Portfolio pieces #8_All4Women "Trauma releasing exercises (TRE) can help you destress"

TRE is a stress and trauma-releasing modality that works by means of activating a shaking or vibrating mechanism that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous system …

(Article by Vanessa Rogers)

According to Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) founder, Dr David Berceli, most other modalities used to treat and release trauma fall down in that they are employed by guiding you to do something consciously.

With TRE, however, an autonomic response is evoked in the body i.e. the nervous system takes over in order to generate the mechanism by which you will tremor. Also, adds Dr Berceli, “When the body is shaking, it is inducing pleasure thereby making pleasure hormones available.”

The difference between shaking the body on purpose and allowing the autonomic nervous system to take over, is that in the latter case the shaking happens from deep within the core. But when we make ourselves shake, it is usually the muscles in the limbs that are controlling the movement, which is not where the actual trauma is located.

What is trauma?

If we define trauma as ‘an overwhelming situation out of which one persists with certain symptoms’, be they flashbacks or other disturbances that affect quality of life, almost all of us can mention such a situation that we’ve been through – be it a car accident, a relationship break-up, the loss of someone close, retrenchment and many others.

Berceli says that the problem with us adults is that we seem to have learned to control our physical reactions to these traumatic occurrences, which are actually there to help us. He watched small children in the bomb shelters in Lebanon, as well as others living in war-torn areas in Africa, and how they would shake to release tension, whereas few adults would do the same.

It seemed to him that the kids were displaying a ‘more natural way of being in the body’; while holding onto trauma for some time is not a sign of weakness, if we let it remain in the body indefinitely it can and does appear to weaken us, he says.

TRE can be used in life-coaching

In Cape Town, Lynne Wright makes use of TRE within her life coaching work, and also teaches the tool to clients as a stand-alone modality. TRE can be learned in a few sessions and then self-applied, making it an affordable therapeutic tool.

Benefits that her clients have reported include a greater sense of calm and inner peace, reduced pain, reduced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, improved sleep quality, and release from the muscular tensions of exercise and sport, among others. In a period of transition within her own life, Lynne practices TRE on a weekly basis and says it has assisted her in this time of change. She comments: “As a result of using TRE regularly as a practice, I definitely feel more centred and grounded and connected to the universe. TRE helps to give a sense that ‘everything will be alright’. Apart from tremoring weekly, if I am able to do this,” she says, “I will also have a quick tremor if I am feeling overwhelmed by emotions such as anxiety, sadness or anger.”

Link: https://www.all4women.co.za/812374/leisure/inspiring/trauma-release-exercise-can-help