Deane Juhan
Workshop Facilitator, Author, Instructor Practitioner Of The Trager® ApproachDeane is able to look back and recognize the influence of his mother, a beautician who also provided scalp massage to her loyal clientele, but he began his entry into adulthood as a young scholar, in particular a student of Willliam Blake. It was his experiences at the Esalen Institute, in particular meeting and studying with Dr. Milton Trager, which led Deane eventually into the nine year research and writing project that emerged as Job’s Body.
View Deane’s LinkedIn profile.
He was born in 1945 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and educated at the University of Colorado (B.A.), the University of Michigan (M.A.), and the University of California at Berkeley, where he spent three and a half years as a doctoral candidate. In 1973 an experience with bodywork at Esalen Institute in Big Sur changed his career, and he remained in residence there for the next 17-1/2 years. He now resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Jessica. His son, Tristan is a recent college graduate. Deane has a private practice there, and can be reached at 925.386.0131 or email.
First trained at Esalen, he developed a private practice and led workshops in movement therapy and education as well as seminars in anatomy and physiology for bodyworkers. In 1976 he met Dr. Milton Trager, founder of the Trager Institute for Psychophysical Integration, and has been a practitioner and instructor of the TRAGERWork® approach ever since. He is on the faculty of the Northern California Trager Institute and has developed a series of workshops in dynamic anatomy and in Trager® Bodywork for bodyworkers and therapists of all kinds, which he conducts all over the United States, in Canada and in Europe.
This overview of Job’s Body at Goodreads.com describes the book’s far-reaching scope and lasting impact:
Possibly the most famous and widely used resource in therapeutic bodywork, this beautifully written, detailed and reader-friendly picture of how and why the body responds to touch is both scientifically reliable and inspiring. Furthering the presentation of recent research in biochemistry, cell biology and energy medicine … the Second Edition … greatly expanded … includes advances in neurophysiology and physics, reconfiguring knowledge of mind and body, from microgenesis to quantum consciousness. A rare book, required reading for national massage therapy certification, that also serves the general reader.
Deane Juhan
Leading BodyWorker, Writer and Teacher
Curriculum Vitae: Deane Juhan, M.A., Eng. Lit.;
Ph.D. Candidate; Esalen Institute; Trager Training
Educational History
Glenwood Springs, CO
High School
Graduated 1963University of Colorado, Boulder CO
English Literature
Graduated Cum Laude, 1963-1968University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI
English Literature
Masters Degree, 1970University of California, Berkeley CA
Stopped one year short of Ph.D., 1970-1974Esalen Institute, Big Sur CA
In residence as massage therapist and instructor, 1974-1991The Trager Approach
Trained 1974-1995, until the time of Milton Trager’s death
Practitioner since 1980; instructor since 1985
Designed and taught anatomy and physiology section of Trager Training
Track 1983-present
Publishing History
Contributing author to Massage Magazine and Massage and Bodywork
Author of Job’s Body: A Handbook for Bodywork
Published 1987; third edition published 1998
Station Hill Press, Barrytown NYAuthor of Touched by the Goddess: The Physical, Psychological and Spiritual Powers of Bodywork
Published 2002
Station Hill Press, Barrytown NY
Conference Presentations
Keynote speaker four times for Trager Conferences Keynote speaker twice for Somatic Psychology Conferences Keynote, 2006 for the Postural Integration Conference, Seattle Keynote, 2006 for the Polestar Pilates Conference, Key Biscane
Teaching History
Teaching Assistant for English Compostion:
University of California, Berkeley, 1972-1974
Massage Instructor, Esalen Institute, 1976-1992:
While at Esalen (in 1978), I designed and taught a series of lectures on anatomy and physiology for bodyworkers based upon the ten-session series of Ida Rolf. During this time (1980) I also designed and began teaching an anatomy and physiology training for the Trager Certification Program, which has since 1995 been a core requirment of the Trager training program.
Trager Instructor:
In addition to being the anatomy and physiology instructor for the Trager Institute, I became a full instructor in 1985, and have continued to teach core certification trainings since that time.
Continuing Education Instructor:
While teaching anatomy and physiology and core certification trainings for the Trager Institute, I designed a series of 3-day Continuing Education classes for body workers of all kinds.
Continuing Education Classes:
Connective Tissue: Web of Structure, Web of Ch’i Neuropeptides: Our Emotional Soup
The Body As the Landscape of Perception: The clinical work of Jason Brown
Breath: The Rhythm of Life
The Molecular Processes of Muscle Activity
The Gamma Motor System: How We Create Skills, Habits and Blocks
Anatomy and Treatment of the Jaw
The Neck
The Shoulder Girdle
The Torso
The Spine
The Pelvic Girdle
The Feet and Legs
The HandsSince 1985 I have continued to teach these classes, 10 to twelve of them a year. In addition to teaching these classes for the Trager Institute, I have taught them for many massage schools throughout the country, as well as retreat centers such as Esalen Institute, Omega Institute, Kripalu, The New York Open Center and Heartwood Institute.
I conservatively estimate that since 1985 I have taught 400-600 classes, with an estimated total number of students of 6,000-9,000 students.
Deane is on a roll!! The class focus on “Typical Sources of Injury” Injuries on Spine and Shoulder Girdle was outright fascinating, informative and empowering. The visuals of the vast amount of slides would be worth the price of the class alone.
It is Deane’s well-researched ability along with his decades of hands-on experience plus using X-rays and MRIs of his own spine as an example which solidifies an understanding that’s broader from what I already knew. I learned new facts today that I will immediately use when explaining to my clients what’s going on in their bodies.
Juhan delivers solid, detailed, fascinating explanations of the most versatile and ubiquitous system in the human body. His message builds an appreciation of the nearly magical ways connective tissue creates, modifies, and adapts itself in its many manifestations, as well as the role we must play to maintain and nourish it.
He is brilliant, humorous, sensitive and creative, fielding questions from the most basic functions of the system to “What is life?,” without dropping a beat. Juhan knows his stuff and uses effective … beautiful … graphics to augment. By the end, he had all of us on our feet, actively rejuvenating our structural systems and raising the chi.
I work with one PT and two PTAs.
We all do an ‘in service’ after our CE classes. We have all been incorporating this work into our sessions! It has proven very beneficial! Also, the PT clinic is attached–combined with the fitness center.
I did some of the work to our gym manager–CrossFit instructor, who has terrible ROM in his shoulders and is very muscular. His ROM increased greatly from just a little work.