In 1982, at the very beginning of her career, Cindy Popp-Hager took a class to check out The TRAGER® Approach. That decision guided her career into a successful massage business and a love of teaching. Moreover, Cindy carries a sense of ease and comfort in her work most massage therapists only dream about.
I got to talk to Cindy about the TRAGER® Approach and I'm so excited she's bringing this work to the AMTA-MA Chapter. You'll want to register here (and register soon, the class is filling up fast).
Here's what I learned about the approach:
1. It's a modality that can be practiced on its own, without the client needing to undress, or as part of a draped massage. Yay for versatility!
2. Self care. The same techniques and theories for your practice can be applied to yourself, allowing for a happy, pain-free, successful massage career.
3. It will change you, the practitioner, as much as the client. In the TRAGER® Approach, the practitioner must be the ease she wants to convey to the client. This class will get you started feeling ease-y.
4. You'll learn about Mentastics®, a form of 'mental gymnastics' to help you engage the mind to find a feeling in the movement.
5. It's an educational approach as much as therapeutic approach; clients become curious and mindful about their own feelings and stay empowered to maintain changes. Empowered clients are a therapists's dream!
Bonus reason:
"Working in a meditative state, and from their own experience of lightness and freedom, TRAGER® practitioners guide the body of the client through a series of gentle, rhythmic movements which facilitates release of holding patterns in the body/mind."
Doesn't that just sound amazing?!
Cindy is teaching Introduction to the TRAGER® Approach on Saturday May 4 in Needham, MA. AMTA-MA Chapter members pay only $50, non members only $100, for 6 CE Hours (NCB approved).