The Key Clinic TRE® ProgrammeTrauma Release (TRE®) Therapy to Regulate Your Nervous System
Have you recently or in the past experienced trauma, emotionally or physically? Do you experience chronic stress? Are you looking for self-help, drug-free methods to reduce your stress or trauma?
The Key Clinic’s TRE(®) programme helps you to release stress and trauma, while giving you the self-help tools to cope longer term.
Trauma can take many forms, not only dramatic events such as wars and accidents. Trauma can also be experienced through difficult births or early childhood attachment problems. It can even be experienced intergenerationally via epigenetics.
Some children have the misfortune to experience trauma from a young age. As adults, the chances are that most of us will have experienced it in one form or another.
Here’s the thing. Trauma and stress are not only ‘psychological’, to be targeted through various psychotherapies. Studies have shown that stress is also PHYSICAL. Trauma leaves a lasting imprint on the body, altering both our physical and mental health.
Tension and Trauma release exercises aid nervous system regulation and, over time, release the trauma stored in your body.
What is TRE® Therapy?
TRE® is a somatic therapy, meaning a body-centred therapy. It was created in response to the understanding that stress and trauma are both psychological and physical. TRE® consists of seven simple exercises that activate the body's innate healing mechanism, the ‘neurogenic tremor.’
The ability to ‘shake off’ a traumatic event is innate in all of us. Animals in the wild naturally trigger their neurogenic tremor after stressful events such as being chased by a predator. However, as we grow up, we are socially conditioned to suppress this useful response, instead forcing the trauma deep inside our bodies, where it alters our autonomic responses, making us more prone to chronic stress.
TRE® (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercise) was developed in 1998 by David Berceli, who holds a PhD in Social Work and is a Board Certified Psychoneurologist and Neurotherapist.
David Berceli is an international expert in trauma intervention who has studied war zones and areas affected by natural disaster.
He has worked extensively with first responders, soldiers and veterans.
He is the author of two books, ‘Shake It Off Naturally’ and ‘The Revolutionary Trauma Release Process’ as well as multiple research publications.
What conditions can it help support?
Chronic Stress / Trauma / Burnout / Overwhelm / Chronic Pain / Persistent Exhaustion / Fatigue / Weakened Immunity / Anxiety / Depression / Irritability / Sleep Issues / Insomnia / Digestive Issues / IBS
How does it work?
Trauma Release (TRE®) Therapy
is a set of seven simple exercises which activate the body’s innate healing mechanism: the neurogenic tremor. This gentle shaking, is a primal response all humans have the ability to initiate. This helps them effortlessly deactivate the stress response and return back to a calm and balanced state.
Through a self-regulation process, TRE® safely releases emotional stress, physical tension and stored trauma held within the muscles and tissues of the body. Because TRE® switches on the parasympathetic nervous system, many people report feeling calmer and more peaceful from the first session. TRE® is a powerful self-help tool which can be practiced independently once learned through a course of 4 sessions.
Note: TRE® is appropriate for children aged 6 and over. Parental assistance is required for online children's sessions. TRE® is not suitable for pregnant women.
How does TRE® support the resetting the nervous system and regulation?
When we experience short-term stress or trauma, a healthy nervous system is able to mount a response and then reset back to normal after the stress or trauma has ended.
Unfortunately, in today’s world, we can experience stress or trauma chronically, with no end in sight. This can result in chronic activation of the stress or trauma response which can be characterised as a state of either ‘fight or flight’ or alternatively ‘freeze’ - a state of shut down or collapse.
The nervous system can get stuck in fight, flight or freeze, unable to come out of these responses which were never intended to be prolonged.
Those of us experiencing chronic stress or trauma may require regular support to reset the nervous system so it is able to switch off these responses when needed.
Whilst fight, flight and freeze are protective and temporarily helpful responses, they are not helpful in the long-term.
TRE® helps regulate the nervous system so we are able to come out of fight, flight or freeze and experience a sense of safety as often as possible.
Many individuals report feeling calmer and more at peace after just one session, although each person’s TRE® experience is unique and depends on the amount of stress and/or trauma the person has experienced.
Who we help
TRE® is NOT recommended in the following circumstances:
During pregnancy
If you have epilepsy or a history of seizures
Following recent major surgery (in the last 8 weeks)
Those with severe depression, suicidal ideation or a tendency to self-harm may only undertake TRE® with the approval of their GP
(Note: All Key Clinic Exclusion Criteria apply to TRE®)
What to Expect in a TRE® Session
TRE® can be done remotely from the comfort of your own home or in-person. All that is needed for sessions is a quiet room with some clear wall space to lean against, a yoga/exercise mat and comfortable clothing.
The first TRE® session typically lasts up to 90 minutes, with follow-up sessions lasting around 75 minutes. Your practitioner will guide you through the seven steps that naturally trigger your body’s neurogenic tremor. The seven steps involve specific physical movements or stretches. Your practitioner works with you to regulate your neurogenic tremoring through rests and body adjustments.
A neurogenic tremor differs from the muscular tremoring you may have experienced in a workout. A muscular tremor results from when your muscles become fatigued during exercise and your body needs to stimulate more muscle fibres, whereas a neurogenic tremor originates in the nervous system and is associated with chronic stress. One may experience a muscular tremor before moving toward a neurogenic tremor when going through the 7 steps led by your TRE® practitioner.
Maria Trindade is The Key Clinic’s qualified TRE® practitioner. Maria is also a fully Biomedical Practitioner and offers clients help and support across both these different Therapy pathways.
Watch Maria talk TRE® here
The Self-Help Benefits of TRE®
The beauty of TRE® lies in its self-help nature; once you have learned the exercises - typically over at least four sessions with a certified provider - you can continue to practise independently at home. After four full sessions, you may only need as little as 10-15 minutes of neurogenic tremoring 2-3 times per week to continue to reap the benefits.
It is important to ensure at least 4 sessions are first done with a TRE® practitioner, so that you can learn to control the severity of the neurogenic tremoring. A practitioner will be able to notice when tremoring is too intense or going on for too long and will teach you how to notice this on your own.
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TRE® dives into the body’s innate healing mechanism, the neurogenic tremor. This gentle shaking is innate in all humans and can be initiated through seven steps.
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Once the process has been learned, TRE® can be done at home as a self-help tool
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Whether you’re dealing with chronic stress, burnout, anxiety, pain, or other symptoms, TRE® can be an empowering tool for healing.
Are you ready to embark on your TRE® journey?
Please call us on 020 7486 4462 or email welcome@thekeyclinic.co.uk to find out how we can support you or your child.