In stressful moments, our body instinctively reacts with the fight-flight or freeze mechanism. This is an automatic reaction designed to help us survive the situation. 

Fight:

We become aggressive and try to actively fight the threat.

Flight: 

We try to escape the threat and get to safety.

Freeze: 

We freeze and become motionless, often in response to an overwhelming threat.

Nowadays, however, it is usually not possible for us to fight or flee in stressful moments. So we freeze and have no choice but to “swallow” stress and anger. This suppressed energy builds up in the body and triggers blockages, tension and permanent overactivation of the nervous system. 

Humans and animals have an innate mechanism for releasing this accumulated energy: Trembling. Unfortunately, nowadays this can only be observed in small children and animals. With socialization, we move away from this natural reaction in the course of our lives and trembling tends to be perceived as something disturbing and abnormal that needs to be suppressed.

TRE® is a self-help tool that supports the body in remembering this natural tremor and relearning it. 

Experience has shown that this can release states of tension caused by stress, psychotraumatic experiences or purely physical trauma, such as accidents and operations. 

This happens through the activation of involuntary, vibrating body movements, which are used in a self-determined way in the TRE® exercise series developed by Berceli. 
In this way, relaxation can occur, which facilitates physical and mental self-regulation and supports the revitalization of the organism.

“Berceli, an American body psychotherapist, theologian, clinical social worker and doctor of social work research (PhD), lived, studied and worked for a long time in the Middle East and parts of Africa. Among other things, he experienced the Lebanon War at first hand in the 1980s. In addition to many personal experiences in himself and with other traumatized people, he also made two experiences that were instrumental in the development of his Trauma and Tension Releasing Exercises (TRE) technique, which uses neurogenic trembling.
In the bomb shelters, he experienced that when bombs were detonated, all people (regardless of religion, nationality and skin color) curled up into a fetal position in the same way and reflexively, thus protecting the soft front.
This observation later led him to research the function of the psoas, the muscle that, among other things, allows the body to perform a contracting movement pattern that runs from the knees via the psoas through the whole body to the chewing muscles. The psoas is a very large muscle that attaches to the front of the spine at the transition from the thoracic to the lumbar spine and connects it to the pelvis and legs.
The second observation he made was when he was holding two small children on his knees during an attack, who were trembling without restraint, while he and the other adults suppressed their trembling so as not to frighten the children any further.
He noticed that the children who had trembled recovered much more quickly from the traumatic event than he himself and the adults, who were frozen and could hardly get out of it (Berceli, 2010a). This piqued his curiosity and, eventually returning to the United States traumatized himself, he began his research on tremors, which eventually introduced him to the school of Bioenergetic Analysis (Lowen, 1978; Lowen & Lowen, 1979). Lowen, the founder of this body psychotherapeutic approach, used vibration and trembling therapeutically from the very beginning in the 1950s to resolve blockages, states of numbness and lack of energy.
Berceli's search for solutions also led him to the new findings of trauma research and neuroscience.
In contrast, Berceli's aim was not to establish a new therapy method, but - quite pragmatically and independently of the availability of a psychotherapist - to provide traumatized people with a self-help tool that is also suitable for them.
This is also suitable for restoring a person's autonomy in situations of powerlessness and dependency and helping them to resolve trauma-related states of tension themselves.
This has also been observed by psychotherapists who have taught their patients TRE: The re- or new experience of self-efficacy stabilizes and the confidence of no longer being at the mercy of overexcitement symptoms grows, as does the self-confidence of being able to help the body to release and heal itself from tension.”

(Source: Psychotherapeutenjournal 3/2018, download the full article in German)

Official website of Dr. David Berceli


TRE® is a self-help tool and not a therapy.
To learn it, 3 individual training sessions with a certified provider are sufficient. Participation in regular group training deepens the process and has been proven to lead to a new, relaxed body feeling and stronger mental resilience.

Important: I am currently in a three-year training program to become a certified TRE® provider, which will be completed in summer 2025. Until then, I offer individual trainings for a donation! If required, I am happy to pass on to certified providers.

What is TRE®? A quick & simple animated explanation.

Wow does TRE® work? A condensed explanation by Dr. David Berceli.

Literature: