The US Trager Association

Waves of Hope
Teaching the Trager Approach in Post-Tsunami Sri Lanka.  An excerpt from Kelly Prentices’ article for Massage Therapy Journal
Winter 2007
 

  In 2007, Lear was able to return to Navajeevana (which means “new life”) Rehabilitation Hospital for his third time to share Milton Trager’s innovative approach to movement re-education, thanks to support from the U.S. Trager Association and the Real Medicine Foundation. His six-week stay would include dozens of Trager sessions with Navajeevana patients, many bumpy trips in miniature took-took cabs to villages served by Real Medicine clinics, and hours of training sessions for therapists in Trager’s approach to movement and self-care.                 

On his first day back in Tangalle, Sri Lanka, Lear meets with Navajeevana’s new physiotherapy manager A.T. “Arun” Arunkumar, who reports that 50 percent of the 2,500 patients they serve are experiencing painful conditions, which may include post traumatic stress issues, chronic pain or spasticity. Another 40 percent are children face with congenital neuromuscular disorders such as cerebral palsy.  Lear knows this kind of neuromuscular tension – intensified by shock and fear – it is the kind of condition Trager addresses most effectively. 
               
…Compared with the stresses faced by Sri Lankans – the fear of another tsunami, the threat of Tamil Tiger bombings and the toil of working on tiny fishing boats for weeks at a time – Lear’s own stresses lose their intensity…               

   …Six weeks later ‘Lear’s ambivalence is palpable as he boards the van to the Columbo airport. When he looks back, the smiles are filled with optimism.  Each time he returns to this tight-knit community he is drawn closer to its people. Though he can’t stop the tears, he is consoled because he has shared a large piece of himself – and the peace of Trager.               
  That’s what Milton Trager originally had in mind – world peace – one body at a time."