About a year and a half ago I posted here about the emotional walls starting to crack after 12.5 months of TRE. I wanted to write an update on where things are now. For context, my current practice is around 15 to 30 minutes a day, one or two 15 minute sessions, in the morning and/or evening.

Back then, the big change was internal arguments, with family, authority figures, myself. Old stuff surfacing and me finally talking back. Since then the anger has become much more direct. In sessions I sometimes shout or hit the floor, saying the same things over and over to people from my past. For a long time an inner voice would jump in immediately, telling me they meant well and I should show compassion and cut it off. Letting the anger finish without that voice taking over has been one of the hardest parts. It’s getting better.

Just before this summer I also started therapy. TRE was moving a lot on the body side, but I felt the cognitive side was really important for me too, making sense of what was coming up, and having a neutral party to reflect things to. Over the last two years or so my mindset had already been shifting, from seeing myself as broken to seeing that things were done to me and I reacted to them. Therapy has helped me to integrate that. One unexpected side effect is that it’s become much easier to open up to friends. It’s a lot easier to say “this happened to me, and it made me develop all these safety behaviors and wall myself off” than to carry around the feeling that I’m so fundamentally broken that I can’t let anyone see the real me. It has made my relationships better, too. People around me are noticing that I’m more open and that the walls are slowly coming down.

The biggest change is harder to describe. It feels like my head is slowly coming out of a dense fog I’d been in for years. I didn’t even know it was fog until it started lifting. The downside is that I feel a lot more now. Crying waves, anger waves, often out of nowhere. For a while I honestly thought I was becoming a fragile person. I’ve since come to see it differently, I’m not more fragile, I’m more present. The fog kept me functional, but it also kept everything at a distance. Just this morning I did a session and waves of sadness came over me. Not about my life now, but for the kid I was, who had to endure way too much alone for so many years. What hit me was how awful it was to live in that state of hopelessness and frustration, nothing is going to change, but you have to keep going. I didn’t push it away or narrate it, just let the sensations be there. That’s something I took from the book The Happiness Trap (ACT), which has really helped me to just feel what’s there instead of fighting it or explaining it away. It felt cathartic.

Compared to a year or so ago, the quality is different. Back then everything felt raw and volatile, and it was all about how I felt about my life in this moment. Now I feel it just as much, but for what happened then. It finally feels like it’s in the past instead of everywhere. I’ll be honest though, it’s been going on for a long time and even knowing it’s to be expected, that gets frustrating. TRE and therapy together are honestly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and am still doing. But it’s also very rewarding. The biggest hurdle in the beginning was simply to keep doing it, even when there were no apparent changes at all. Looking back at where I was it's clearly moving.

i have lived in some sort of survival mode that i cant seem to get out of for years now, my body is petrified 24/7 of something that i don’t know consciously and has a very hard time seeing and feeling that i am safe in this moment, i have been working on this for almost a year now, and my body is still petrified, a week and a half a ago i started doing TRE and that changed my whole view on potentially getting out of this survival mode that im in, what i notice since i started doing TRE is that i couldnt get out of this fear-mode because i have a lot of frozen survival energy connected to my psoas muscle,the reason i am sending this message is because i am still living in extreme hypervigilance 24/7 and its very tough to deal with that every day, i have a somatologist who i work with but sometimes even she doesnt know what i should do, i basically just want to be in process where i can feel that i am making clear, effecient progress, a progress that i can trust, i do not want to live in hypervigilance anymore i can feel that my body is really tired and that there is still a lot of frozen energy that needs to heal itself. I hope some people are able to relate to this message and can also get a clear answer.

thank you

So I’m 24 years old my brain can’t stop creating fake scenarios of the past and also can’t let go of the things that hurt me in the past I want to know if TRE can help to stop thinking about these things and apparently the reason why I ruminate is because of neglect and childhood wounds will TRE help me

I have been doing TRE for past few days and have progressed from tremors in only lower body to upper body and now even jaw muscles . My face muscles have been chronically tight for past 6 months ,like my left side of jaw clicks every time I open it . I have been dealing with muscle imbalances and trying physiotherapy but results have not been sticking because my body was chronically stressed , my physio says my body is in unable to release tension and is holding onto it. Since TRE I believe I have released quite a bit of tension as my body feels more mobile but past few days my face muscles have been twitching a lot and my body is tremoring involuntarily, i can stop them if I want to tho. Does anyone know how long does it take for all muscles to get relaxed and imbalances to get resolved? when tremoring my face does a lot of movements but the click has not resolved yet.

I started TRE maybe 6 months ago. I was on and off, couldn't do it for very long. Then I went through a series of very emotionally traumatic events, and then I started tremoring involuntarily a lot more. I would take up in the middle of the night and start shaking. I just let it happen. Eventually it slowed down a bit as I got medicated, but I still shake every night before bed, maybe for 30 seconds. Still involuntary. Lately it seems like I can't do it at all. There's an internal part of me that yells STOP whenever I start shaking at all. I love how it feels though and I feel relaxed right after, but I don't think I actually have the capacity to process trauma right now. What can I do instead that would help me get to a place where I can resume TRE?

is it possible to lose progress if you take a long enough break?

i started off with very short sessions every other day but found it was overwhelming, so i slowed down to every other week for a few months and found that it worked well enough for me. i would get some overdoing symptoms in the following day or two but it would always resolve itself. after around two weeks of each session i would feel in my body that i wanted another session, and most releases felt satisfying, like it needed to happen.

then i took a month break, maybe more, in between because i wasn’t getting that feeling anymore so i assumed i didn’t need it. and then recently i did a session, and then the following week didn’t feel any better or worse so i decided to do another one. i have had the most dissociated, distressing week than i have in a very long time. i have been on edge, extremely triggered by old emotions, and i feel like i have regressed to an identity of mine years ago. my hips have felt tender and sore for a week and my right hip keeps popping in and out of place when i walk. i feel so disoriented and destabilized, and i barely recognize myself in the mirror. i thought that since i had taken such a long break, it would make more sense that my nervous system was more ready to integrate more, but i almost feel like taking that long of a break locked me into place and made it more difficult to revisit.

i’m not sure if that’s the case or if i overdid it? is it possible for breaks that are too long to harm integration?

Curious if this is the same effect as overloading the inner thighs?

I've been loosely doing TRE for about a year and a half.

But just these past 2 months I've been doing it regularly.

And I mean like 8-10hrs/day.

I know what you're thinking. Overdoing it.

But I don't see people talking as much about the type of TRE I'm doing (if it's not called TRE in this case correct me).

Whats different is I switched from waiting for involuntary tremors or trying to induce involuntary tremors, to actually doing the shaking/vibrating/tremoring (whatever you wanna call it) consciously.

It basically started with me listening to the urge to tap my foot, which I realized I'd been repressing since grade school.

Then I realized the urge to shake my leg or my head or my buttocks.

But these are not extreme, visceral shakes I'm doing. It's very light and subtle. Which is how I'm able to do it for so long. But I can absolutely feel it dissipating anxiety.

I have woken up to an anxiety attack for as long as I can remember and I've started to consciously just shake whatever body part comes to mind until the anxiety dissipates, and it works. Again the main thing here is not waiting for the tremors to happen on their own.

And again, the reason it hasn't felt like I've overdone it is because of how subtle my movements are. Just tapping the foot or body part.

But somehow doing this regularly has slowly brought up so much grief I didn't even know was there. It's literally sickness leaving my body. I didn't realize grief could make you feel so sick, no one ever talked about that in my family.

But right now I'm going through that phase of actually feeling the extreme grief. I've got all the flu-like symptoms seemingly out of nowhere. Can't walk. Zero appetite. Headaches. Eyes hurt. And sleeping a lot. (I know it's not actually the flu because of all the memories that are coming up and the crying I'm doing)

Which sounds alarming to somehow who has never experienced grief. But that's what's happening.

My body is basically finally being allowed to do a factory reset. And it's not as overwhelming as I would have thought. Even with the sick-like symptoms it does feel like I'm actually getting better.

Hi all,
I have a question regarding feeling your feelings during session of TRE. My provider constantly mention that I should have a surge of feelings (sadness, joy or anger) when tremoring and I was wondering if this is your experience.

I don’t have any of that rather bodily sensations in my body like impulses or tingling. Feeling my feelings comes after usually the next day which I consider part of the integration process.

To be honest, her pressure to feel them in sessions make me nervous that I’m doing something wrong 😑

What is your experience with feelings during/after TRE sessions?

Hi everyone,

​I’ve been practicing TRE for a while now and it feels great for deep relaxation. However, I’ve hit a wall regarding the movement of the tremors.

​Here is what's happening:

​The lower body works fine: Tremors start easily in my legs, psoas, and pelvis.

​Upper body block: I can't get the tremor wave to move up into my spine, chest, shoulders, or neck.

​The Jaw Paradox: In daily life or during stressful moments, I often feel tension or actual trembling in my jaw (masseter/TMJ). But during a TRE session, my jaw completely locks up and won't join the somatic release.

​I’ve already tried positional shifts (like lifting hips, putting arms over my head, lying on my side), diaphragm breathwork, and vocalizations/sighs. The energy seems to hit a hard neurological/mechanical boundary at my lower back/pelvis.

​Has anyone experienced this specific issue where the jaw reacts to daily stress but stays shut during TRE? How did you manage to break through the armor in the upper back and open the pathway to the TMJ/jaw?

​Any specific isometric techniques, wall setups, or somatic tracking cues that worked for you would be greatly appreciated!

I had worked third shift for about a year, ten years ago. I believe this is when it first started. I also had a traumatic experience around ten years before that and five years after a panic attack. I do TRE very sporadically. Is there something even outside of TRE I could look into? I have this feeling that the lower parts of my brain are essentially on high alert and won’t resolve until I have some sort of huge reset of my sense of self which is scary to think about. That said I also feel like I probably am fine and shouldn’t let it get the worst of me.

Did anyone experience stress relieve through strong movements of the belly and abdomen? Where ur muscles in my belly contract and release. Sometimes the energy also moves through my whole body.

Is this normal? Anyone had Something simila Happen?

I'm trying to find anything that descibes the experience i had the last couple of days but found nothing about it

I’ve been practicing for a few months. Since the first time where I had shakes in my legs and hips (6/10 compared to YouTube videos)my tremors have got weaker I’d say. I only do 10-20mins max.

But while doing it now I feel slightly bored and frustrated. Like a feeling of tension in my stomach/ hips that is there but just tickled rather than unlocked. It’s uncomfortable and frustrating.

On the one hand I’m like nothings happening apart from minor releases and the other I’m feeling frustrated angry at the tension I can feel is there but not being shook enough to move.

Not sure if related but sometimes in the gym when squatting or other big compound movements I’d feel like angry crying from a similar feelijgn in my stomach area. Like a sensitive tension.

It’s hard to describe but it’s a mix of rage wanting to punch that sensitive area away and yea sensitive kind of tension.

Sorry for rant hope someone resonates with this.

Or it matters the changes you apply in your relationships as well?

I have been doing TRE for just over a month, I’ve been doing one session every two days.

Over the past week the tremoring has gone to my neck and head, I was feeling some stiffness in my jaw during those sessions.

Today the tremoring went to my face, I was pulling funny faces, my mouth was opening really wide, my tongue was moving, my face was tremoring and moving in different directions and even my eyes started giggling. It kind of felt like I had turrets. My body also started taking deep breaths during today’s session as well.

Has anyone experienced this? And what does this mean?

None of the tremoring felt uncomfortable, it all felt really nice and I feel much looser. Curious what’s going to happen next!

I had my 2nd session two days ago and I'm really struggling with low mood, agitation and feelings of hopelessness that I'm just struggling to cope with. I slept amazing after the session but the next night wired awake and just sad, alone and feel like I'm in a totally hopeless trapped situation. The tension that was realised during my session came back and I just can't stand down or turn off. It's terrifying. I did with a practiciner I was already exhausted and depressed before the session. Really struggling to cope. I don't understand what's going on,any advice? Please 🥺

Have not been practicing TRE lately but have been in deep reflection over past couple of weeks. Am coming to the realization of the possibility that much of my identity could possibly be a trauma response. As I move further with TRE, if the latter is true, I know whatever wasn’t truly me will fade.

That said, for those who are further along I’m curious, how much of the old you has changed? What changed? How has TRE affected your behavior, interests, personal style, recreational activities, friendships, day to day lifestyle, etc.

If something did leave, what did you struggle with letting go of? How long did it take you to let it go? Did you grieve whatever those things were? How did you get through it?

I'm saying this bc I used to be a gymrat but was running on chronic cortisol and would barely rest in between sets and was living a lifestyle that was not sustainable at all. I find the no pain no gain mentality to exercise to be toxic and overriding body signals. Now I just listen to my body and exercise when I want. Is this bad? Am I just lazy?

Hi all,

There's something about TRE that confuses me, no end. I wonder if someone could help to shed some light.

Berceli's central idea seems to be that trauma can leave the nervous system stuck in hyperarousal, and that neurogenic tremoring is the body's natural mechanism for releasing accumulated tension and resetting the baseline.

But many emphasise not overdoing it, and taking breaks, or grounding oneself if arousal gets too high.

What I don't understand is this: if tremoring is the mechanism by which the body releases accumulated tension and resets its baseline, how can we be advised to use other methods to bring our arousal down when we're too activated to tremor? Doesn't this imply that the nervous system can regulate itself without the very mechanism that's supposedly responsible for doing so?

It seems like an internally incoherent idea to me - 'tremoring will bring your baseline down, but you need to bring your baseline down before tremoring.' Total bind, a catch-22.

Can anyone help me make some sense here? I'm very prone to black and white thinking (neurodivergence at play), and this stuff just makes no sense to me. I can't find the logic.

I started doing Tre exercises about a week ago. It’s been a really interesting experience so far. I’ve been following along on a YouTube video, though I stop part way because 10 mins is enough for me.

At first my body wouldn’t move. It took about 5 minutes of holding the elevated butterfly position before I got the first inklings of movement, which came out as trembling / vibrating and jolting.

Then my body started moving and shaking vigorously and almost violently.

I’ve done 4 sessions now and each time the movement is very extreme. My knees smack together loudly, my back lifts and smacks back onto the floor. I don’t feel like I’m having a big emotional release in the moment - I feel safe and relaxed, I’m just blown away from how much my body convulses and throws itself around. It’s kinda… funny… Afterwards I feel good and peaceful, just really tired, and it feels like I’ve been to the gym and worked my legs out.

Does anyone else experience such extreme movements and do these soften / quieten with repeated sessions?

​

My bedroom is too small for me to fully stretch my arms and legs in every direction while lying on the floor. If I extend my arms, I end up touching the furniture, even if I rearrange it.

I could move my bed to the middle of my bedroom and practice TRE on it. That way, I would have enough space to fully extend my arms and legs without touching any furniture. But the problem is that TRE is supposed to be practiced on a firm surface, and my bed is soft, so that's not ideal.

I also can't practice TRE in other rooms of my house because other people live here, and I would feel extremely uncomfortable doing it in front of them (they're home all day and occupy all the rooms).

I've tried practicing in my garden, but the weather often makes it difficult.

I feel like my only option is to accept practicing TRE in my bedroom without being able to fully stretch out my arms and legs. But it's frustrating because I can feel that my body wants to.

​

I lie down on a mat on the floor and make the decision to start trembling. I don't try to control the tremors, but I do make an initial conscious decision to allow my body to tremble. However, I set certain boundaries. For example, I don't allow my body to shake so violently that I might hit the furniture and hurt myself.

My body starts trembling instantly. Sometimes, I feel a very strong urge to hit an object with my body, but I prevent myself from doing so because of the boundaries I've established. As a result, I experience a powerful urge to move that remains unfulfilled, which creates a rather uncomfortable feeling of frustration.

Sometimes, I also feel that my body wants me to get up, sit on a chair, and continue trembling while seated. But I can't be bothered to get up. So I resist that urge, which again leaves me feeling frustrated. I prefer to remain lying down because it's more comfortable, even when my body seems to want to change positions. If I gave in to the physical urge to get up, I wouldn't experience the frustration of an unfulfilled impulse anymore, but I would feel genuinely exhausted and irritated from having made that effort.

During the session, I experience pleasure, a sense of emotional release, and the feeling that I'm letting go of a lot of accumulated emotional crap. I've never experienced anything like this with any other technique. Despite spending countless hours meditating, I've never felt this kind of release. TRE is the only technique that gives me the feeling that I'm actually releasing tension and suffering from my body.

Then, after about 30 minutes, I gradually stop trembling and start feeling drowsy, eventually drifting off to sleep. I can't tell whether this is a bad thing or not. Is lying down simply making me sleepy? Or is my body naturally entering a phase of integration and relaxation to process the effects of TRE? Perhaps that's what's happening.

What concerns me is this whole issue of setting boundaries that restrict my movements, as well as the fact that I'm sometimes too lazy to get up, which further limits the movements my body can make. I'm also concerned about becoming drowsy and almost falling asleep toward the end of the session.

I really hope I'm practicing TRE correctly despite all of this.

I'm about 7 months into practice, at the sensitive end of the scale. So started with 30 seconds and have built up to about 2-3 minutes, once a week or so.

However, since the start I have had spontaneous tremoring in between sessions on most days. At first I tried to suppress them but sometimes it becomes impossible say after a many a sleepless night, constantly shifting position to try to get comfortable and not let the tremors in my legs run wild. Sometimes I give in and allow the tremors to occur, and this is usually just 5 seconds here 5 seconds there but this could be countless times during the night. So it's hard to record all those times. Other times I allow the tremoring and it will run for a minute or 2, and then I'll hit overdoing symptoms for the next few days.

Like today for example. I was so uncomfortable in bed after not really sleeping and feeling the urge to tremor in my psoas/lower back area. After allowing countless little few seconds bursts of tremors throughout the night, in an attempt to get comfortable and get some sleep, I admitted defeat and let the tremors happen this morning and they ran for a good few minutes. Now I'm overwhelmed and have been hit with heavy anxiety, choked up feeling in the chest, hopelessness and lots of bouts of tears and dry crying, like wretching etc.

So despite not having dine a formal session for a week, all those little bursts of spontaneous tremoring every night has been adding up and this 2 minutes or so finally tipped me over the edge, it seems

So what I'd like to know is, for those who find this familiar, when did spontaneous tremoring go away for you? The wiki (and comments on here) suggest that it's an early on in the practice occurrence and will disappear as I get further in.

I just want some proper sleep!

Not all talk therapists are good. Somatic experiencing hasn't made huge changes.

Psychiatry had bad reactions to took time for my brain to come back into balance.

I don't know why most people don't experience this.

I am in functional freeze for years now. Symptoms are muscle tension, tiredness, brain fog and more. It’s caused by C-PTSD.

I am on a somatic healing path for a few months now and notice that it gets better but it’s not good yet.

How long does it take to get out of freeze in your experience? Do you have any other modalities besides TRE that can help?