Trager®—2: Hooking Up: The Power of Presence in Bodywork

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Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies

Volume 8, Issue 2, April 2004, Pages 114-121

Abstract

This paper is the second in a series on the Trager Approach from the perspective of an experienced practitioner. The fact that Milton Trager put such emphasis upon hook-up makes it a worthy, if difficult, subject for exploration in these pages. Hook-up, or presence, is challenging to describe since it is by definition an internal state of awareness. The interested reader who wants to understand Trager's contributions to the fields of manual therapy needs to try to feel the effects of hook-up in his/her own body. For that reason the paper offers some simple exercises to try out on one's own or with colleagues or clients. We do not really know how Trager discovered hook-up and its efficacy in his work. Many forms of therapy require abilities that involve great sensitivity and concentration. In many the practitioner listens to bodily responses in order to support implicit change from within the client. What is probably most unique about Trager^® is the commitment to maintain and share presence as the goal of the session, rather than a particular technique or outcome. Many spiritual traditions have striven for methods that attempt to help persons feel the effects of moment-to-moment awareness. Trager discovered some very simple body-centered methods to do just that. The author draws upon his experience with various forms of spiritual discipline and some of the leading edges of scientific and philosophical inquiry in order to explore some of the consequences of incorporating this state of awareness in all manual therapies. And underneath this presentation lies a subtle controversy: whether hook-up or presence is an altered state of awareness or whether our ordinary state of awareness is the altered one.