This class will explore the ease, effectiveness and joy of using Trager principles, while learning new methods of side-lying bodywork for your clients. Trager bodywork is gentle and non-intrusive, using rhythmic movement to help clients experience new kind of releases and relaxation in their bodies, and is very effective with clients recovering from injuries or dealing with pain. Areas of tension and holding are brought to their natural state of tonus and elasticity without relying on force, pressure, or pain. The client experiences a deep sense of relaxation and well-being.
Many professionals use Trager movements and principles along with their other bodywork modalities. One advantage practitioners find using Trager principles is that it is highly effective at producing deep, painless connections with the client’s body parts, and is much easier on the practitioner’s own body. The principles and self-care techniques you will learn in this class will enhance and support all the techniques that you are currently using.
Benefits of Side-Lying Trager:
There is a three-dimensional effect to the work that is unique, and the tensegrity structure of the body as a whole can be felt and articulated more easily.
Many clients are more comfortable and less resistant when lying on their sides.
Gravity can be used to great advantage because of the way it loads the joints and muscle tissue, hips, shoulders, abdomen.
The therapist benefits from all the positioning advantages and thus doesn’t have to work as hard.
Small amounts of motion can be transmitted through the joints with very little effort, creating a very pleasurable effect for the client.
Certain body parts, like the shoulder girdle, ribs, hips, and iliotibial tract can be compressed, lifted and moved directly, independent of the underlying structure.
Jack Blackburn has been a Trager practitioner and bodyworker for over 30 years. Over the course of his career he has developed many innovative bodywork techniques, including Side-Lying Somatics and Table Talking. Jack holds a Master’s degree in Theology and Ministry, and is an instructor of a body-centered counseling technique called Focusing. Jack divides his time between Orcas Island, WA and Tokyo, Japan.
Instructor: Jack Blackburn
CE hours: 8
Tuition: $170