Shake it Out
By Raymond Lambert
David Berceli is the founder of a method called Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE). He created TRE from his experiences of living many years in war-torn countries of Africa and the Middle East where he witnessed first-hand the results of conflict on local populations; especially women and children. He is now providing specialised recovery assistance to large populations affected by natural disasters as well as assisting staff of international relief agencies and organisations.
TRE is an approach that deliberately uses the body’s innate process of involuntary tremoring in a safe and controlled way to physically release the effects of stress and other unresolved negative events. This natural process our body offers us is common to all mammals. Zoo animals and humans are the only species it’s no longer used by to heal and tap into the genius resources that our body contains.
The method of TRE is to use a series of simple exercises to allow us to tap into this healing ability. It does not require talking about or recalling past events and does not require the ongoing assistance of a therapist for the vast majority of people; meaning the process can be used on your own on an ongoing basis to support and enhance other approaches too. Understanding the purpose of these capacities our bodies have allows us to make use of this natural body processes rather than suppressing or shutting them down and missing out its inherent benefits to assist our recovery.
