Shake it off!
Intro to TRE
Have you ever felt your body get shaky or jitter? Maybe before a big presentation you had to give, or after a car accident (even if was just a fender-bender!). Or after a surgery where you were put under? Maybe you or someone you know gave birth and were really shaky after? Or if not in your own body, maybe you’ve seen your dog run under the bed and shake during a thunderstorm?
Pretty much all mammals (humans included!) will shake before/during/after a big or scary experiences. If can be freaky if you don’t understand, but it’s actually one way our wise, beautiful bodies process these events. TRE (Tension/Trauma Release Exercises) helps people re-learn how to shake-which many people find to be useful for releasing tension and being in communication with their nervous system!
Dr. Berceli
Although no one “invented” shaking as a way to process trauma, Dr. David Berceli is one of the people who has done a lot of thinking and work and research around shaking and how it affects our nervous system (also important to acknowledge different cultures have cultivated wisdom around shaking and trauma prior to Dr. Berceli, too). Dr. Bercili is a social worker, body worker, and field trauma-tologist, meaning he would go to places with war or natural disasters and study peoples trauma. During one of his trips he ended up in a bomb shelter. Every time a bomb would drop everyone there-regardless of gender, race, age-would instinctively curl forward, contracting the front of the body, after, people would slowly uncurl and the children in the space began to shake, but not the adults. It was interesting to Dr. Berceli that everyone would instinctively contract and curl but not everyone would sake. Why would that be?
Clamp it Down!
Dr. Berceli was curious why the adults didn’t shake so he asked them “do you feel shaky”- they did but they prevented themselves from doing so because they didn’t want to look weak, scared, or out of control, they clamped down their natural instinct to shake because of how others would interpret it (and maybe you can imagine a time where YOUR body wanted to do something but you didn’t allow it!). This experience prompted Dr. Berceli to study the tremor mechanism and come up with the TRE exercises.
In our culture (especially our corporate culture) we are taught to override our body-we push ourselves to work long hours, we hold our bladders, we skip meals- just to name a few ways. Many of us feel anxious then depressed, jittery then sluggish, on high alert… then totally disconnected. We don’t understand what our bodies need (or we ignore it). It can be really hard and frustrating to have a body when we don’t understand what it’s doing or why!
Shaking
During a TRE session, you’ll go through a series of exercises (nothing too intense) to warm up the muscles. Through these exercises most people find some tremoring or shaking in their legs to be soothing, comforting, familiar, interesting, exciting, funny or surprising. Some people find it uncomfortable or weird and that’s okay too. Everyone’s relationship to the tremors is different (and can change over time). The idea is that the shaking allows both the muscles and the nervous system a chance to release, let go, soften, process, integrate. Just like the children in the bomb shelter needed to unwind after their bodies contaracted in fear, we need ways to unwind after their bodies contracted in fear, we need ways to “off -gas” after big stress events (work deadlines, hard conversations, traffic, etc). TRE is one tool we can use to work through those experiences.
Relationship
Although a TRE session is often focused on the tremor mechanism, another huge benefit to TRE is the way it helps people to be in relationship with their body and nervous system. This can be a slow learning process and happens over time. The goal with TRE is not necessarily to release ALL THE TRAUMA RIGHT NOW. The goal is to build a relationship with your body so that as things come up (as they do!) you feel more reliesent, more aware. Instead of waiting until our body is screaming for attention (ie: burnout, panic attacks, etc). We can learn to hear our body when it whispers-and learn how to respond. The goal is not to ALWAYS be grounded- we want our body to respond to dangerous situations (stress) appropriately! But once the situation has passed, we want to be able to return to as state of calm (rest and digest)*. This flexibility of the nervous system, as opposed to being stuck in one state) is important for our well-being.
*depending on where you live, the color of your skin, your resources, how you identify, etc., it’s possible that some of these dangers never pass. How we learn to regulate our nervous systems in these contexts (and work within social justice) is a question of great importance and deserving of our time and considering. In the meantime, the team at Burnout-ology has found the terms “Safe Enough”, “Calm Enough”, and “Good Enough” helpful.
Resources:
Trauma is Really Strange by Steve Haines
The Revolutionary Trauma Release Process by Dr. David Berceli
www.traumaprevention.org
www.generativesomatics.org
www.redbeardsomaticstherapy.com
