{"id":6376,"date":"2023-03-16T11:30:27","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T11:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bodycollege.net\/?p=6376"},"modified":"2023-03-16T14:38:06","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T14:38:06","slug":"what-ive-learned-from-teaching-2000-people-tre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodycollege.net\/what-ive-learned-from-teaching-2000-people-tre\/","title":{"rendered":"What I\u2019ve Learned From Teaching TRE to 2000 People"},"content":{"rendered":"
Over the past 13 years, I\u2019ve had the privilege of teaching TRE (Trauma and Tension Releasing Exercises) to over 2000 people. Here are some of the insights I\u2019ve gained about the power of this simple trauma healing practice:<\/span><\/p>\n TRE assists the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma, which calms down the nervous system. After doing TRE, many people have reported feelings of peace and wellbeing.<\/span><\/p>\n Many healing modalities focus primarily on the mental or emotional causes of trauma, requiring that you relive or understand the associated stress and pain as a means to overcome it. One of the things I most appreciate about TRE is that it engages your primitive reflexes to reveal where trauma is residing in your body. <\/span> TRE is radical in that you do not need to understand and you do not need to remember. The goal is to safely allow the tremors to generate new feelings inside you and switch off over-active threat detection systems. Shaking releases tight muscles and wakes up our connection to ourselves. TRE is you healing you.<\/span><\/p>\n Some of the key advantages of TRE as a trauma healing approach are that you don\u2019t need to be in a one to one therapeutic relationship, and you don\u2019t need to talk. You can also practice in a group or on your own, depending on your preference and sense of safety.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes, often even, in my experience, people with complex developmental trauma can benefit from a simple, safe group intro to shaking. And, sometimes the strengths of TRE are hard for people with complex trauma, and a wider and deeper support network is essential.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I would offer that it’s the same with any therapy, people are complex. Nothing works all the time, everything can work some of the time.<\/span><\/p>\n We are trying to find a sense of agency and sovereignty in our bodies, this is hard. Our fear of feeling our feelings leads to dissociation with ourselves, which can result in the development of chronic pains and addictions. You need to feel to heal.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cShaking\u201d opens you up to the complex world of feelings. Through TRE, you develop the ability to regulate intense feelings, putting you back in control…<\/span><\/p>\n We teach how to relate to intense feelings in a grounded and self-regulated way. TRE is about releasing tension and about ‘waking the body up’. Shaking is used to support connection and find safety. There is a deep acknowledgement of dissociative states and a long, slow journey to embodied safety.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In stress and trauma our brain defaults to old, habitual, protective patterns. Involuntary shaking is a burst of good news from the shaking muscles direct to the central nervous system. The signals generated when tremoring actively create new neural pathways inside the brain.<\/span><\/p>\n Shaking, skilful bodywork, learning to feel, and learning to move again can help create a sense of safety. The model offered here is that learning to feel connected to your body is a powerful and necessary first step to healing.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the big hidden features of trauma is the shutdown response – also known as freeze, dissociation or immobilisation. Not enough people know how pervasive and common the shutdown response can be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In freeze mode, we feel stuck, numb, lost and, frequently, depressed and exhausted. Everything feels too much. Part of our brain is trying to protect us by flooding our nervous system with natural pain killers (endorphins), limiting our ability to feel and act.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of the most common responses to TRE is \u2018I did not know that I was missing my body\u2019<\/em>. People report a sense of joy and ease inside them as they feel fully connected and grounded for the first time. Coming out of dissociation helps us feel real. That is profound and life changing for many people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Once you learn TRE, it can feel as comforting as rocking gently in a rocking chair or swinging peacefully in a hammock on a lazy afternoon. It\u2019s a modern science with ancient roots \u2014 it\u2019s fascinating to explore the role of shaking in the animal kingdom and natural world as well as within our human cultures, such as the dance practices of the mystics.<\/span><\/p>\nPeople expect change to be painful or difficult, it doesn\u2019t have to be.<\/b><\/h2>\n
People think catharsis is useful, it\u2019s not.<\/b><\/h2>\n
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\n<\/span>You then \u201cshake it out,\u201d releasing long-held tension patterns and experiencing feelings of connection and peace.<\/span><\/p>\nUnderstanding and narrative is not enough, skilful regulation is more important.<\/b><\/h2>\n
Bodies make it simple, when trauma often feels complex and hopeless.<\/b><\/h2>\n
Being skilful at feeling is the key to health.<\/b><\/h2>\n
Shaking to connect is a better metaphor, ultimately, than shaking to release.<\/b><\/h2>\n
Anything that supports safety is useful.<\/b><\/h2>\n
Most people dissociate, most of the time.<\/b><\/h2>\n
Shaking can be fun.\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n
Would you like to learn TRE with me?<\/b><\/h2>\n