TRE® (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises) is a safe, self-empowering body-led practice. It consists of a series of simple exercises developed by Dr David Berceli and designed to stress and fatigue the leg and hip muscles in order to activate our innate tremoring mechanism. We share this tremoring mechanism with all mammals and it is the body’s natural way of releasing stress and muscular tension. When practised in a safe and controlled enviroment, TRE® helps to calm and restore balance to the nervous system.

In the wild, animals shake or tremble after stressful events — this is their nervous system’s way of resetting. Although humans have this instinctive mechanism – think of how people shake after the shock of a car accident, for example – as a society we are conditioned to suppress it, because trembling and shaking are associated with fear, weakness and loss of control.

TRE® is easy to learn and beneficial for physical, mental and emotional health. As well as discharging everyday stress, it can reduce deeper tension patterns, relieve pain and alleviate the symptoms of PTSD and trauma. By down-regulating protective states in our nervous system – the mobilised states of fight or flight and immobilised states of dissociation or freeze – the tremoring mechanism can access and release chronic, deeply held tension and stuck energy, leaving us feeling more grounded and connected. The involuntary shaking allows the body to  move from a contracted state to a more relaxed state.  

TRE® is a safe, self-regulating practice that lets your body unwind gently at its own pace. Once the tremoring is activated by the exercises, it doesn’t require effort or control. We simply relax, allowing the body to take over and the tremors to move at their own rhythm.