Sandra Kiesel
sandra@santosaphuket.com
It involves a process focused on the body that releases deep chronic physical and emotional tension created during traumatic and stressful events. The TRE process consists of a simple series of exercises performed to initiate the body’s innate tremor mechanism to release stress, tension and trauma.
Lets look at it this way, we all know the feeling of the immense energy we experience when something or someone “pushes our button” or more simply put – when we feelthreatened/attacked or even taken by surprise. Our heartbeat increases, our palms become sweaty, our vision narrows and we might feel some sort of heat or tightening of the abdominal area, our digestive system gets turned off along with our immune system and our body is producing the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline.
Our body is preparing for action, for survival by either fleeing the scene, fighting the threat or, as a last resort, freezing into immobility.
Each time we come into a situation of flight, fight or freeze, an immense amount of energy is released into our body by our nervous system to instinctually make the right choice for our survival. This response to real and perceived threat initiates in the oldest part of the brain – the reptilian brain also known as the brain stem.
As the name gives away we have this part in common with reptiles as well as all other mammals. It is our instinctual center responsible for basic, yet complex tasks necessary for our survival. Then there is the limbic system, which evolved later, that houses the emotional part of us humans. Last but not least evolution’s newest masterpiece is the neocortex, which is responsible for our rational logic mind, our planning brain and our conscious choices.
Unfortunately it’s also the part of the brain that can get into our own way when it comes to dealing with trauma, stress and tension generated by our reptilian brain, which definitely doesn’t work on reasoning.
Let’s look at the following scenario of a traumatic event for one of our fellow mammals – the antelope. This animal, by the way, doesn’t go to their antelope psychotherapist or any other therapy for that matter. No Antelopes with PTSD as far as I know.
Now to the scenario – we are in the Savannah Desert and our little antelope is just grazing away just before it senses danger, its reptilian brain kicks in and starts to flee from the predator who is leaping at it from a hiding place. It runs and sprints and manages to get away from the beast that was about to kill it.
Once the threat is over the antelope will start shaking all over. It will be shaking and tremouring to discharge the incredible amount of energy that was set free in its race for survival. After that it will go back to business as usual, enjoying its life as if nothing ever happened. You might even say it has become more resilient to its environment because it learnt from its experience of how to survive.
This is where the key lies, in that innate capacity for the body to release that neurological charge and become more resilient – to actually grow from a traumatic or stressful situation. The body can let go of the built up energy and return to a baseline level of calm and collectedness.
How many of us have encountered a stressful situation in our lives and literally “cracked”. By letting the body “shake off” the accumulated tension we don’t have to go to the point of breakdown – and if we do we can come back to our centre much quicker in order to do what is necessary for the situation. We don’t need to stay in that state of overwhelm.
So why doesn’t our body just do the same as the antelopes?
Back to the neocortex – seeing that we aren’t as “simple” as an antelope we actually possess the capacity to question the appropriateness of our bodily functions. Due to our neocortex and it being so developed we are able to make the conscious choice of suppressing this innate release mechanism in our body.
Think of all the social conditioning we have gone through as a society – don’t show fear, be strong, no one likes a weakling, stand tall and stick up for yourself, don’t show your fear etc.
This doesn’t apply to you?
Have you ever had to go up on a stage and speak in front of a bunch of people? Did you feel nervous? Did you feel tension and energy pulsating through your body? Were you trembling or maybe your hands were shaking? Yet you probably wanted to not show people the shaking in your hands or let them hear the tremor in your voice, right? Well it was just your body trying to release some of that immense energy that was mobilised in that situation when you weren’t in your comfort zone – when your body felt threatened.
This is just a simple example and most of us find much more stress in our daily lives than we would like to admit. It has been proven that we have up to 50 fight/lfight reactions per day! This tension can build up over time even if there hasn’t been a big life changing traumatic experience which can result in tension/tightness in the muscles, hyper vigilance/overreacting, poor sleep, aggressiveness, shyness, bad digestion, impaired immune function, mistrust and paranoia and much more. TRE can help release even these “mini” stress/tension build ups that accumulate over time.
Our mind might not be aware but our nervous system is always on the watch for us and our survival at all times. This is where TRE comes in as mentioned in the beginning: these exercises initiate this tremoring response in the body to let go of this pent up energy, deeply held tension and stress patterns from the muscles, to get the nervous system back to baseline. This practice evokes a neurological response within the reptilian brain to activate the tremor and bypass the ego mind of the neocortex.
Many people cannot speak about what is causing them pain, emotionally as well as physically. They need to release the muscular tension that keeps them reliving their stress through poor sleep, busy thoughts, poor memory, shallow breathing, increased irritability, decreased ability to focus, anxiety and depression.
Based on clinical experience, descriptive studies and case reports it is believed that TRE helps to access the natural relaxation response (from the reptilian brain).
Once you have done the exercises you may experience deeper breathing, calmer thoughts, more relaxed muscles and better sleep.
It is important to do these exercises with a TRE Provider for at least the first three sessions in order to learn the exercises correctly and also how to self regulate in order not to stress your system even more, which can happen if you don’t know what to watch out for.
Currently the first private session is free at Santosa, and the following two private sessions are at a heavily discounted price until April 24. We will also be running group classes in the future but the prerequisite to join the class is to do one private session before joining a class. So if you would like to come and see for yourself what all this shaking is about contact Sandra@santosaphuket.com to book your first private session.
Santosa Wellness Center
With views of the Andaman Sea, the Santosa Wellness Center features state-of-the-art facilities, the centre boasts a five-star raw and vegetarian restaurant, a juice and coffee bar, eight colon hydrotherapy rooms, a pavilion with an expansive range of healthy activities, a herbal steam sauna, and a plunge-style ice bath. santosaphuket.com