Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) – what it is and how it can help you
I love my hands-on work – but with the overnight lockdown landing in March 2020 I was suddenly unable to perform any of my usual therapies for a while. I have been helping clients overcome pain, stress and tension since 2004, but now my hands were tied.
At the time I was also nursing a double-sided Achilles injury. This became worse over the first weeks of lockdown, so I couldn’t even go for a walk, let alone a run (my go-to sport to de-stress). Then, quite suddenly, an old back injury and a shoulder niggle returned for no particular reason.
I didn’t feel sorry for myself but I needed to find a way to get over my own physical niggles. I also felt frustrated and sad that I couldn't serve my clients but I still wanted to help people overcome their challenges.
What could I do to help the world overcome this collective trauma, one person at a time?
I googled various things and stumbled across TRE.
TRE stands for Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises, developed by Dr David Berceli. It’s basically shaking it all off in a particular way!
It sounded like just the thing I was looking for, so I qualified as a TRE provider, and I now want everybody to know about this wonderful self-care practice. In fact, I believe this should be in the school curriculum!
Needless to say, my physical challenges sorted themselves out through this shaking. I have found TRE to be the best self-care tool I have come across so far.
What is TRE?
TRE stands for Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises. You could also say: Release, rebalance and renew. It really is for every-body!
If you have a dog, you may have seen him shake when there is a thunderstorm or fireworks. It’s an innate response to calm himself down afterwards. And then life continues as normal - as if nothing had happened before. All mammals have this remarkable ability!
Guess what? We humans have this exact same ability to shake off unwanted stress and tension. Afterwards we too can feel calm and relaxed. We experience better relationships, better sleep, more resiliency, less anxiety, less pain etc.
We humans – certainly in Western cultures – have unfortunately been conditioned. We have learnt to suppress this natural release of tension.
But there is hope as we can learn to re-ignite this tremor mechanism. And we can make it work for us again.
I know that the word ‘trauma’ is in the original name of TRE, but trauma doesn’t have to be a big dramatic event. Trauma is classified as anything that overwhelms our capacity to cope.
Take the example of the pandemic again. You don’t even have to have lost a loved one to this virus – and I sincerely hope you have not had to go through that. It could ‘just’ be that you were juggling home schooling, working from home and trying to cook healthy meals every day. Maybe you’ve been looking after a parent struggling with their health on top of everything else? Or maybe you have had COVID and are still dealing with the effects weeks or months later?
We are all in this together! We have all experienced some sort of overwhelm since March 2020!
Now, wouldn’t it be wonderful if you too could shake off some of your excess stress or tension? I mean it!
How can I do TRE safely?
TRE consists of 7 simple exercises. I can teach them to you and you can then lie on a yoga mat or on your bed and shake off your unwanted stress and tension. Once you feel confident and able to stop and start the tremors at will, and know how to regulate and integrate them, this is a tool you can use for life! And it’s yours to use whenever you wish or need to down-regulate your nervous system. How cool is that?
TRE helps you to regulate your nervous system. It’s your body intuitively doing the work. Your busy mind gets a break! There is nothing you have to do or think about. The body instinctively knows how to shake, if only you allow it to show you what it is actually capable of doing.
Trust your body and you will have a wonderful experience!
How can TRE be helpful?
Most people report that they
- Sleep better
- Feel more relaxed
- Feel less anxious or stressed
- Are more resilient
- More productive or creative
- Have better relationships with themselves and others
…and lots more.
Where to go from here?
There are several ways to learn this life-changing self-care technique.
If you are curious to find out what positive shifts TRE could create for you, please book a FREE discovery call with me to find out more. I will be happy to talk it through with you.