My TRE® Session Observations

I have made some pretty amazing observations in the course of my intense experience with TRE®. Some of them I would have a hard time believing if they hadn’t happened to me. Here’s what I’ve experienced so far in my exploration of TRE®:

Emotional Responses

Emotional responses to TRE® released can be pretty intense, including crying, diaphragmatic heaves, maximal lung exhalations, and fits of laughter. I was shocked at the number and intensity of these responses to energy being released out of my physical tissue. Going more slowly (2-4 session a week) may ease the intensity of the emotional responses.

TRE® Won’t Harm the Body

Over the months, I have come to trust that my body won’t hurt me with this therapy. I can trust it to do its shaking, stretching, and isometrics in a way that is beneficial and will not harm my structure. I recently strained my gluts (and surrounding tissue) and in the TRE® session following the injury my body needed to intensely engage the strained tissues for a spinal manipulation. My body refused to go any further. It stopped the session because it couldn’t do what it needed to do in one part of my body without injuriously stressing another part.

The difference between TRE® and a seizure is that a seizure is a malfunction that is overriding the body’s control system. With TRE® the body’s intelligence is in control, guiding each tremor, contraction, and emotional response toward a specific benefit that only my body knows how to do or why to do.

Frequency of Treatment

Frequency of treatment should be determined with four considerations in mind:

  • The more frequently sessions are done, the more energy it will take. Overdoing it can leave you low on energy.
  • The more frequently sessions are done, the more likely there may be very intense emotional responses.
  • The more frequently sessions are done, the harder it may be to adjust to changes in structure and posture. Rapid changes in posture can affect balance and cause discomfort in muscles and connective tissue as the body adjusts to new body positions.
  • The more frequently sessions are done, the greater the chance that the body will have to deal with higher levels of toxins as they are dumped out of the tissues into the system (emotional toxicity and physical toxins are released from areas of congestion).

Possible Herxheimer Reaction

Anytime the body releases toxicity, whether physical or emotional, there is the possibility of a cleansing reaction as it purges stored energy, poisons, and toxins. As congestion is broken up the body must eliminate the gunk that has accumulated in the area of poor circulation. These reactions, when they occur, are almost always mild. However, depending on the severity of congestion, they can sometimes be more intense.

Following the Body’s Lead

Probably the most amazing thing about TRE® is how clear cut and direct the body intelligence is about what it wants to do next. All you have to do is follow as your muscles lead you into the next stretch or tremor. Even be prepared to follow the body into totally different positions, like on your side, stomach, or sitting up.

It’s Not Only about Shaking

I have noticed that often the body engages in a stretch or isometric in sequence or combination with shaking. It is an adventure to anticipate where your body wants to go next. Often my body will repeat maximal rhythmic undulations that make me feel like I’m being massaged from the inside. The release this generates in my body is intense and euphoric, leaving me sometimes with tears of gratitude.

Spinal Manipulation

Many times my body has placed itself in exact positions to strategically and sequentially manipulate my cervical, thoracic, and lumbar vertebrae. If it can’t get a particular vertebra to adjust it will take me into the appropriate shaking, stretching, or isometric to loosen it up so that it will adjust. It has not only loosened and adjusted from C1 down to L5 on both sides, but has also manipulated my costal facets. This totally blew me away! I haven’t been trained as a chiropractor. I would never consciously know how to do any of this! But guess what, my subconscious body does!

Often I will wake up at night when my body is relaxed and it will succeed in adjusting with ease what it would otherwise have struggled to manipulate during the day.

Fascial Manipulation

When TRE® first started popping and grinding the connective tissue in my neck and back I wasn’t sure what my body was doing. Then it dawned on me that it wasn’t adjusting my vertebrae anymore. It was manipulating my fascia in order to heal the restrictions, you know, the gristle that pops around in the neck and back. It manipulates the adhesions until there is a dramatic release of energy in my body, causing me to shake wildly. I think this is because there is tension, or energetic congestion, trapped in the connective tissue that is at least partly to blame of the formation of the adhesions, fibrosis, and/or scar tissue there. Well knock me over with a feather! The body even knows how to resolve adhesions—the tangled up fascial gristle—if we will just follow its lead with TRE®!

A Pain Reliever

I discovered early on that TRE® can be an effective pain reliever when I was awakened with an intense ache in my colon one morning. I was curious if TRE® could help me with my discomfort and asked my body to do something about it. Shortly, my body began to gently rock the whole lower abdominal and pelvic area. It continued for 5-10 minutes until the pain subsided. See the video on TRE® for child birth at the bottom of this page.    

I’ve Been Frozen

The further I go with this process the more I realize that I have been frozen—emotionally, physically, and spiritually—unable to feel, move, and resonate optimally. I am beginning to be able to move as TRE® breaks up congestion, increases mobility, and releases unwanted emotions. I am experiencing movements, feelings, resonance, and visions I haven’t experienced for a long time. It’s a major shift for me toward greater joy in living. I’m better able to saver the moment and gratitude is more often my companion.

Sessions Can Be Guided with Intention

Perhaps my most shocking discovery of all is that I can guide TRE® with intention. I can instruct the body to work on a specific area, instead of allowing it to work sequentially on general issues according to its wisdom. This is very helpful when I have a kink in my neck, a catch in my hip or ankle, a negative (angry, frustrated, anxious, depressed, etc.) spirit, or just need to release tension from my back after giving a massage or doing other physically or emotionally draining tasks. By focusing on what I want the body to do (intention) I can even instruct my body to a take me through a series of stretches, a release that can be very therapeutic and enjoyable in the morning.

This isn’t just me. Dr. David Berceli had this to say at one of his conferences:

When I lie down, and if I think of my shoulders, as an example, I can bring the tremors to my shoulders—and that’s possible actually, because we’re designed to be able to do that.

My experience in using TRE® with intention leads me to ponder the possibility that I could use intention to focus TRE® on any disease symptom, for trauma and stress play a critical role in most disease processes (especially chronic ones).

Even though I can control the session specifically, allowing the body to deal with a particular area, symptom, or past trauma, I think it is generally best—for the most part—to let the body decide the sequence of treatment. Of course, short sessions that are focused on release of tension and stretching can only be beneficial.

The Immediate Release of Tension

As mentioned above, it is important to diffuse the tension of a stressful activity or event quickly. I have tested this: when I release the tension from my body in a TRE® session after each massage that I give, then I need less massage done on my own muscles every week to keep them from getting tight. If I release my tension in a timely manor, then I experience significantly less negative and chronic impact to the muscle and fascia in the area of my tension. In other words, when you allow your tension to linger in your body’s energy field, unreleased, then it settles into nerve, muscle, and connective tissues, causing all kinds of dysfunction.

TRE®, then, is a brilliant strategy for dealing not only with tension related to physical activity but also with stress caused by negative emotions like anger, guilt, anxiety, fear, frustration, or others. This ability makes TRE® one of the most amazing stress maintenance tools on the planet! 

TRE® Is Scary To Some

Although some of my friends and clients are open to TRE®, the majority of those I have told about it have a fearful response. This fear keeps many people from trying TRE® and healing themselves. I think there are three reasons for this.

  • First, as I mentioned above, TRE® can look a lot like a seizure, especially the intense and dramatic shaking that has been my most common experience. Frankly, when I show them how it works, it scares them to death. Of course, it’s NOT a seizure and the body won’t hurt itself.
  • Second, and related (and how often I’ve heard this response), is the fear that it might be demonic. That very association can keep people from seriously considering it.
  • Third, people are fearful of losing control, of what might happen and what they might feel if they let loose of the scary flood of their own trapped trauma and inhibited aggression. Thus, the fear of possible negative experiences overrules the promised benefits.

This negative response has been the most frustrating part of my experience with one of the most amazing—and definitely the most intelligent—natural healers ever discovered: TRE®.

Don’t Be Afraid To Try TRE®

A novel healing tool like TRE® can be unnerving and scary at first glance. Don’t let it intimidate you. Just do it. Take your time with it and let it change you gently. You will find few other healers as powerful as the transcortical-loop-activated intelligence of your own body. Let your body speak its mind and, like doctor Eric Robins said at the beginning of this chapter, “you will measure your entire life experience as to how it was before and after you started doing TRE®.”

TRE® is without a doubt one of the most amazing—and definitely most intelligent—natural healers known to man.

Back to TRE®: Trauma and Tension Release