TRE - Trauma Releasing Exercises

[JanCarol]

Caveat - I am off psych drugs for 5-6 years now.  So - what I report here is a healing process which might be too traumatic in the throes of withdrawal.

 

TRE, Trauma Releasing Exercises, have been explored in mainstream medicine.  It's still fairly new, though it has been supported by alternative and folk medicine for a long time. 

 

https://traumaprevention.com/what-is-tre/  is one of the "official certifiers" of the practice.

 

The theory is that we hold trauma in our body, and we need to shake it out.  Animals do this.  Car accident, animal shakes for 5-10 minutes, and the trauma is released and forgotten.

 

So in trauma releasing, you shake it out.

 

What I did last weekend was a type of encounter group, run by Zoom with Patrick Zeigler.  I'm having trouble finding credentials quickly for him.  But his practice was ethical.  

So - a 20 minute or so meditation on body, and bringing relaxation and exploration into the body, and finding what you feel, and feeling any emotions that come up with that.  And then - another hour of being with those emotions and the thoughts and images they bring up.  Because we are in a group (I was the newbie), the experienced people start shaking and crying and thrashing (as needed).  It was gentle, we felt supported - though it did get loud as people wailed to feel their feelings.  So the mob mind encourages this, and makes it easier to access the hard parts.

For me, it went pretty deep, into Mother and Mom (I am adopted).  Mother is now dead.  Mom is in care in America, and I may never see her again.  I was also vulnerable due to the recent loss of a beloved cat, and have been crying all week - so - it was easy for me to participate.

 

Then the next hour is sharing.  As the newbie, I was on the hot seat, so I talked about Mother and Mom, and Patrick gently guided me to experience visually, emotionally, a new way of thinking about Mother and Mom.  Yes, I cried a lot, and my issues were a mirror to others there.  There were people on the Zoom session who were crying, and people in the room (a small group of 8), wailing.  There were people standing around me, with a COVID safe hug.  It was a warm and caring space for letting go.

I did my best, it's not easy to do this, not in the hot seat, even among supportive friends.

 

Then other people shared, and feelings and images came to me that I hadn't thought about, but I could put them in the basket, let them simmer, or let them go.  Afterwards, people said I looked younger, and for a time, while people were wailing, I found my voice (damaged from thyroid surgery, lost vocal control and anything over low C), and was able to tone a little bit, which felt good.

Today, things seem to be flowing more easily (I still have multiple health issues).  So - it was intense, but it felt more effective than 6 months of therapy.

Zeigler does not call his practice "TRE," he calls it "All Love," yes.  Fluffy, but it's good medicine.

But tonight, as I thought about the changes in my body, breath, mind - and attitude, I thought, "I'll bet this is what TRE does."

There are other ways to release Trauma. 

 

Yoga is a lot like this.  I have found LOTS of emotions doing yoga when the postures get challenging or confronting.  I've cried in many a yoga class.  Yoga is gentler than what I did this weekend.

You can also do: 

Vocal toning (I've been working on this one).  Very gentle.  One strong technique is to just tone (hum) to/with the part of your body which is bothering you.  It will be rough at first, but keep toning (any sound, any note, any voice, anything goes) until you get a smoother, more coherent, more balanced sound.  It is the homeostasis of your body which balances your voice, which smooths the vagus nerve - which then helps release what was blocked/trapped.

Tai Chi is designed to move through the body/mind and get "things" flowing.  It is extremely gentle - no strain, no trauma, nothing but movement to get you moving.  (I teach this)

Qigong does this too, but you don't have to memorize a form, and is easy to do it seated (I teach this)

Therapy - depends on the therapist! - can also touch these places.

What I went to was not a medical thing, but after experiencing it, I feel it falls into a "TRE" kind of category.  

One of the things about coming off drugs, is that we need to find new ways to deal with the issues / emotions / behaviours / relationships / etc. that got us drugged in the first place.  Trauma is usually required to be addressed.  We got drugged for hiding, repressing feelings, burying trauma.  

What I am learning that is most important (and this might contradict the Patrick Zeigler stuff) - is that you don't need to know what the trauma is.  You don't need to know who it came from, what it was about, what was done to you, or anything.  This might help by giving your ego and rational mind something to latch on to - but you don't really need it.

You just need to move it out from your body/mind/emotions so that it doesn't bother you anymore, doesn't rear it's ugly shadow head and bite you in the arse.  Move it out - whatever/whoever/whenever it was - and let it go.

Just felt like sharing tonight.  I hope you see the sun today!

Edited September 28, 2020 by JanCarol

[JackieDecides]

 

2 hours ago, JanCarol said:

TRE, Trauma Releasing Exercises, have been explored in mainstream medicine.  It's still fairly new, though it has been supported by alternative and folk medicine for a long time. 

 

https://traumaprevention.com/what-is-tre/  is one of the "official certifiers" of the practice.

 

 

very interesting - thank you for the link, JanCarol. 

[JackieDecides]

I actually found a counselor from the TRE website you linked who isn't too far away and I have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon! well, she is 30 minutes away but it doesn't matter since we are going to meet through zoom. I live in a small town and often don't find options near me. 

 

it wasn't easy to get an appointment, either, first the website insisted I could make one through "mychart" but that site wouldn't let me, and then I called to make an appointment and the woman who answered told me that she wasn't taking new patients. I asked to leave a voice mail and then the councelor called me back and said, yes, she was taking new patients. I am surprised I didn't give up since I usually do in any kind of frustrating situation. She said she's found TRE to be very helpful. 

 

now I have to make zoom work for me as I've had problems with it in the past. 

On 9/27/2020 at 7:03 AM, JanCarol said:

Therapy - depends on the therapist! - can also touch these places.

 

so I will be trying a new councelor - she doesn't call herself a therapist. I'm hoping this helps me since my anxiety went up when we had 10 days of hazardous smoke and it really hasn't settled back down again. 

 

so, thanks again for posting this @JanCarol 

[JanCarol]

Please let us know!  I'm glad that this may be timely for you.

It is more of a somatic (body) based thing than - a poking around in your head kind of thing, or so I hope.

Remember - you are the CLIENT.  You have the power.  You can guide the session, with her support.  

If you don't want to, you don't have to (whatever it is).  If she's pushy, she's not for you.

My thing - I'd paid my money, and I was in a vulnerable space - so I was primed to take my chances, and gave it my best.  Sometimes it feels like role playing, but it does have an effect, nonetheless.  Walking through the feelings, trying to connect things together.  Patrick's thing was more - "encounter group" like.  You may not have wailing or shaking or anything.  Maybe nothing will come up.  Maybe you will shake out 10 years of stress.  I think there's a reason the Quakers and Shakers were - Quakers and Shakers!

But I don't know what hers is like.  I tried to describe mine, not always easy to do with these things.

At least, too.  It's Zoom.  How can that feel threatening?  You can always switch off.  Or mute her and turn on music and make fun of her.....imagine her in her underwear.

Remember, you always have the power in a healing situation.

Breathe well, I hope you see the sun today!

[JackieDecides]

On 9/29/2020 at 5:53 AM, JanCarol said:

Remember - you are the CLIENT.  You have the power.  You can guide the session, with her support.  

 

yes, thank you. she was wonderful: very warm and helpful. I don't see how I could have liked her more, in fact. 

there are a couple of possible problems with seeing her again and one is money so I will wait and see what I get billed for the co-pay and go from there. she actually volunteered to help me pro-bono, if that's what was needed. wow. 

 

 

On 9/29/2020 at 5:53 AM, JanCarol said:

It's Zoom.  How can that feel threatening? 

 

 

I seem to have trained myself to panic about zoom which is stupid.  but I have technical difficulties with it that I don't understand - is it my wifi? my chromebook? a combo of the two? 

 

it works better on my phone but that feels very clausterphobic to me. 

 

so, I've been doing zoom church but with my video camera turned off - this "works" in that I can watch/listen but it makes me feel terrible. I am literally invisible. I already feel that way in real life, such as at my job. so I am never sure if I should skip church or what. 

 

when I try it with my camera turned on, it not only gives me poor quality, it appears to mess up zoom for others, too. 

 

so zoom has  become sort of a Big Hairy Deal in my life. I don't know what to do about it. buy a new computer? even Bigger, Hairier Deal!  I am stressed about technology generally, and I often have computer trouble at work and it freaks me out. I get anxious enough I can't solve the simpliest problem.  the other day I couldn't get the curser to appear/move and my boss had to tell me I'd accidentally turned off the mouse. afterwards, I realized this had happened once before and I didn't remember the fix. since I've only owned a chromebook for years (and I'm not very competent with my phone) I have trouble with windows when I have to use outlook or something at work. 

 

😟

[JanCarol]

11 hours ago, JackieDecides said:

zoom has  become sort of a Big Hairy Deal 

 

Lordy Yes!

 

I have had people ask for my classes (Tai Chi, Qigong, Meditation, Trance Drumming) via Zoom.  I did a Zoom call with a friend back in Indiana, and it felt like a ball and chain.  Worse than a phone call.  At least with a phone call, I can walk around the house, hang the laundry, twiddle my thumbs - anything but sit there in front of that stupid screen.   

I got invited to an Ecstatic Dance event via Zoom.  The woman who invited me worked so hard to get me to comply.  I just couldn't do the "dancing with my tablet" thing.  Then there's the stress of the tech, which you mention.  

The "All Love" event I attended was on Zoom, but I was in a room with 7 other people, so that I experienced it in a group (the way it was meant to be) - not just "on a screen."  Our room was linked in, but there were other solo people connected via Zoom.  We had one person in our group dedicated to keeping the Zoom running smoothly.    If I had done it just on screen, I don't think I would've gotten the benefit I did.

I am Zoom incompatible, so I hear you!  (Old Jan gets more and more obsolete all the time!)

 

I'd like to hear more about your session if you could.  Did she guide you through your body?  What did she do about "sticky spots"?  Did you get to shaking?  Or were you just getting acquainted?

Edited October 3, 2020 by JanCarol

[manymoretodays]

Oh Young JC!!!! ❤️

I do Zoom on my teeny tiny android, only 4 on the screen visible at a time and man, oh man......so sick of Zoom sometimes.  Lately I shut off the video, often, or go with a ceiling view, and have no stock photo insert either(I think you can only do those from more advanced models or devices anyway).

 

The desktop has no camera or microphone.  It's okay to just listen and view some Zooms on though.

May be moving up to my Mum's old laptop by and by.  Or getting my own.  Jeeze, these transitions in technology go slow for me.

 

So........learning patience I suppose in all things.

 

Passed up cut rate/big discount Yoga teacher certification beginnings......as it's via Zoom and her FB page.  I may reconsider as it is cheap.....we'll see. 

It might interfere with ski days this winter though and I have some new boots that are raring to go ski-ing.

 

So hi ho, and so good to see you around.

 

Oh and solly......off topic completely.  I shake it out and about quite frequently however, just not guided-ly I guess.

 

L, P, H, and G,

mmt

Edited October 3, 2020 by manymoretodays

[JackieDecides]

2 hours ago, JanCarol said:

Or were you just getting acquainted?

 

yes, we just talked.

 

mostly, she listened to me but she also talked about her experience with TRE and she answered my questions. 

 

I'm going try it myself by following the youtube video and she said she is willing to answer any questions I have, or do some coaching if that's needed. I'll try it out this weekend. 

 

I really liked her. 

 

did you shake the first time you tried it? 

[JanCarol]

6 minutes ago, JackieDecides said:

did you shake the first time you tried it? 

 

Mostly I was sobbing and crying and grieving.

But then the sobbing and crying and grieving went a little deeper and - because we were in a group zoom, I had to stand in front of the laptop, and my legs got shaky  - quivery - and I had to get a chair and sit down.

But there were others in the group who started shaking right away - like they are familiar with the pathways, and opened up to the process as soon as they felt any tensions in their body.

[bijay]

Hello all, I just started doing TRE on my own this past week.  Of course it is too early to tell - I don’t have a lot of expectations about it solving physical symptoms but I do hope it can act at least as a coping mechanism for withdrawal.

 

There are several YouTube videos by a urologist who uses TRE in his practice. He is a certified practitioner.  He personally used it successfully for his own health issues.  The reason I bring it up is that he talks about how to use it for patients who may not be able to handle the standing exercises like wall sits.  He says you can skip to the last and most important exercise - lying down while holding legs bent and apart -  and you can still get sufficient shaking this way. I have done it without the prior exercises and it works, using the position where the soles of the feet are together.  Just wanted to suggest this just in case the other exercises are problematic for anyone.  Here is the YouTube video on this:

 

 

[JackieDecides]

19 hours ago, bijay said:

He says you can skip to the last and most important exercise - lying down while holding legs bent and apart -  and you can still get sufficient shaking this way. I have done it without the prior exercises and it works

 

thank you so much for posting this! 

 

I had just come here to post I wanted to try TRE this weekend and instead I did not. there is no good reason - nothing rational, anyway - I just didn't do it. along with other "shoulds" on my list of things to do. 

 

so if there is a short cut I am more likely to try it. 

 

I told a friend, it's like when I have a lottery ticket and don't look to see if it won.  I want to keep believing it might have won, and if I try TRE and it doesn't help...well, I don't want to find that out right away. irrational! 

[bijay]

@JackieDecides  you are welcome!  The last couple of days I’ve been doing this in bed, before getting up in the morning.  Doesn’t take long and and is easy to do before I get caught up in something else.  I understand it takes at least a couple of months for the effects to be felt, so it does take some perseverance.  Let me know how it goes for you.

 

lol - I used to do the same with lottery tickets!

[bijay]

I am continuing to do TRE, first thing in the morning while I’m still in bed.  I continue to get a lot of tremors (in my legs, and often going up through my abdomen to my shoulders) by just doing the very last step, where the knees are spread while holding the soles of the feet together.  (I would love to see if any neurologist could possibly explain how this could be happening.)

 

It is sort of bizarrely relaxing, although if anyone saw me it would probably look like I am having a huge seizure.  It also comes in waves, sometimes stopping for a few moments before coming back.  I am limiting it to 5-10 minutes, although there are YouTube videos of people doing it much longer.  The urologist/ TRE practitioner in the video above says that “less is more” so I will try to be smart and not overdo it.

 

It has not in any way been activating or emotion-inducing for me  Today my mind started wandering a bit to other things, even while my legs are thrashing around.  I wonder if the tremors calm down over time, as the body releases more and more tension.

[JanCarol]

Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with TRE and the video (which I will try, promise.  Someday!)

The Patrick Zeigler, "All Love" "Sekhem" stuff this year is going to be 100% zoom, so I won't be doing it.  If someone else runs the techie part, and I'm in a room with other people - fine. 

Fortunately, there is a social group which meets about every other month to do the meditations together, and I am hoping to attend at the end of May.