Instructor: Gwen Crowell, LMT, Certified Trager® Instructor and Practitioner

By creating awareness through movement, it is possible to reduce or eliminate pain. Mentastics are a process of movement exploration and mind/body development characterized by an open, curious state of mind and used to explore and integrate lighter, freer, more peaceful ways of being. It was created by Milton Trager MD, who is famous for creating the Trager® Approach. "Mentastics", is a contraction of "mental" and "gymnastics", to describe his process of mentally directing questions to the body in order to elicit from the body a different movement response, primarily one that is freer and more resilient.

Much of what we do as humans is based on habit – learned modes of movement and behavior that cause us to do things, like how we sit in a chair, or put on our socks, in repeated patterns of movement and holding. Even when we are injured, our bodies will create a new habit of movement or holding to protect the injured site, which can cause the injured area delayed recovery if the body doesn't stop the protective mode of modified movement and behavior when it should.

Over time, habits can lead to pain. For example, if you have a client who is an office worker who happens to lean into one arm rest of her chair while she works, in time her neck, back, shoulder or parts of her arm may start hurting. Part of the solution to stop the pain is to change the behavior that creates the pain. Another part of the solution is to make an intervention of some kind to reduce or eliminate the pain. Mentastics is an intervention using movement to reduce or eliminate pain. It can also be used as a self-care tool. Mentastics supports on-going wellbeing. It enhances the benefits of your massage sessions and teaches clients how to integrate the principles into their daily life.

Program Design: Mentastics is a 24-hour program that we have divided between two weekends. You can take Part A as a stand-alone class or Parts A & B together. Part B can only be taken by itself if you have prior experience in Mentastics and have permission from the teacher or you have completed Trager® Level 1.

• Mentastics Part A (Aug 5-6): The program begins with deepening our personal internal sense of our body by using principles of natural human movement and mindful engagement to enhance our sense of freedom, softness, ease, groundedness, and connection. We will then translate our experience into teaching Mentastics to clients one-on-one.  To register for Mentastics Part A, click on this link to go to the class description:  Trager® Mentastics: Part A (Somatics) (Seattle August 5-6, 2024)
• Mentastics Part B (Sep 6-7): Revisit how deepening our personal practice of Mentastics expands our capacities to lead clients through transformative movement practices. We will then build on this foundation to address teaching Mentastics to groups. 

Note: These classes are about the use of movement and do not involve table work.  Somatic work can be very effective in treating your clients, but it may not be used to satisfy the 8-hour requirement needed for in-person direct supervised massage skills called out in WAC 246-830-475 (click on link). Somatic Work is exempted from massage licensing and does not qualify as massage.  This class will still count towards your 24 CE hours needed to renew your license, but it can only be used in the "remaining" category (the number of hours remaining after the 8-hour in-person massage, 4 hours ethics and up to 4 hours CPR have been met is the "remaining" CE category described in WAC 246-830-475 Subsection 3).  Mentastics A & B will help both you and your clients and is a good investment in your own personal wellbeing and professional skills.

Additional Note:  If you are considering taking a Trager® program, together, Mentasitics Part A and Part B satisfy the Mentastics requirement required for Trager® Certification.

Class Date: September 6-7, 2024 (For Mentastics Part B)
Class Time: Friday and Saturday 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location: Seattle Location TBD (please click on the link for location details)
Class Fee: $375
Cost/Hour: $31.25/hr
CE Hours: 12