Whether it’s trauma with a big T or little t, everyone experiences trauma. When our natural bodily reactions to release the stress hormones of trauma kick in, we were told to stop it: stop shaking, stop crying. When we stop the very actions that allow us to release trauma, we end up storing it in our bodies.
TRE provides a bottom-up approach to trauma release (vs top-down talk therapy). The issues are in our tissues so…we release what has been stored in the body for months or years through somatic exercises (body-based work). We release so we can begin to feel lighter and freer in our bodies and our spirits.
TRE stands for Tension and Trauma Release. When animals experience trauma, they will literally shake it off, which helps discharge the energy of the traumatic event. See the video below to watch what the impala does after escaping the jaws of the leopard. It first finds a safe spot to lay down, and it starts to take deep belly breaths. (Remember in yoga class where they ask you to breathe into your belly?) Animals do it naturally to calm themselves down.) Its body then starts to tremor naturally, shaking off the stress hormones that had accumulated in its body to protect itself. It shakes for a considerable amount of time, and then, when it’s body is done releasing, it gets up, and prances away!
For most of us humans, we did not get to fully release these stress hormones (cortisol/adrenaline). I know for me, I had to freeze, a LOT. I did not feel like I had the option of running or fighting when horrible things happened to me as a child. And I ended up, unknowingly, carrying a lot of that in my body.
It wasn’t until I went through my yoga therapy training (Healing Emphasis Yoga), where we learned TRE from Dr. Bercelli as well as other somatic release techniques, that I realized my stored trauma was releasing. I started to feel buried feelings, but it wasn’t anything that I couldn’t handle. Your body is intelligent, and most of the time, will know how to titrate the release of these emotions. All I know is, I’m grateful for this practice, and a way of releasing from my body what has been stored there for years.
During our training, I was doing TRE at home at least 3x a week. It was a physical exercise almost…it didn’t automatically trigger any emotional response from me, but I knew my body was releasing. The emotions sometimes came later, and sometimes they didn’t. Most days, I put on some music, laid on the floor, and just allowed my body to tremor. I didn’t go back to relive any trauma, or wonder which traumatic event the shaking that day was related to. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I was getting it out of my system, in a healthy way.
TRE consists of doing a few exercises, then laying down and allowing the body to naturally shake off stored tension and stress. This slowly brings the body back to homeostasis. It usually feels a bit tiring in the beginning, but your body will usually feel better after shaking off some stored tension/trauma.
I truly attribute a big part of my healing to doing TRE and other somatic release practices. These physical exercises helped me peel back the layers, to feel more, and get closer and closer to the true ME.
If you’d like to try TRE, you can join me in a class or request a private session. It’s a valuable tool that you can use for a lifetime. I still use it every once in a while when I feel the need to release excess energy.