To have an idea of how Trager adepts live their experience, you really need a place where they can discuss and share their impressions. I must confess I feel privileged because I'm not on my own in this area : in Douai, I am in close contact with the people I've shown what Trager is and I've founded an association : "La Relâche". About 15 people are members of the association, 5 of them belong to a group and meet once a week (the meeting place is not big enough to take more people).

Today I'd like to talk about the experience I've had with another group, more temporary, which met between November 93 and January 94. I'm working as a teacher in a private school and I organised a course for teachers called "The body and our tensions". The aim of the course was to feel in our body the conscious and unconscious tensions which limit and wear us out, and also to discover new ways of feeling well in our body and in our mind while letting go.

During the course we practised Mentastics and we worked on the tables starting with easy movements. The trainees worked in pairs and followed my instructions. I had thought that discovering how to touch was a special means of living the non-doing, and at the same time an emotionally-rich experience requiring respect and confidence. In fact, this helped the group to release energies. This was an incentive to feel more involved in the matter and do the best they could, i.e. to say let their arms, their shoulder go, enter the game, fell free. So the first contact with Trager was comprehensive and the 36 hours of the 10 weeks course, were very rich in sharing, in the will of everyone to go as far as they could.

This course was attended by 5 people. I asked them at the end of the course if they 'd like to write something on what they had experienced, what the course brought them. Here are some sentences :

-"I've learned a lot of this course about my body, about the unconscious tensions I had no idea of but now I still have a long way to go before attaining the ideal relaxation. You must be aware of that all the time, every minute." "Now that the course is over, thanks to the Trager Approach, I think I've found a key that has opened a door, leading to a loft full of memories hidden under the dust of our habits and our principles. I needed, in my life, this haven of peace and calm, inside me to find a stepping ston e for a new opening out. I had already taken my bearings and come near to this place but it was more or less by chance, without being able to find the guiding thread. You have now given me the "code number" and at last thanks to mentastics I'm able to go and find peace and relaxation in that secret garden that we all have, and where we grow marvellous plants which are our memories."

-"Feelings for other people : welcome people warmheartedly. Be careful and open minded to what people expect from you. Listen before you talk. Think before you answer to avoid making an answer on the spur of the moment which could be false or unsuited to the circumstances. If the body is more relaxed, if the mind is at peace and relaxed too, agressive things or people will be accepted more easily. Attitude and relationship with other people (pupils, colleagues) really improved. Towards oneself : love oneself better : concede that right to oneself. Be attentive to all our wishes to live (to live better) and manage to let those wishes "be". Take some time to relax, one's mind and one's body to be able to think, to be happy though people around us are unhappy and because they are unhappy, so we' ll be able to do our best to help them, as well as we can. As far as religion is concerned : follow the light of the Holy Bible in your life and practise the Trager Approach ; at first I thought it was a no way dilemma : "love one another as I love you", "I came to serve and not to be served, don't think of yourself, carry your cross"... A t the end of the course, I now think there' s no problem at all ; we can' t live the Gospel by sheer force, we should rather try to become like little children, by relying on God' s grace and doing what He wants us to do, gentle and humble of heart. How m any mistakes, wrong ways or useless worries ! This last point is very important for me. I'm sure that the Trager Approach will totally change my life ; it has been a very important step."

-"Discovery and re-discovery of the "knots" of tensions in my body thanks to a more gentle way of feeling it. In every day life Mentastics are now at last the way to "keep in touch" with my body during the periods of continuous thinking and to stop useles s worries. The expressions used such as weight, heaviness, the importance of the ground under my feet were particularly helpful for me... We could talk about "anchorage". "I discovered that we all have a marvellous instrument which is our body and particularly our mind but unfortunately we can' t play it properly. We only use a few of the keys. The same piece of music is so much nicer when you use the whole scale ! as I h ave now found a better inner life I' ll appreciate better what will lead me to a better exterior life, while listening more carefully to other people."

"My children too take advantage of the Trager Approach : it' s just like a game which allows me to communicate with them in a new way. Everyone acts in a different way. Sometimes they ask me after school or before going to bed."

The practitioner's point of view :

The formula I'd chosen (12 x 3 hours) compelled me to communicate the essentials, as quickly as possible. The first time we met I realized the work each person would have to do and I was anxious that everyone should discover a new way of feel ing his body. I was also worried about the time : the 12 sessions would go by very quickly. After a short time I noticed the group was very open-minded, confident and very sincere when they expressed what they felt, either positive or negative feelings. Little by little, the Trager Approach was clear for everyone : letting go is a keener awareness, it's letting the habits far behind and discovering oneself with new eyes. As soon as I saw that the purpose of the class was understood, my task was easier an d I was relieved to have been able to communicate that. My mission now was that everyone could go as far as possible. I was helped by a member of "La Relâche" who agreed to come and be the guinea-pig. I managed to work on each trainee which was a good thing as there was no individual session included in that course (which was a lack and could probably be improved next time). At the same time, the Mentastics played a leading role as the course went on, as my intention was to enable the trainees to become indepen dent at the end of the course, able to carry on the Trager Approach on their own. I perceived this work as a sort of weening. When the class ended, everyone was ready to stay there. We had shared lots of things, we had gone deeply into the matter, but we had to come to an end. We agreed to meet again in a while to see what we could do after the class. In what the trainees expressed I found exactly what they felt and what they lived. I know they have made a long way and it was a deeply emotional experience to accompany them. They expressed something they had deep in their mind and that we all have in common as practitioners or Trager's friends. This was my way of giving you some news about the Trager family. -

Maurice KRIEGEL

(Michèle Sorlier and Edward Hughes helped me to translate)