By Michael Lear, Trager® Instructor
Written in 2019 as a chapter in a book about Veterans and PTSD
This article is Part 1 of Michael Lear’s 4 part series: Relieving Post Traumatic Stress Related Symptoms with The Trager® Approach and Trauma-Informed Yoga and Mindfulness.
Part 1
A few months after turning 22 in 1986, having a degree in finance and working in a management position, I was found to have impressively high blood pressure measuring 162/105 and elevated cholesterol levels.
I also suffered from compromising chronic back pain which became acutely sharp at times. Being 40 pounds heavier than the average weight for my height didn’t help the situation. Being allergic to many medications, including the most widely-used array of prescription pain killers, I had to explore other alternatives to find relief. My body had rejected even muscle relaxants which left me with little latitude to journey comfortably forward.
Fortunately, through some serendipitous events, a unique method of neuromuscular bodywork or movement re-education system called the Trager® Approach came on to my radar. Named after Dr. Milton Trager, who developed the technique over his lifetime and professional career, it seemed like a good place to start. At that time, I had only the pain to lose.
Alternative approaches, including massage, were considered “fringe” in the late ‘80s as they still lacked wide acceptance. Nearly a decade later, in 1995, hands-on therapies, including the Trager® Approach, were cited as “Eye of the Newt Therapies” in the Market Place section of a Wall Street Journal issue. The Trager® Approach has stood the test of time.
My first experience with The Trager® Approach was profound and would prove to be pivotal. Though I had arrived at the session with some discomfort, there was no time during the session that I experienced pain. In fact, most of what I felt was curiosity mixed with relaxation. I was feeling that most, if not all, of my body felt good, not heavy or restricted as it had an hour before.
Often during the session I wondered why the practitioner was working on a part of me seemingly not related to the pain I had been experiencing. Yet, when the session was over, all traces of functional limitation and discomfort were gone. “Where did they go,” I thought to myself, “if they were not worked on directly?”
After my session I was given movement exploration exercises to do on my own, Trager Mentastics® (mental gymnastics), to help me meet my world differently; to explore movement possibilities outside my default, habituated way of moving about my environments such as at work and home. It was through these homework movement exercises that the Trager® Approach got its traction within me.
I began receiving sessions monthly to ensure that the pain did not return. In other words, so I did not fall back into old movement patterns that set up the painful conditions. Also, I had become a committed student of Mentastics®, which are like Tai Chi or gentle yoga- type movements that leverage principles of autogenic training, a widely recognized method of biofeedback used to lower blood pressure as it elicits physiological change through silently repeated phrases. Mentastics® also encourages memory of the session, of how it felt when I received the work, re-living the therapy in my mind. Every movement after a session is an opportunity to reprogram how one moves in their body and in relation to their world.
Mentastics® requires mindfulness and, indeed, this was changing my relationship to the world around me. I even found that the underlying principles of the Trager® Approach worked in dialogues, meetings, negotiations and in my relationships. They impacted all aspects of my life.
To note, the Trager® Approach can be likened to piano lessons, where the student studies with a teacher and then practices in between each lesson, so the next lesson can build upon the previous one. I discovered that each session was a lesson for my nervous system which then was reinforced by living differently through my body afterward. It was more than a treatment for my physical body as it worked on my mind as well which, in turn, affected my body’s function.
The phrase “One doesn’t have to feel bad to feel better,” comes to mind. Although comfortable, I continued to receive the sessions regularly. Not only did I remain pain-free, but also I noted increasing fluidity, grace and lightness in my body, qualities that had been shut down through restricted habituated movement patterns which were compensatory responses to injuries and to surgeries which I had as a child.
This article is Part 1 of Michael Lear’s 4 part series: Relieving Post Traumatic Stress Related Symptoms with The Trager® Approach and Trauma-Informed Yoga and Mindfulness.
For more information about The Trager® Approach, or to find a Practitioner in your area, please contact The United States Trager® Association.
United States Trager Association
3755 Attucks Drive
Powell, Ohio 43065
Tel: (440) 834-0308
Books on The Trager® Approach:
Trager® for Self-Healing: A Practical Guide for Living in the Present Moment -Audrey Mair
Mentastics: Movement As A Way to Agelessness, Dr. Milton Trager and Cathy Guadagno
Moving Medicine, The Life and Work of Dr. Milton Trager: Jack Liskin
Additional information can be found at. http://www.tragerfordailylife.com
For more information on Trauma-informed Yoga and Veterans PTSD, the following books and organizations may be helpful. It has been reported that Veterans tend to prefer Yoga teachers who are also Veterans as they better identify with those who have shared experiences.
It is always best to find a Yoga teacher with whom you resonate, one who is interested in empowering the student to perform on his or her own.
The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma - Bessel Van Der Kolk
Trauma-Sensitive Yoga in Therapy: Bringing the Body into Treatment - David Emmerson
Best Practices for Yoga with Veterans Editor: Carol Horton, Ph.D - Yoga Service
Council PublicationNon-Violent Communication: Marshall Rosenberg
The Pocket Guide To Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power Of Feeling Safe:
Dr. Stephen Porges, (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology)
Organizations:
Veterans Healing Veterans from the Inside Out http://veteranshealingveterans.com/index.html
Veterans Yoga Project www.veteransyogaproject.org
Warriors at Ease http://warriorsatease.org/
About Michael Lear
Michael Thomas Lear is an internationally-recognized Senior Trager® Bodywork Practitioner/Instructor and Ashtanga Yoga Instructor with a client base spanning five continents and including a few Academy Award and Grammy winners as well as many figures prominent in business and industry.
For over 25 years, Lear has been at the forefront of mind-body medicine, yoga and meditation. He has studied Yoga with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, the founder of Ashtanga Yoga, as well as with many of Ashtanga's foremost instructors. Holding a Yoga Alliance RYT 500 Certification, he teaches Yoga Anatomy for Yoga Alliance Teacher Certification courses and conducts workshops internationally.
Lear is also a seasoned Vipassana meditator in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Kin as taught by S. N. Goenka. He was recognized with a cover article in Massage Therapy Journal for his work introducing Trager® to physical therapists in post-tsunami Sri Lanka, which he also has done in Japan. Lear who is on the management team for Instructors for Trager® International, also holds Plant Based Nutrition certification through Cornell University, taught by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of “The China Study” and “Whole.”
While working as Director of International Relations for Real Medicine Foundation and working closely with UN Agencies and foreign governments, Lear was an integral part of many international relief programs to improve primary health care service in disadvantaged areas of post-conflict, disaster affected and poverty-stricken countries, including Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Armenia and post-earthquake Haiti. South Sudan’s Medical Journal/JubaLink has cited Lear as a principal in establishing the country’s first College of Nursing and Midwifery.
In addition to his international service, Lear serves locally as a founding board member, trauma recovery yoga instructor, and lead trainer with The Shanthi Project a non-profit organization which conducts trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness classes at the county prison, juvenile justice center, Boys and Girls Club, and area school districts for grades K-12.
A life-long musician playing drums, Lear feeds his soul behind the kit. He has many years’ experience playing professionally and in a variety of genres. In addition to playing professionally, he developed an entire on-line yoga and mindfulness program specifically for drummers www.yoga4drummers.com to help them access their full potential. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Finance and International Management from Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. and has worked extensively in the corporate world. A native of Easton, PA, Lear makes his home on the East Coast when he is in the United States where he enjoys visiting with family, friends and his cat Sayagyi.