable the client to be totally devoid of all fears and tune in to all sensations.

The practitioners in Trager® sessions also go into a level of playfulness and effortless skill in guiding their work as they proceed in the treatment; the client can then move effortlessly and with reduced tension. The free movement involved in the session is heightened by Mentastics®, which are easy-to-do active and self-induced movements which clients can do all alone during their normal day-to-day activities. After deep sessions like this, many people now apply Mentastics® as a part of their everyday life in taking care of themselves and releasing all stress and tension after a particularly stressful day.