Glossary

Biotensegrity — The contemporary theory explaining the body’s brilliant structure that allows for stability through motion rather than static structural support. It sees living beings as constructed of balanced and living tensional and compressional elements. By intentionally expanding ourselves into the full potential of our structure (‘biotensegral expansion”) we gain more room for healthy movement.

Ease — A feeling achieved by engaging all of the body a little bit so no one part feels itself doing any hard work. The feeling of effortless movement that arises when the whole body is engaged minimally, “many hands make light work,” or many muscles involved and awake allows the body to move with optimal function and minimal energy expenditure. Moving or working with ease requires the practitioner to be practicing with an even distribution of weight, of tone, of movement, of space or spaciousness or expansion throughout their body.

To Feel (active verb) — In Trager, we intentionally and playfully speak about this activity as both sensory and emotional. In Milton’s disinterest in defining it as one or the other, we gradually learned that he believed the sensory and the emotional to be inextricably linked. Having an emotional experience always involves a corresponding physical sensori-motor experience.

Feeling the Tissue — An active sensory engagement with the whole hand as we  explore the texture, quality, density, and resilience of a body part. We bring heightened awareness to the way we come into and out of contact, calibrating it for maximum safety and comfort. We dialogue with the client to find the amount of gathering that feels welcome and supportive. We feel for incremental changes toward a healthier evenness of tone from surface to depth and from one body part to its neighbors.

Feeling the Weight — An active sensory engagement with the whole body (rather than lifting with the arms, shoulders, or back). Tiny increments of weight are perceived and enjoyed evenly from the hands through the entire body’s proprioceptive system all the way to the contact with the ground.

Fascia — A body tissue that is composed of ligaments, tendons, and the webbed spongy networks that surround and penetrate all the body’s named tissues. Recent research suggests that the entire physical body is a web of fascia with various other structures or elements embedded in it that give it different functions.

Foreground and Background of Attention — An important mental skill and practice that lets us spotlight or focus on what is directly in our mind’s gaze without losing the awareness of all that surrounds it. This applies to focusing on the sensation in the moment while keeping awareness of its likely origins and possible futures.

Half the Effort — Less effort overall allows the body to function more efficiently, saving energy for moving and dynamic action. Linked to Ease.

Mirror Neurons — Specialized brain cells that fire both when we perform an action and when we observe someone else performing it. This neural mirroring plays a role in empathy, learning, and co-regulation.

Neuroplasticity — The brain’s ability to adapt and reorganize itself by forming new neural connections in response to learning, experience, or injury. This capacity underlies growth, recovery, and the development of new movement patterns and habits.

Perceptual Systems — The ways our body feeds our mind with information about the state of what is around us and inside us. Kinesthesia reports on the sensory perception of movement. Proprioception reports on the body’s position and balance in space. Exteroception reports on what is around us, what is happening in our environment. Interoception reports on the inner state in our bodies and minds, our moods and emotional states. A reliable Interoceptive awareness is built largely by an abundance of “safety in me” messages (SIMS) received repeatedly and in enough richness and pleasure to capture the attention of our unconscious minds. Nociceptive awareness alerts us to “danger in me” messages (DIMS) and is often interpreted by our predictive brains as “Pain”.

Social Speed Limits — We learn these unconsciously as we grow up by absorbing what expressions or actions are or aren’t allowed in various situations. Learning social speed limits allows us to survive by integrating with family and community, but can be mildly traumatic for some children, much more so in more restrictive households, and overwhelming for children growing up in abusive situations.

Somatic Foundations — Somatic refers to the body and mind together. Foundations are the structures, processes, and body-based explorations upon which we build this work. The Trager Approach does not build from concepts alone but from felt (somatic) experiences. It is a central assertion of the work that embodiment of new movement possibilities allows the brain to edit and rebuild our body’s patterns (see Neuroplasticity) toward a life of more ease, peacefulness, and joy. We build better futures for ourselves, our clients and our world through this movement. And staying attuned to our in the moment, in the body movement senses has been shown to be the most effective means to build reliable, safe, and potent touch.

Somatic Movement Education — Learning and self-development acquired through body experience. This process happens organically from birth and expands exponentially through childhood amidst the social environment of family and peers, often finding its own unique expression in spite of the careful guidance of well-meaning adults. We understand that to help our adult clients sense, practice, and integrate new somatic possibilities for themselves, they may need a new understanding of the value of re-awakening and practicing more natural movement patterns, patterns that allow the body to learn and grow freely in all directions and for the various situations of living. They may also need demonstration, hands-on encouragement, and good modeling to let go of pre-programmed patterns of living and moving. We teach best from our own lived experience. As Milton said, our effectiveness with clients is limited only by our own level of self-development.

Somatic Movement Therapy — Professional work with clients in which the client is brought into the feeling of better movement and healthier functioning through both passively received experiences designed specifically for them (mostly while lying on a therapy table), and active engagement with new awareness and mindful movement explorations before and after the table work. Home-play practices are developed for each client cooperatively.

Self-Care — Simple, easy-to-repeat Mentastics somatic movement practices that help us maintain homeostasis, repair after injury, reduce harmful stress, and rejuvenate our life energies. These practices foster resilience and long-term well-being.

Self-Development — Milton believed daily Mentasitics practice to be the best way to develop body, mind, and spirit throughout the lifespan.  Some of us may refer to it as soul growth, or the purposeful journey toward Coming Home to Your Self.