TRE®: A new path for 2024

Are you thinking of making 2024 the year that you tackle some 'stuff'? It's so easy to continue doing the same things, year in year out, to maintain balance in your life. These things might have served you really well but sometimes we need to look for something new to support us - this might be because old coping techniques are no longer serving us, are unhealthy (we turn to alcohol, food or other things in an unhealthy way) or we just need to 'shake things up a bit'. TRE® can literally 'shake things up'. In fact, that is the basis of the practice.

So what is TRE®?

You can read lots of information about TRE® on my blog pages (have a search on www.slaynt.com). However, in a nutshell, TRE® can be summarised as follows:

Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (or TRE® for short), are a set of simple exercises that encourage a natural tremor, vibrating or shaking reflex in the body.

This response can release long-standing patterns of tension held in the body and support connection, ease and relieve stress.

Shaking works with the central nervous system. In trauma, parts of the brain get stuck in defence responses of ‘fight-or-flight’ or ‘freeze’.

TRE® is a safe process to calm over-protective reflexes and discharge tension. It helps a person to deal with overwhelming experiences.

What does TRE® help to address?

During my work, clients (adults and children) have reported how TRE® has helped them to: feel calmer, deal with stress, keep a sense of perspective when facing challenges, cope with difficult situations such as medical appointments and accidents, articulate their opinions rather than shutting down when facing confrontation, create a better relationship with their bodies, support them to slow down racing thoughts and helped with the symptoms of tension such as headaches (amongst other things).

How many sessions will I need?

As with all healing modalities, there is a financial investment in undertaking TRE® and supporting your wellbeing. However, the beauty of TRE® is that, once you learn to practise it safely and can self-regulate, you can practise it by yourself (after a few practitioner-led sessions in most cases). Many people find that the power of TRE® is exactly that: they can add it to their self-care toolkit and use it regularly to support their self-regulation or when they start to feel overwhelmed (provided they are grounded and tremoring from a place of safety).

Typically, one-to-one sessions work best for the first couple of experiences of TRE® as this allows your TRE® experience to be completely tailored to your needs and responses. Alternatively, you may decide that you wish to join a group straight away to try TRE® in a more affordable way. I offer both individual and regular small group sessions in person in Leeds (online is also an option if you live further afield).

I love introducing people to TRE®. People are often in awe of their natural responses during a TRE® session. We spend so much time controlling our responses as humans - not showing stress, holding tension in our bodies, not crying, not expressing what we feel - that it can be incredibly empowering to let our bodies do what they need to do - that is shake off tension and restore a sense of balance. It is common for people to feel calmer, more peaceful and have clearer or a sense of wider peripheral vision after a session.

So, if you are curious about TRE® and what it could do for you, get in touch. It may be the the first steps on a new path for 2024.