TRE is a series of exercises that assist the body in releasing deep muscular patterns of stress, tension and trauma. The exercises safely activate a natural reflex mechanism of gentle shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous system. TRE helps releases our defensive habits, feel more balanced, and get to higher levels of performance in what we do. We are able to perform new actions under the same old pressures.

I sometimes teach TRE as stand-alone technique, but more and more, I find myself using TRE during my somatic coaching practice. In my work with clients, we often end up uncovering how a client’s present state of well-being and performance is related to patterns of constrictions that might have been formed in the past. In this situation, a therapist would use the past experiences as raw material to help the client come out of it. I am not a therapist. I don’t go into the context and the details of past experiences. Instead I work with the imprint of the past on the present state of the body, its constrictions and resulting behaviors. TRE is one of the tools I use extensively to help the client release these constrictions and show up in the world in new ways.

I learnt to teach this modality through a rigorous period of training with Dr. David Berceli, the creator of TRE and an international expert in trauma intervention and conflict resolution.