What is TRE?
TRE stands for Trauma Releasing Exercises (also known as Trauma and Tension Releasing Exercises). This is the registered brand name for the method developed by Dr David Berceli. The goal of TRE is to help people release trauma and stress from their bodies.
I have been a certified TRE provider since August 2018.
How does TRE work?
The TRE exercises are designed to gently stimulate and activate the muscles that are involved in the fight-flight response. Most of these muscles are in the legs and abdominal area. There are seven exercises, some of which can be done against a wall for support. The last exercise is done lying on the floor.
In this position, the person enters a restful state. After the mild stress of the previous exercises, the muscles start to relax with trembling or shaking. This movement is a natural response. It is what happens – or should happen – after any major shock or stress.
Many people are raised in a way that suppressed these tremors. We may even feel ashamed of them. Over the years, we may have learnt to hide our shaking or disconnect from it. This can mean the energy of the trauma and our primal response becomes stuck in our nervous system.
TRE is as simple as restoring the tremor response and learning to work with it to enhance our body’s innate healing ability and balance.
Is TRE suitable for everyone?
TRE is not the only way of releasing stress and trauma. It is safe and effective for many people, but some people benefit more from other approaches.
Any activity that gets us into a parasympathetic state, rather than the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn state, can help us recover from trauma. Parasympathetically oriented activities include
- progressive muscle relaxation exercises
- massage
- doing creative hobbies (arts and crafts)
- journals and creative writing
- drumming
- music
- dance or movement therapy
- walking in nature
Is TRE good for chronic pain?
Some people find TRE effective for reducing chronic pain. This kind of pain is usually linked to patterns of deeply stored tension in the body. Once the tension starts to release, the pain level drops.
Other forms of pain are not all that amenable to TRE. Some pain is related to the immune system or even to the pain system itself. Examples are chronic inflammation (e.g. arthritis), auto-immune conditions, low endorphin levels, mast cell disorder, allergies, some nerve pain, and weak connective tissue. This pain is not muscular or skeletal. It might not help all that much to release the fascia, which is what happens if you do TRE for a while.
If you live with chronic pain and fatigue that seems to have, or is known to have, a more medical cause, you might want to consider a medical treatment like low-dose naltrexone (LDN). LDN is an immune modulator and endorphin stimulator. It helps many people who live with constant pain and fatigue because it regulates both those aspects at once. It requires a doctor’s script.
Research has shown that people who survive childhood trauma often go on to develop diseases or pain as adults. It stands to reason that people who are drawn to TRE know they are carrying trauma and it is still hurting them. But trauma recovery in adulthood does not always reverse chronic pain entirely. The reason is that trauma in childhood can change the way our brain and nervous system work. The changes may become “hard-wired,” and once this happens, TRE can release the trauma patterns but might not stop the pain. It depends on the individual and their history and genetics.
Pain is not just a matter of perception or cognition. It is usually also not just a simple biological issue. Chronic pain is a complex problem that happens at various levels in our body and mind.
Managing chronic pain often needs more than one type of intervention. TRE is unlikely to do any harm, but it may not achieve the full “reset” the person had hoped for. It’s really important to be realistic in your expectations. If you live with chronic pain, TRE can alleviate pain due to stress and locked-in tension related to old trauma. But TRE alone may not resolve all of your pain.
Our inner Amazon forest
We can think of the human nervous system as if it is the Amazon forest. Trauma comes along and destroys the forest, whether by fire or bulldozers. The landscape now looks quite different from the way it did before. And it hurts. The animals, birds, plants and indigenous tribes all suffer greatly through this loss of the original state.
If someone else now comes along and starts a project to restore the forest, well, great. Everyone – apart from the money-makers – will be glad. The area will soon start to feel and look better. The land and its creatures will slowly start to recover.
But here’s the thing: the forest cannot just go back, in a year or two or even a decade or two, to what it was before the destruction. That kind of recovery takes much longer. In some places, it may no longer be possible. There can be vast improvement, and healing the land is of course necessary. Yet it probably will not mean simply returning to the pristine state.
The land will become something different from what it once would have been. It may be lovely and healthy again, but different.
In the same way, our nervous system health can be improved through TRE. Halting the destructive cycle of trauma is a crucial first step. But if we have developed a chronic pain condition or an auto-immune challenge along the way, we may need to manage our symptoms medically. The good thing is that we would not merely continue to fuel more pain with a trauma response.
Hormones can play a key role in pain, as can vitamins D and the B group. Too little iron in the blood causes fatigue, which may also be linked to pain. If your body is experiencing these kinds of imbalances and challenges, TRE alone will certainly not alleviate your pain.
In short, TRE is a body-based trauma recovery method that is very helpful for many people. But TRE focuses on changing the stress state in your nervous system. It is not a pain control method.
Is TRE risky for people in pain?
As a TRE provider, I want to help clients release their trauma patterns without causing pain. The TRE exercises involve minor twists and stretches to stimulate the muscles involved in fight-flight. For people who live with chronic pain, these movements are potentially problematic.
It’s true that we often have to endure a little discomfort in the short term in order to feel better in the long term. For most people, that’s all TRE exercises cause: very mild discomfort. However, can I be sure that your discomfort level is not too high? People who live with pain and fatigue are so good at trying to pretend they are coping when in fact they are not.
When you’re starting out, it is not always possible to know your body’s safe limits. Why take a risk? Doing TRE can be like jumping into the deep end of a pool. It’s a really good idea to learn to swim first!
Here’s how.
Take a few minutes, every day, to stop whatever you are doing and check in with how you are feeling. You can sit in a chair or lie on a bed or yoga mat. Let your mind drift inwards, and notice how you are feeling right now, in the moment.
Where you observe areas of tension or parts of your body that feel sore or constricted or dull, move your attention closer to that part. Can you be curious about noticing the sensations, rather than trying to ignore or minimise them?
Notice how focusing on those areas can give rise to different feelings or sensations. One trauma expert, Peter Levine, compared this inner focus to holding an ice cube. If you hold ice for more than a few seconds, the sensations in your hand start to feel as if they are changing. (Interestingly, holding the ice will also change the ice itself, as the warmth of your hand will start to melt it!)
Until you are comfortable doing this “ice-holding” exercise of inward focus, you may not be ready for TRE.
In summary
TRE is not a quick-fix or one-size-fits-all method.
Unrealistic hopes for rapid recovery from emotional and physical pain can work against true recovery. True recovery takes time and steady commitment.
We humans tend to resist change. TRE can bring about change quite fast within the nervous system. It’s a powerful method and requires some caution.
How many TRE sessions will I need?
If TRE is likely to be safe and helpful for you, you should have at least three sessions with a registered provider before you start to do it at home. If TRE is done incorrectly, it can trigger a stress reaction rather than alleviating it.