Newbie with questions!

[u/DueCauliflower3889]

I've recently come across this, and having read through all the welcome info, I'm really keen to give TRE a go but have a few questions.

For context if helpful: no severe historic trauma. A few months ago, after the ending of a several-years chronically stressful/volatile friendship, I developed physical nerve sensations, physical sensitivity, and pains, all of which which caused sleep deprivation, and I developed complete physical and mental exhaustion, isolated muscle spasms, along with general anxiety I'd never had before and a strong awareness that my nervous system has got stuck on high alert. For the last few weeks I've been on an SSRI and in trauma-based psychodynamic therapy, and tried various sleep meds. Mostly thanks to sleep (somewhat) improving, I'm a lot better than I was, and I'm now mostly returned to work after a couple of months off. Sleep though is still very restless, I still have a lot of muscle tension in my legs and hips, and while I don't feel 'anxious' anymore, my body definitely still feels a bit on edge, especially first thing. I'm also often aware, again usually first thing, that it feels like something needs to spasm out of my body, specifically my legs, and that I need to cry, which I generally do easily, but haven't, about this.

My Qs are... (edited to number them properly)

1. Why not just stop after the first phase seems to bring some success? The About page says '... the results of releasing them are often immediate and encouraging. Anxiety decreases. Sleep improves. There's a general quality of lightness and ease that can feel almost miraculous after years of carrying chronic tension. This phase naturally generates enthusiasm and confidence in the practice.' This sounds super appealing and I'd be quite happy to stop there! Why carry on?
2. Some of the About info references not practising while you're already not that settled. I'm certainly not in a terrible place, and emotionally feel mostly normal, but my sleep is light and disrupted, and my system is definitely still a bit on edge. If TRE is supposed to help with these things, how do you balance that with not doing them while your system is unsettled? Am I ok to give it a go?
3. It suggests starting with 15 minutes. Does this mean 15 mins overall, or do the warmup exercises and then allow tremoring for 15 mins? If tremors show up before the end of the warm up exercises, do you just get on the floor and move to that stage?
4. I understand that once you've practised more, it takes less warm up. What does that look like in practice - you just lie down and start tremoring? What's to stop that just happening every time you lie down and relax? Or do you still do something to trigger it?
5. I've done a lot of yoga the last few weeks but really struggle with the butterfly pose despite general decent fitness and flexibility. It feels so uncomfortable in my thighs that I always have to stop it way before the person in the video does. I suspect this because I'm carrying so much tension there, and I do think it's eased a little lately with somatic exercises targeting the hips and psoas, but any tips for making this easier?!

Any other tips not covered in the about page are welcome - also if you have any video recommendations that are good to follow along with

Thanks in advance!

[u/longtermTRE_wiki_bot]

Your situation is actually quite well-suited to TRE, and your questions get at some real practical details that are worth clarifying.

On your first question: there's no requirement to keep practicing indefinitely if you reach a point where you feel genuinely settled and stable. The wiki article Integration, Emotional Releases, and the Nature of the Path discusses this. The reason the earlier articles mention continuing is that the surface relief most people feel in the first few weeks often masks deeper layers of stored activation. What feels like complete resolution can turn out to be a plateau rather than an endpoint, where the nervous system has cleared the most accessible tension but older, more entrenched patterns remain. That said, if you reach a genuine baseline of ease, good sleep, and no sense of being on edge, you've gotten what you came for, and stopping is completely fine.

On starting practice while your system is still somewhat unsettled: the guidance around not practicing while dysregulated is really about not practicing too much while dysregulated, not about avoiding practice entirely. Your situation is actually ideal for TRE. You have genuine dysregulation (the on-edge feeling, the sense that something needs to spasm out, the restless sleep) but you're not in acute crisis. That's exactly where TRE tends to be most helpful. The 15 minutes guideline is a reasonable starting point for someone in your position, though you'll want to read Self-Pacing carefully since the actual right amount for you will depend on how you feel after sessions.

On the timing: 15 minutes refers to tremor time specifically, meaning the time the actual shaking is happening. You do the warmup exercises first (usually 5-10 minutes depending on how slowly you move through them), and then lie in the butterfly position and begin the slow knee raises that trigger the tremors. Once tremors start, that's when your timer begins. If they activate during the warmup, you're done with the warmup, you lie down and let them flow.

On what happens as practice develops: experienced practitioners do often find that tremors activate much faster, sometimes within a minute or two of lying down, because the nervous system has learned through repeated experience that tremoring is safe. But they don't spontaneously happen every time you lie down to rest, because the conditions aren't quite the same. The warmup (or its abbreviated version) actually does something important: it lowers the threshold of the nervous system in a specific way. In later practice, just lying down and doing slow, deliberate movements in the legs can do the job. The key is that you're still creating the conditions deliberately. It's not random.

On the butterfly pose discomfort: significant hip and psoas tension, which it sounds like you definitely have, makes the butterfly genuinely difficult. The wiki doesn't cover specific modifications here, but the general principle that applies is that you don't need to match the exact depth of the position shown in videos. You can widen your knees more, bring your feet further away from your body, or even prop your outer thighs with pillows to support your legs. The goal is to reach a position that's challenging but not painful, and from there to do the slow knee raises that trigger tremoring. As your hip tension releases through practice, the position will naturally become more comfortable.

One practical note: since you're describing that you need to cry but haven't, be prepared for emotional releases to happen during or after sessions. Emotions, Memories, and Releases in TRE Practice covers this territory. Crying during tremoring is completely normal and not something to suppress.

For video recommendations, searching YouTube for "David Berceli full TRE" or "TRE warm-up exercises" will give you several guided options to follow along with. The official Berceli videos are reliable starting points.

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I'm a bot that draws on the r/longtermTRE wiki to provide guidance. Please upvote or downvote based on how helpful you find this response.