Tension and Trauma-Releasing Exercises – TRE® | CPTSDfoundation.org https://cptsdfoundation.org The Foundation for Post-Traumatic Healing and Complex Trauma Research Thu, 13 Oct 2022 12:04:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://cptsdfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/cropped-Daily-Recovery-Support-Globe-iPad-Fav-32x32.png Tension and Trauma-Releasing Exercises – TRE® | CPTSDfoundation.org https://cptsdfoundation.org 32 32 Tension and Trauma-Releasing Exercises® the Benefits and Challenges https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/30/tension-releasing-exercises-with-the-benefits-and-cons/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/30/tension-releasing-exercises-with-the-benefits-and-cons/#respond Mon, 30 Aug 2021 11:45:22 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=238012 In August, my articles have been centered around Tension & Trauma Release Exercises (TRE ®) and how they can aid in self-regulation and the treatment of trauma. We discovered that TRE ® is life-changing if done correctly and with a tension-releasing exercise practitioner.

In this article, we shall recount former posts about TRE ® and explore together the benefits and challenges of this unusual form of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

A Recap: What are Tension & Trauma Release Exercises?

Trauma and stress are stored in our bodies, causing us physical pain and emotional distress. Tension-releasing exercises, created by Doctor David Berceli, are new and innovative methods using vibrating and shaking of the body to release deep muscular patterns of stress, tension, and trauma.

Through observations done in the Middle East and Africa, Doctor Berceli witnessed many people who had been traumatized by war and discovered that by using the body’s natural tremoring mechanism, one could release the harmful after-effects of trauma and stress

TRE ® has been used to support and treat United States war veterans and is found to reduce the need for drugs or psychotherapy to control PTSD symptoms. Tension releasing exercises have gone viral and, although not yet accepted by all physicians and mental health professionals due to lack of research, TRE® continues to grow.

Traumatic Stress, Neuroplasticity, and TRE®

Traumatic stress is where a survivor’s resources are lost or threatened beyond their capability to defend themselves against threats or to recover from losses (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997).  This means that when a person is overwhelmed by a threat where they cannot protect themselves, their bodies store away the event and remember it. All our stress responses, such as racing heart and tensed muscles, are remembered, and these sensations may rise again as panic attacks, PTSD, or CPTSD.

Below are only a few adverse events that can occur in either children or adults that are remembered by our bodies afterward:

  • Sexual or physical abuse or assault
  • Exposure to combat or war zone
  • An unexpected death
  • House fires
  • Severe medical events
  • Witnessing death
  • Domestic violence
  • Mass violence
  • Terrorism

Because traumatic stress is stored in the body, it can become hazardous to one’s health and make life miserable for a lifetime if not treated.

However, all is not lost. Our brains are remarkable organs and can change with time. This function is known as neuroplasticity and refers to the brain’s remarkable ability to adapt. Neuroplasticity is necessary to cope with the aftermath of trauma. Our brain’s ability to adapt is formed during childhood and is embedded in neural pathways functioning outside of our conscious awareness.

When traumatic stress overwhelms a child, their brain responds by pushing the memory of the event into the body to escape in their mind. Often the memories will resurface and intrude into the present when they have become adults presenting as unsettling thoughts, emotions, sensory memories, body memories, or flashbacks. These adult survivors associate self-protection to triggers today, and their survival strategies, such as dissociation, are activated.

To overcome our body’s response to stress and its aftermath, TRE® utilizes muscle stretch reflexes, voluntary contraction of muscles induced by quick stretches, and tremoring to release tension and stress.

Tension Releasing Exercises, Trauma and Self-Regulation

We touched on self-regulation some already, but the primary purpose of TRE® is to help one regulate their emotions. Emotional regulation is one’s ability to respond to ongoing demands from experiences that are anything from socially tolerable emotions to spontaneous and inappropriate reactions.

Emotional regulation involves a complex process involving modulating, inhibiting, or initiating a behavior for a particular situation. Emotional regulation is also the process of focusing one’s attention on a task and using one’s ability to suppress inappropriate behavior.

Trauma interrupts the development of self-regulation by affecting how our brain functions due to neurological changes caused by the release of cortisol, a hormone that readies us for the fight or flight response. Survivors of severe abuse often have amygdalae and hippocampi that are not the right size but are smaller than average.

The brain that is or has been experiencing trauma will change to protect itself from the stress from that trauma. The brain will turn off some of its functions, and others will be put on red alert. These changes of function in the brain cause survivors, be they children or adults, to have problems regulating their emotions, and they become impulsive leading to fewer healthy relationships and a sharp increase in the incidence of illness.

Lack of self-regulation causes survivors to react poorly to ordinary events as they become extraordinarily difficult.

The Benefits of Tension Releasing Exercises

Tension-releasing exercises, when done correctly, can have many benefits to both mind and body. According to TRE® for All, Inc., these benefits include the following:

  • Less Worry & Anxiety
  • Reduces Symptoms of PTSD
  • More Energy & Endurance
  • Improved Marital Relationships
  • Less Workplace Stress
  • Better Sleep
  • Less Relationship Conflict
  • Reduced Muscle & Back Pain
  • Increased Flexibility
  • Greater Emotional Resiliency
  • Decreases Symptoms of Vicarious Trauma
  • Healing of Old Injuries
  • Lessened Anxiety surrounding Serious Illness
  • Relief from Chronic Medical Conditions

The research is still out on the exact mechanisms of TRE® and how it causes and can maintain improvements and increase self-regulation.

What are the Challenges of TRE®?

TRE® is an effective and safe stress release technique for most people who experience them. However, to learn and accomplish their most significant value, it is vital to do them, at least at the onset, with a Certified TRE® Provider. It is recommended that people using tension-releasing exercises practice consistently to sustain benefits over time.

All that having been said, there is one challenge to doing tension releasing exercises involving survivors of complex trauma. The literature on the TRE® for All, Incorporated website states that “It is imperative that persons with any clinical diagnoses or psychiatric conditions, or persons taking medications for any diagnoses or conditions, consult their medical professional or a Certified TRE Provider* to ensure they learn TRE self-regulation appropriately and correctly.”

There is an excellent reason for this advice.

Because tension-releasing exercises involve tightly held muscles, emotions that have been buried might spring back to consciousness. Some of the emotions that surface may be strong, while others report experiencing dissociated or panicked.

It is offered that if you experience intense emotions while performing TRE® to be respectful of the process, and if you begin to feel sensitive, scared, or overwhelmed, you should stop the exercises, straighten your legs, and lock your knees. Remaining in this position for a few minutes will help ground you back to the present. You can also curl up in a ball, walk around or eat something to bring you back to the here and now.

References

Berceli D. Evaluating the effects of stress reduction exercises employing mild tremors: a pilot study [dissertation]. Phoenix (AZ): Arizona State University; 2009.

TRE® for All, Inc. Retrieved from: https://traumaprevention.com/frequently-asked-questions/

What is emotional regulation? (2020). Mightier.com. Retrieved from: https://www.mightier.com/articles/what-is-emotional-regulation/

 

Have you registered for We Are Healing Trauma 2021?

CPTSD Awareness Day is September 2, and you can get lifetime access to our workshop featuring Svava Brooks!

We are excited to offer Svava Brooks as she offers her insight and encouragement on your healing journey from complex trauma.

Join us and register for lifetime access to her interview of CPTSD Awareness Day 2021!

As always, If you or a loved one live in the despair and isolation that comes with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, please, come to us for help. CPTSD Foundation offers a wide range of services, including:

All our services are reasonably priced, and some are even free. So, to gain more insight into how complex post-traumatic stress disorder is altering your life and how you can overcome it, sign-up; we will be glad to help you.  If you cannot afford to pay, go to www.cptsdfoundation.org/scholarship to apply for aid. We only wish to serve you.

Traumatic Stress, and Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises

More Information on Trauma Releasing Exercises ®

Tension and Trauma-Releasing Exercises® and Self-Regulation

 

 

 

 

 

]]> https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/30/tension-releasing-exercises-with-the-benefits-and-cons/feed/ 0 How I’m Managing With the Stress of These Times https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/26/how-im-managing-with-the-stress-of-these-times/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/26/how-im-managing-with-the-stress-of-these-times/#respond Thu, 26 Aug 2021 10:05:04 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=238056 What day is it? Blursday?

 

If your days are starting to mesh all into one lately, you are not alone. These are uncertain times and we are all feeling it, and as we are all hoping for an end in sight, we might need to adjust to the fact that while some things may go back to normal, other things will not, at least not for a long time. I want to acknowledge the fact that what we are going through is impacting people and communities differently and I will never assume that I can speak for all people. While I do my best to honor all of our experiences, I am writing today from my personal point of view.

 

I am grateful more than ever for all my self-care tools, mindful self-compassion practice, reiki, and TRE (tension and trauma release exercises), just to name a few. These are tools I use to notice how I am feeling in the moment and to use my awareness to choose kindness over judgment (thoughts of what I “should” be doing) and a gentle reminder over and over again that I am not alone with feeling what I am feeling. I am hearing, seeing, and witnessing my experience in my fellow humans right now.

 

While this uncertainty is hard and I have found myself reliving a past that I thought I had put behind me, I also have accepted the challenge of learning how to accept all of myself all over again, as I navigate a body and nervous system that does get triggered when things are overwhelming, when I go through big life changes or am faced with challenges such as a move or a long trip. I have learned to live with it, to actually “thrive” because I don’t see any of it as a limitation but as an invitation to tend to my self-care needs with warmth and acceptance.

 

It was interesting to get that flashback recently. At first, I could not put my finger on it. I could feel something was different. I started to feel as if I was outside of my body, kind of numb and a little disoriented. It had been so long since I had dissociated like that that I did not notice it right away. When I finally started to notice it again, I used my steps to reconnect, to turn inward, ask questions, and feel grounded again, and then with a mindful awareness provided a safe space for the parts of myself that were triggered, to be seen, heard, and accepted. This was not something I was able to do quickly but I devoted time to self-care and support for myself for as long and as often as my parts needed comforting.

 

Going through this was challenging, for sure. But I used the same strategy that I suggest for my clients, to be gentle with myself and honor the time I needed and not rush through it to try to “fix” it. My feelings are never something that needs to be fixed.

 

What has been rewarding is renewing my commitment to connecting with all my parts. I do regularly connect with my inner tribe but it was clear they needed more right now from me, more time, more presence, and more warmth from me. As I reconnected with my parts, I was reminded of how profoundly healing this practice was to my healing journey.

 

When I became the parent and the protector I needed to these parts, I healed so many aspects of myself. Becoming something new is a practice, the same way I had to practice growing up to become the hypervigilant, controlling perfectionist, to survive my past.  As I practiced becoming the kind, loving supportive parent I needed, I also started to identify those embodied feelings and learned to trust them and know that I was worthy of having them.

 

My tribe is made up of my inner children, my wounded self, my inner critic, my shadow parts, as well as all the strong authentic parts that have helped me in the past when I was entering a new stage of healing.

 

As we all know, healing after trauma is not a linear process and so it is important to remember that when we have a flashback or what feels like a setback, we have not failed or were fooling ourselves into thinking we had healed. Each time we grow from a challenge, we develop a deep appreciation for who we are, for how far we have come, and the wisdom we have learned along the way.

 

In these moments, put your hand on your heart and remember to be gentle with yourself during these uncertain times. This is not the time to be hard with ourselves or others. The resilience of humans dictates that we will get through this and we will get through this together. Stay connected the best you can, to yourself and others. And choose to come to the present moment, again and again, to help your mind stay out of anxiety and worry.

 

I know these words sound simple but the implications of daily self-compassion practice are profound and long-lasting.

 

I am sending you lots of love and light and here to support you in any way I can.

]]> https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/26/how-im-managing-with-the-stress-of-these-times/feed/ 0 Tension and Trauma-Releasing Exercises® and Self-Regulation https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/16/tension-and-trauma-releasing-exercises-and-self-regulation/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/16/tension-and-trauma-releasing-exercises-and-self-regulation/#respond Mon, 16 Aug 2021 11:45:15 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=237946 The stress and tension from trauma can kill. We know this fact because of the volumes of research that have been done on the subject. Not only can stress and tension be fatal, but they also can be the root cause of self-deregulation leaving survivors struggling in their relationships and lives.

Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®) can lower your stress level by inducing the release of the body tension that has built up because of trauma. In this article, we shall examine how TRE® helps a survivor to self-regulate and feel better.

Emotional Self-Regulation and Trauma

Emotional self-regulation is one’s ability to respond to ongoing demands from experiences with a range of socially tolerable emotions but allow for spontaneous reactions that are appropriate. Emotional self-regulation is part of a more comprehensive set of emotional regulatory processes, including regulating one’s feelings and interpreting plus reacting to those of others.

Emotional regulation is a complex process involving inhibiting, modulating, or initiating a behavior in each situation. Emotional regulation can also refer to the process of focusing one’s attention on a task using the ability to suppress inappropriate behavior.

Trauma interrupts the development of self-regulation by affecting how our brain functions.

When we are cold and begin to shiver, the brain adapts to protect itself by turning off some bodily functions such as digestion. The same is true of a brain that is or has experienced trauma. The brain will change to protect itself from the stress that trauma causes.

Because the brain turns off some of its functions, certain parts are put on high alert while others are less active. This changing of functions in the brain causes children, and later adults, to have problems regulating their emotions and be impulsive, leading to fewer healthy adult relationships and increased illness.

The resulting lack of self-regulation also causes a person to react poorly to ordinary events like going to the store or having a family dinner. These mundane tasks and events become extraordinarily difficult for the survivor.

The Premise of TRE®

 

Trauma-Releasing Exercises or TRE® is a set of exercises that assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of tension, stress, and trauma. The whole of TRE® is centered around Dr. Berceli’s observations that the body of humans often tremors during or after a stressful event. The vibration mechanism is natural for the human body to allow the autonomic nervous system to calm itself.

The premise of TRE® is that these tremors represent the deliberate activation of the autonomic nervous system during an overexcited state as a natural neurophysiological response to the body to release stress and restore a feeling of well-being.

People who have experienced trauma can become highly dysregulated in their autonomic nervous system reacting to triggers they encounter in disproportionate fashions that are not compatible with healthy relationships with oneself or others.

Trauma releasing exercises use induced vibrations and shaking of the body to enhance one’s ability to self-regulate their emotions by releasing tension from stress bottled up in the body. With the extra tension and stress released, it is easier to face triggers and manage one’s response.

Self-regulation is the ability to tolerate and control your emotions, feelings, and thoughts; however, a self-regulatory collapse occurs when you can no longer control these sensations.

TRE® allows one to reconnect with their body and eliminate pent-up emotions through a series of shaking and tremoring exercises usually done in the presence of a trained TRE® professional. Trauma-Releasing Exercises work because, as cognitive neuroscience research suggests, self-regulation is a top-down prefrontal cortex event that occurs over several subcortical regions involved in survival and emotion.

Trauma-Releasing Exercises Guidelines

While trauma-related exercises may sound easy to perform (they are), there are some basic guidelines that one should practice for safety and effectiveness.

For one, TREs should be done only if you feel safe and grounded. If you begin to experience pain, it is necessary to adjust your position or modify the speed and intensity of the exercise to relieve that pain. If the pain continues, stop, and take a break. The point of TRE® is to relax your autonomic nervous system, not to rev it up.

If you become overwhelmed emotionally, such as have a flashback or become upset emotionally, slow down or stop the TRE® exercises until you feel safe and grounded once more. Take a break and allow your body to return to a baseline state.

If one is doing TRE® for the first time, it is recommended that you only tremor for a maximum of fifteen minutes three or four times per week. It is vital that one only perform trauma-releasing exercises in the presence of a trained TRE® provider, as you can become highly overwhelmed by long-forgotten emotions and events that may bubble to the surface during them.

The exercises of TRE® activate the muscles to relax through a shaking mechanism. Relaxing tense muscles can reduce stress in the spine, neck, pelvis, and shoulders. When the tension is released, the brain registers a reduction in pain, producing new hormones to promote healing.

How TRE® Helps Adult Trauma Survivors Self-Regulate

Complex trauma can rule and ruin a person’s life if it is untreated and allowed reign. That statement is true whether what one has experienced was decades ago as a child or more recent from rape or assault. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are caused by trauma, with the prior is from repeated traumatic experiences, and the latter is from a single event type of traumatic event.

People who have been traumatized have a diminished ability to self-regulate and need something to help them release their pent-up emotions.

Once one has released the stress they have been harboring in their body for perhaps years, they are in a much better position to learn how to regulate their emotional responses to circumstances and themselves.

TRE® goes around the conscious part of the brain and instead works with the subconscious activities to defeat anxiety, stress, and trauma. TRE® takes advantage of the fact that our bodies are constantly responding to increased stress levels by contracting our muscles to help us get through the problem. We seldom recognize our muscle contractions until we experience illness or pain but

TRE® allows us to release this tension in a constructive and controlled manner.

Once the tension is released, we feel more relaxed and in control leading to better self-regulation.

TRE® compliments other exercise workouts such as yoga, reducing the impact of stress, reducing muscle tension, and increasing strength and flexibility. TRE® also uncovers a tension at a deep level causing greater mental flexibility at a deep level, increasing awareness of a more profound sense of self. Once there is a deeper sense of oneself, one experiences a deeper sense of connection and belonging, helping to increase self-regulation.

In Closing

A human adult must learn to control our responses to whatever life throws our way.  Emotional self-regulation is the ability to manage one’s emotional responses.

Almost all people are living with the effects of complex trauma experience some level of self-regulation, which is vital to be successful adults. A person who can take charge of their emotions instead of becoming overpowered by them will be more in tune with their feelings, exercise greater control, and adjust their emotional control when necessary.

Without self-regulation, we are left to being overreactive, simmering, timebombs ready to spew our anger or grief on anyone who gets in our way, leaving us isolated and alone.

TRE® allows one to release tension and stress in a constructive and well-controlled manner by rewiring the brain and regulating our emotional responses.

References

Montroy, J. J., Bowles, R. P., Skibbe, L. E., McClelland, M. M., & Morrison, F. J. (2016). The development of self-regulation across early childhood. Developmental psychology, 52(11), 1744.

TRE® for All, Inc. Retrieved from: https://traumaprevention.com/what-is-tre/

Tjasa, S., TRE® for athletes. School of Advanced Social Studies, Nova Gorica, Slovenia. Retrieved from: https://traumaprevention.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/TRE-FOR-ATHLETES-gimslo.pdf

What is emotional regulation? (2020). Mightier.com. Retrieved from: https://www.mightier.com/articles/what-is-emotional-regulation/

“If you live your life to please everyone else, you will continue to feel frustrated and powerless. This is because what others want may not be good for you. You are not being mean when you say NO to unreasonable demands or when you express your ideas, feelings, and opinions, even if they differ from those of others.” ~ Beverly Engel

If you or a loved one live in the despair and isolation that comes with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, please, come to us for help. CPTSD Foundation offers a wide range of services, including:

All our services are reasonably priced, and some are even free. So, to gain more insight into how complex post-traumatic stress disorder is altering your life and how you can overcome it, sign-up; we will be glad to help you.  If you cannot afford to pay, go to www.cptsdfoundation.org/scholarship to apply for aid. We only wish to serve you.

The 4 Steps to Emotional Regulation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

]]> https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/16/tension-and-trauma-releasing-exercises-and-self-regulation/feed/ 0 More Information on Trauma Releasing Exercises ® https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/09/more-information-on-trauma-releasing-exercises/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/09/more-information-on-trauma-releasing-exercises/#respond Mon, 09 Aug 2021 11:15:28 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=237902 Traumatic stress is one of the most common reactions to distress. These reactions are believed to be held in the body as well as the mind. Trauma releasing exercises TRE® is a new way to release stress and control the effects of trauma.

This article shall continue our discussion of traumatic stress and TRE® plus outline the benefits of tremoring to those who perform it.

A Recap of Traumatic Stress

 

Traumatic stress is a process where a person’s resources are lost or threatened beyond their ability to defend themselves against the source of the threats or to recover from resource losses (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997).

That relatively long explanation means that when a person becomes overwhelmed by a threat to themselves where they cannot protect themselves (such as childhood sexual abuse) or their stuff (such as loss of a home in a fire).

What occurs is that our bodies, as Bessel van der Kolk so aptly put it, keeps the score and remembers the way we felt. All the stress in our muscles, our racing heartbeat, and the fight or flight response are remembered by our bodies and may reoccur as panic attacks, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Adverse events cause traumatic stress and are a response to adverse factors that may occur in our lives. Below are only a few negative events that can occur in either children or adults:

  • Sexual or physical abuse or assault
  • Exposure to combat or war zone
  • An unexpected death
  • House fires
  • Severe medical events
  • Witnessing death
  • Domestic violence
  • Mass violence
  • Terrorism

Traumatic stress can harm one’s health and make life miserable not only when it occurs but for a lifetime if not treated.

The Neurodynamic of Traumatic Stress

 

The tern neuroplasticity is referring to the brain’s remarkable ability to adapt. All humans have survival-based coping strategies that emerge when facing a threat and are rooted in the biological need to survive life-threatening situations. Neuroplasticity is also vital to cope with the aftermath of trauma. These abilities are formed during childhood and are embedded in neural networks functioning outside of consciousness.

When traumatic stress overwhelms a child, their brain responds by pushing the memory of the event into the body to escape in their mind. Often the memories will resurface and intrude into the present when they have become adults presenting as unsettling thoughts, emotions, sensory memories, body memories, or flashbacks. These adult survivors associate self-protection to triggers today, and their survival strategies, such as dissociation, are activated.

To conquer our brain and bodily responses to stress and its aftermath, TRE® uses muscle stretch reflexes, involuntary contractions of muscles induced by quick stretches, and tremoring to release troublesome tension and stress.

Research, conducted by Dr. Berceli (the inventor of TRE®) in 2009, utilized sixty-one students to discover if indeed trauma releasing exercises worked. His findings are below.

“After performing the exercise routine six times over a two-week period, the STAI X-1 showed a significant reduction in anxiety-present and an increase in anxiety-absent in both the subscale and total scores. The Heart Rate Variability (HRV) data showed changes in the desired direction. These results suggest that these tremors might have therapeutic values for post-stressor recovery.”

Although his sample size was small, what Dr. Berceli found is eye-opening and should induce others to research this potential mental health breakthrough.

The Benefits of TRE®

 

When one thinks of relieving traumatic stress, the last thing one might think about is shaking. However, shaking is a legitimate modality for relieving the effects of stressful events and tension. Shaking makes sense because during or immediately after a traumatic event, our body shakes to restore itself to equilibrium after a terrible shock. During this process, some of the memories of the events become trapped and are not removed properly by the shaking.

Learning to shake on purpose effectively manages one’s stressors and restoring balance to the body and mind.

Shaking, otherwise known as tension and trauma release exercises (TRE®), uses a series of movements that stretch and lightly fatigue the muscles to induce a natural tremor response. The tremor releases deep muscular patterns of stress and tension related to stressful events and soothes the nervous system.

The benefits of TRE® are as follows:

  • Less worry and anxiety
  • Better sleep
  • Reduced muscle and back pain
  • Reductions in the symptoms of PTSD and CPTSD
  • Decreases symptoms of vicarious trauma
  • Greater emotional resiliency
  • Relief from some chronic medical conditions

Because a person who performs TRE® feels better, they may notice a better marital relationship and less stress at work.

In Closing

 

Traumatic stress is a natural reaction to demands or threats to your life or things. People under traumatic stress release the stress hormone cortisol into their bloodstreams that allows them to respond quickly. However, when experienced in higher than normal quantities for long periods, cortisol is highly damaging to the brain and the body.

Traumatic stress can kill you as there is hardly any disease that does not play a role. Stress is a powerful self-destructive tool that will end your life prematurely if it is not managed. Trauma releasing exercises may, in other words, be a first-grade ticket to better health and longer life.

Trauma releasing exercises use tremoring and flexing to release pent-up stress trapped in your body and mind for decades.

While TRE® is not a cure for such stress-caused diagnoses as complex post-traumatic stress disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder, many find it makes their travels down the road less taken to healing easier.

“Pain is a pesky part of being human; I’ve learned it feels like a stab wound to the heart, something I wish we could all do without in our lives here. Pain is a sudden hurt that can’t be escaped. But then, I have also learned that because of pain, I can feel the beauty, tenderness, and freedom of healing. Pain feels like a fast stab wound to the heart. But then healing feels like the wind against your face when you are spreading your wings and flying through the air! We may not have wings growing out of our backs, but healing is the closest thing that will give us that wind against our faces.” ~ C. JoyBell C.

References

Aspinwall, L. G., & Taylor, S. G. (1997). A stitch in time: Self-regulation and proactive coping. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 417-436

Berceli, D. (2009). Evaluating the effects of stress reduction exercises employing mild tremors: a pilot study. Master’s thesis. Phoenix (AZ): Arizona State University. Retrieved from: https://traumaprevention.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Berceli.2009.pdf

If you or a loved one live in the despair and isolation that comes with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, please, come to us for help. CPTSD Foundation offers a wide range of services, including:

All our services are reasonably priced, and some are even free. So, to gain more insight into how complex post-traumatic stress disorder is altering your life and how you can overcome it, sign-up; we will be glad to help you.  If you cannot afford to pay, go to www.cptsdfoundation.org/scholarship to apply for aid. We only wish to serve you.

The Role of Nurses in PTSD Recovery

How Do Adverse Childhood Experiences Affect You Today?

 

]]> https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/09/more-information-on-trauma-releasing-exercises/feed/ 0 Traumatic Stress, and Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/02/traumatic-stress-and-trauma-releasing-exercises/ https://cptsdfoundation.org/2021/08/02/traumatic-stress-and-trauma-releasing-exercises/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2021 12:57:03 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=237849 Traumatic stress causes many problems for survivors and others. We don’t feel well enough to accomplish our life goals or to function in day-to-day routines.

There is a new solution to traumatic stress, and it is called Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®).

This article and those that follow in August will outline traumatic stress and how TRE can change lives.

What is traumatic stress?

 

Traumatic stress is a process by which individual’s resources are lost or threatened beyond individuals’ ability to defend themselves against resource threats or recover from resource losses (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997)

Traumatic stress is a response to adverse factors in our lives. These negative events may occur to children and adults alike and may include the following:

  • A serious vehicle accident
  • Sexual or physical abuse or assault
  • Combat or exposure to a war zone
  • The unexpected death of someone you love
  • Natural disaster
  • House fires
  • Torture
  • Medical severe procedures or events
  • Witnessing a death or seeing dead bodies
  • Domestic violence
  • Being a witness of violence such as a suicide or homicide
  • Mass violence
  • Terrorism

The loss of resources exacerbates the vulnerability of women to future loss and threat of loss. People who experience traumatic stress often form other disorders such as complex post-traumatic stress disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder.

Muscle Stretch Reflexes

 

To understand muscle stretch reflexes, one must first have a rudimentary understanding of the central nervous system (CNS). The central nervous system coordinates and influences activity in all parts of the body using its long tendons to receive and offer information to and from the body’s muscles.

Our bodies are loaded with potential reflexes. One example may be when a doctor taps below your knee and causes your leg to kick up. When the doctor taps slightly below your kneecap, he measures how strong your responsive muscles stretch reflexes.

According to Wikipedia, “Muscle stretch reflexes are involuntary contractions of muscles induced by a brisk stretch of the muscle.” There are two types of muscle reflexes involved, the afferent muscle reflex and the efferent muscle reflex.

Afferent muscle reflexes bring signals from the muscles into the nervous system.

Efferent muscle reflexes cause a response to the muscles from the nervous system.

These two distinctions are critical to understanding Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE®).

Introducing Dr. David Berceli and Trauma Releasing Exercises

TRE® is a new innovative method of using vibrating and shaking exercises to assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of tension, stress, and trauma.  When done safely, in a controlled environment, this relaxation method can release muscle tension and calm the nervous system. Through TRE®, the body is encouraged to return to a state of balance.

Because stress, tension, and trauma are physical and psychological, the reflexive muscle vibrations used in TRE® release the tension, causing a pleasant and soothing feeling, plus people report feeling a sense of well-being that wasn’t present before the exercises.

Trauma releasing exercises were designed to be something anyone can do as a self-help tool. Once the method is conquered, TRE® is ready to be done independently of the instructor as needed and will support and promote wellness.

Doctor David Berceli is the creator of Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises, a revolutionary technique to release profound tension in the body created by a traumatic experience.

Doctor Berceli, through observations of communities in the Middle East and Africa where many had been traumatized by war, discovered that by inducing the body’s natural tremoring mechanism, one could release trauma.

As a result of doing TRE® exercises, there was a reduction in the need for psychotherapy or drugs to control post-traumatic symptoms. Since TRE® is easily taught and implemented, Berceli has used it to support war veterans in the United States military.

However, the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health stated that they could find, “No relevant literature was identified regarding the clinical effectiveness of TRE® for the treatment of patients with PTSD, anxiety, depression, or psychological trauma. No evidence-based guidelines associated with the use of TRE for the treatment of said disorders were identified.”

Research continues to find and prove the benefits of trauma releasing exercises.

The Benefits of TRE®

There are many benefits to practicing trauma-releasing exercises, including a better feeling of being grounded and becoming less reactive to everyday life events. Some people trained in TRE® report an improvement in their chronic muscle pain and lessening incidences of panic attacks.

During TRE® training, it is vital to allow the practitioner to know if you have conditions or limitations such as physical or emotional problems. Talking to your practitioner is vital because your exercise regimen may be slightly different than others in your group.

Other benefits one might experience from TRE® are improved sleep and body/mind awareness, plus increased flexibility. However, perhaps the most important benefit may be an increase in one’s ability to self-regulate.

There is a sequence of seven exercises in TRE® that trigger neurogenic tremors and reduce symptoms of traumatic stress and psychological disorders, such as PTSD or Complex PTSD.

According to research conducted by Scaer in 2007, the tremor mechanism used in trauma-releasing exercises reduce or inhibits the activity of the amygdala, the seat of the fight or flight response. Scaer found that the neuronal networks with trauma content inside them are erased in the procedural memory of the person practicing TRE®. The tremors and movements of trauma-releasing exercises help form new positive neural nets increasing a person’s ability to relax and self-regulate.

Self-Regulation and TRE®

When someone becomes dysregulated and cannot control their emotions, they become overwhelmed with emotions, feelings, sensations, and thoughts. This state is called collapse. Collapse involves a mental breakdown, a period of intense mental distress that can interrupt daily life. Collapse refers to a wide variety of mental distresses, including depression and anxiety.

TRE® can help treat collapse by stimulating self-regulation.

According to cognitive neuroscience, research indicates that self-regulation depends on top-down control from the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for the planning of complex cognitive behaviors), to subcortical regions involved in survival and emotion.

Self-regulation, according to the TRE® website, is the ability to tolerate and control one’s emotions, feelings, sensations, and thoughts independent of external supervision or regulation.

TRE® can help one, through careful stimulation of different muscle groups, release the muscle tension that is causing both emotional and physical discomfort and increase self-regulation.

Bringing It All Together

Trauma releasing exercises are a unique method to treat traumatic stress. If you are saying to yourself, “I’ve never heard of it,” you are not alone, neither had this author. However, after researching this piece and those to follow, I am very interested in giving it a try.

First introduced by Dr. Berceli, TRE® appears to offer a unique method to reduce the stress leftover after experiencing traumatic events. By allowing oneself to shake and quiver certain muscle groups, TRE® can increase your ability to regulate your emotions by lessening the tension bottled up in your body.

Using TRE® is a revolutionary and possibly helpful form of exercise that has significant implications for the betterment of the health and well-being of many.

“Health is a state of body; wellness is a state of being.” ~ J. Stanford

“A healthy outside starts from the inside.” ~ Robert Urich

References

Aspinwall, L. G., & Taylor, S. G. (1997). A stitch in time: Self-regulation and proactive coping. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 417-436

Scaer R (2007), The Body Bears the Burden, New York, London: Routledge

If you or a loved one live in the despair and isolation that comes with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, please, come to us for help. CPTSD Foundation offers a wide range of services, including:

All our services are reasonably priced, and some are even free. So, to gain more insight into how complex post-traumatic stress disorder is altering your life and how you can overcome it, sign-up; we will be glad to help you.  If you cannot afford to pay, go to www.cptsdfoundation.org/scholarship to apply for aid. We only wish to serve you.

 

 

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