TRE

TRE

Trauma & Tension Release Exercises

TRE stands for Trauma, Tension Release Exercises.  This series of exercises, created by Dr David Bercelli, assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma.

The exercises safely activate a natural reflex mechanism of shaking/vibrating that naturally releases or discharges muscular tension/contractions and helps calm down the nervous system.  When this shaking/vibrating is activated in a safe and controlled environment, we wake up the body so we can feel our body and the body is encouraged to return back to a state of balance and calm. This brings feelings of physical ease but also brings ease on an emotional, mental and spiritual level.

Watch Dr David Bercelli give a condensed explanation here:

read more here

Much as the same as the instinctual tremors in animals, tremors are a natural response of a shocked or disrupted nervous system attempting to restore the body and mind to a state of balance and calm.  Humans have an instant on button that protects us by causing us to flight, flee or freeze when a threat to our survival looms. In a normal course of events, this alarm system is deactivated after a stressful occurence has passed and the parasymapthetic system returns to a normal relaxed state. However, our instant on button can become stuck if our normal response is blocked eg being in a war zone or not getting a chance to escape, a car accident etc.

The body’s protective response serves in the short term but can cause serious long term harm if unbated.

What happens if we don’t get to discharge the trauma is that we can get stuck in defence mechanisms flight, fright or freeze and this affects are ability to cope and think and can affect people their whole life.  Through these simple exercises we are fatiguing the muscles to induce tremors which help to down-regulate our nervous system and bring us back to our body. The tremors (neurogenic tremors coming from the brains procedural memory) extinguish the trauma by turning off the flight, flight, freeze mechanism and discharge the excess energy.

It is a self-regulating tool to help you heal yourself.

Reported Benefits of TRE:

  • Reduced worry and anxiety

  • Increased energy

  • Better sleep

  • Feeling more relaxed and calm

  • Increased flexibility

  • Improved relationships

  • Relief from PTSD, chronic pain and old injuries

  • Decreased symptoms of vicarious trauma

“All humans have an innate capacity to heal from traumatic experiences. We as a species are genetically encoded with the capacity to heal ourselves. If we did not possess this ability, our species would have become extinct shortly after we were born. Not only can we heal from traumatic experiences, but trauma itself has been part of the natural evolutionary process of our species, and all traumatized individuals have access to this natural healing method that is genetically encoded within them.” – David Berceli