TENSION & TRAUMA RELEASING EXERCISES
NATURALLY SHAKING AWAY TENSION
Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises is a simple method of using our body's natural therapeutic tremors to release deep tension, stress and trauma.
relief from worry & anxiety
better sleep
greater emotional resiliency
reduced muscle & back pain
more energy & endurance
increased flexibility
healing of old injuries
improved relationships
less workplace stress
decreases symptoms of vicarious trauma
reduces symptoms of PTSD
relief from chronic medical conditions
Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®) is a simple series of exercises that engage the psoas muscle and safely activate our body's natural tremors, which assist the body to release deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma, calming down our nervous system and bringing us back to the state of balance.
WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM TRE?
The most exciting part of TRE is the countless ways it is taught to diverse populations all over the world.
TRE crosses cultures and language barriers and is being taught in very large groups for communities that have experienced mass trauma, as the therapeutic muscle tremors evoked by the TRE exercise process is a natural, internal, neurophysiological response of the body shared by all human beings to reduce its own stress.
TRE is applied to various treatment programs and used by different health professionals, as it is a somatic (body based) process and doesn't require “revisiting the story”, found to be beneficial in the treatment of PTSD and anxiety disorder recovery.
TRE is being taught in various physical exercise programs as a tension reduction technique, while in interpersonal, corporate and political communications, it promotes cohesiveness and openness between participants and is a helpful tool for dispute resolution.
TRE can be used as a self-help tension release technique, something we can use throughout our lives, promoting our physical and emotional resiliency.
TRE does not require cultural or social awareness or sensitivity because the tremors are generic to the human species and not dependent on certain values, morals, training, or a system of beliefs in order to be effective, therefore it can be used for healing in any culture, regardless of its politics or religion.
Tension & Trauma Release Exercises was developed by Dr. David Berceli, Ph.D. who is an international traumatologist and worked around the world for over 25 years in many natural disaster areas, third world countries, with numerous veteran, police and nurse personnel.
He had observed how every mammal on this planet is designed to shake after a traumatic event. We humans however very often won't allow ourselves to go through such a release, instead we choose to trap this energy inside our muscles. Without finding a healthy way to release such tensions, over time the trapped energy may grow into chronic back pain, stress and even trauma.
In David's own words:
When I was living in war in Lebanon, I was stuck in a basement and this building was being shelled by tanks. There were eight of us in the basement, and every time one of the mortar shells would hit this building, we would cringe in a terrified sort of state. I could see that we were moving toward the fetal response.
The first thing that struck me is that out of the eight of us – we were from six different countries – every single one of us moved automatically, unconsciously, instinctually into a fetal position, which made me realize that the human body overrides our natural processes when it’s in danger. There are built in, genetically encoded mechanisms in every human being around the world, to pull us toward a fetal response when the organism itself is endangered.
Several years later I was in Sudan and we were being bombed by airplanes. we would grab the children, we would run to the basement or to the bomb shelters with these children and we would put the little children on our laps. As the bombs came closer the children started shivering like they were cold. Their whole body was tremoring. The younger the children, the more tremors they had. As they got a little older, the tremors were less and less I could see some of them trying to hold still - resisting shaking, with the adults, there was almost no shaking. After that was over and we left the bomb shelter, I asked the adults, "Do you ever shake like those children do?" And they said "We don't shake like that because we don't want the children to think we're afraid." That statement made me realize we would shake like that if there wasn't something preventing us from doing so. That was the beginning of recognizing that tremoring or shaking when we're in fear or anxiety is an automatic response of the human body.
That is when I put these two experiences together over a long period of time. The move toward the fetal response in a living organism, if you take away the ego and consciousness, is just like that of an amoeba - it is designed to contract when it is in danger or threat. It is a way of surviving threat. It would be however, evolutionary-wise, inefficient to have evolved with this capacity without having evolved with some mechanism to release that contraction.
That is what the tremor mechanism is - it is the very mechanism that takes the tight muscle that was created during the traumatic or stressful event and it begins to literally shake the organism itself, releasing the held muscle tissue and restoring the body back into a relaxed state.
The tremor is working both physiologically and neurologically to calm down the organism so it doesn't go into overdrive and get stuck in that state.
-Dr. David Berceli
Webinar session at NICABM May 14th 2013