Lear, Michael - Certified Trager® Instructor
Michael Lear is an internationally recognized Trager® Approach Movement Instructor, practitioner, and Ashtanga Yoga Instructor with a client base spanning five continents and including a few Academy Award, Grammy and Emmy winners as well as many figures prominent in business and industry. Michael is also a professional drummer, with the band Mystik Fool.
Born out of his own need for naturally healing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and chronic low back pain while in his early twenties, Michael left the world of business and never looked back. For over 30 years, Lear has been at the forefront of mind-body medicine, yoga and meditation. In addition to studying bodywork with Dr. Milton Trager and Deane Juhan among other Trager® Instructors, he has studied Yoga with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois during his New York visits as well as with many of Ashtanga's foremost instructors. As both a Yoga Alliance E-RYT 500 Certified Instructor and Continuing Education provider (YACEP), he teaches Yoga Anatomy for Yoga Alliance Teacher Certification courses and conducts workshops internationally. He also conducts Mysore classes and adjustment clinics through the lens of a seasoned therapeutic bodyworker based on The Trager® Approach. Breathwork and Pranayama are essential components of his work.
While working as Director of International Relations for Real Medicine Foundation, Michael advocated for refugees, the impoverished, displaced, and under served, negotiating closely with UN Agencies, The WHO, and foreign government ministries, to improve primary health care delivery and services. Innovations in treatment methods were also employed including such alternative approaches as acupuncture, therapeutic bodywork, and homeopathic malaria treatment protocols. Lear worked extensively in Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and Haiti immediately following their 2010 earthquake. In addition to his efforts in country, Michael also managed initiatives in Armenia and Nigeria. South Sudan's Medical Journal/JubaLink has cited Lear as a principal in establishing the country's first College of Nursing and Midwifery.
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 has also done in Japan. Lear serves as an advisor for the United States Trager® Association board, has served on the management team for Instructors for Trager® International and mentors new instructors. Michael maintain's a private practice through an integrative wellness center where he addresses, chronic, injury and trauma related pain, anxiety, and works with veterans suffering from PTSD.
He was recently published again, contributing a full chapter on The Trager® Approach to an "Alternative Therapy Guide to Addressing Veteran's PTSD: Total War On PTSD" by Courtenay Nold. He also holds a Plant Based Nutrition certification through Cornell University, taught by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of "The China Study" and "Whole," and emphasizes whole body nutrition. A self-proclaimed, predominantly non-dogmatic raw vegan, Michael's essential nutrients include sunlight, clean air, structured water, and meaningful connections with good humans. Michael is a seasoned Vipassana Meditator in the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Kin as taught by S. N. Goenka, which serves as the keystone of his personal practices. Click here to meet Michael.
More classes coming later this year.