What is TRE™?
Tension & Trauma
Release Exercises
A body-based approach to
releasing deep muscular tension and
balancing the nervous system.
TRE Trauma and Tension Releasing Exercises® is a body-based (somatic) practice designed to release deep-seated muscular patterns of stress, anxiety, and physical tension. Developed by Dr. David Berceli, TRE uses a series of 7 simple exercises to safely activate your body’s natural mechanism and capacity for tension release and nervous system down-regulation—known as neurogenic tremors.
Unlike traditional talk therapy or standard relaxation techniques, TRE works directly with bodily sensations and movement. By inviting the body to tremor in a safe and predictable environment, the practice aims to downregulate overactive stress responses and help restore internal calm.
TRE Global Certification Trainer Hans Holter Solhjell teaching TRE.
How TRE Works: Re-activating the Natural Tremor Reflex
When we experience acute stress, physical strain, or emotional trauma, the body activates a range of protective systems and mechanisms, such as a rapid increase in adrenaline, muscle tension, and heart rate.
This can happen at many levels, from subtle muscular bracing to a full fight-or-flight response. We may tighten the jaw, shoulders, diaphragm, abdomen, pelvis and legs as the body prepares to protect itself or take action. Even after the stressful situation has ended, elements of this protective activation can remain, contributing to persistent tension and difficulty fully relaxing.
In the animal kingdom, mammals naturally shake off this residual nervous system activation and tension once safety is re-established. Within TRE, this shaking is understood as part of the animal’s natural process of completing the survival response and discharging the intense physiological activation created by the threat.
Humans share this exact same biological reflex, but social and cultural conditioning often leads us to suppress it. Much like crying or deep sighing, this biological reflex supports bodily homeostasis, helping rebalance the nervous system and restore internal equilibrium.
You can see an example of the neurogenic tremoring evoked by the TRE exercises in this video.
Everyday Experiences with Neurogenic Tremoring
Most people have experienced such neurogenic tremors during or after a high-stress event without realizing what was happening. This is so common that it is even part of our language and literature, and it’s often mentioned in media reports. You might recognize common phrases such as:
- “I was so nervous before my presentation that my knees were shaking.”
- “My hands were trembling so much I could barely hold the paper.”
- “I was so frightened my jaw started to chatter.”
- “I was so furious I was literally shaking with rage.”
When we do not understand what these tremors are doing—or when cultural conditioning frames shaking as a sign of weakness, fear, or loss of control—we misinterpret them as negative symptoms of stress. In reality, this shaking is the body’s built-in mechanism for releasing stress, restoring balance and calm.
Observing Neurogenic Tremors in Nature
We observe this exact phenomenon throughout the animal kingdom. In the video below, a wild polar bear is sedated by wildlife scientists after being pursued by a helicopter. As the anesthesia wears off, the bear begins to shake, tremble, and execute running-like leg movements—the precise physical actions that were interrupted when sedated during its flight response.
By tremoring, the animal completes and discharges the survival response initiated during the threat. In the second part of the video, you will see human participants in a TRE workshop accessing this exact same restorative reflex in a safe, self-regulated setting.
Cultural Suppression and the Loss of Bodily Awareness
Many of us gradually learn to distance ourselves from spontaneous bodily responses and expressions. From an early age, social and cultural norms may teach us not to cry, to hide strong emotions, and to control visible signs of stress. Over time, this can leave us less familiar with the body’s subtle signals and natural regulatory capacities.
Young children are naturally much more connected to this tremor reflex. They express emotional and physical shifts freely, experiencing tremoring not only during fear or stress, but also during moments of intense excitement, relief, or high emotion. An example of this can be seen in this video.
Reclaiming the Tremor Mechanism and The Body with TRE
TRE helps you access tremors safely through a combination of psychoeducation on the autonomic tremor mechanism, essential safety and self-regulation techniques, and seven foundational exercises designed to reliably elicit neurogenic tremors.
With continued practice, TRE can support greater self-regulation, bodily autonomy and confidence in directing your own process. Although the tremors arise involuntarily, you learn how to invite and accept them, adjust their intensity, “ride the wave,” and stop whenever you choose. Over time, the tremoring may develop and move through different areas of the body as you become more familiar with the process and learn to work with parts of the body where movement feels restricted, tense, or disconnected.
Why People Use TRE: Stress, Tension, Pain, Fatigue and Trauma Recovery
The results of TRE are often felt in a very concrete, physical sense of deep relaxation, inner calm, and balance. One way to describe it is as a relaxation of the body’s core—where chronic stress and emotional pressure are often experienced. Rather than working only with symptoms at the surface, TRE works with the residual muscular holding and physiological activation that can accompany long-term stress, trauma, and emotional overload.
Practitioners and clients regularly use TRE to help relieve:
- Muscular & Physical Strain: Chronic lower back pain, neck and shoulder stiffness, and persistent physical tension.
- Nervous System Stress: Inner turmoil, anxiety, hypervigilance, and burnout.
- Sleep & Energy Disruptions: Insomnia, poor sleep quality, and chronic fatigue.
- Emotional Pressure: Unresolved emotional stress and trauma-induced physical bracing.
What Positive Effects Do People Typically Experience with TRE?
People practice TRE not only to relieve stress and physical tension, but also to develop a deeper and more positive relationship with their body. Many describe feeling more grounded, more resilient in the face of everyday challenges, and more able to engage with life and relationships. As chronic activation and tension begin to reduce and soften, practitioners commonly report changes such as:
- Greater Resilience to Daily Stressors: An expanded window of tolerance, with a capacity to navigate everyday challenges, emotional demands, and work pressure with greater clarity and composure.
- Increased Vitality & Energy: A greater sense of physical energy, emotional aliveness, and mental alertness.
- Enhanced Capacity for Self-Regulation: A greater ability to recognize early signs of stress or overwhelm and self-regulate to a calm, grounded state.
- Feeling at Ease in Your Own Body: Moving towards a felt sense of internal comfort, safety, openness, aliveness, vitality and embodiment.
- Feeling More Alive, Present and Connected: A renewed sense of enthusiasm, lightness, emotional availability, and connection to their surroundings.
“I quickly realized that TRE was working very well for me, in the sense that I rapidly observed a significant release of physical tensions and pains to start with, followed by deep emotional release as well.”
“And just after a few months, my back pain – which was chronic for so many years – started reducing to a point I couldn’t believe was possible!”“I also started feeling a strong and positive impact on my hypervigilance and my anxiety, which had been such a prevalent feature of my functioning for so long: slowly but surely, a new sense of deep calm and inner peace started growing in me, replacing the very familiar hypervigilance, hyperactivity, and anxiety. What a relief!”
“I intended to go further in my practice and better understand how to use TRE. I also felt the need to be part of a group, to be accompanied within a structured, safe, and systematic framework, and to receive coherent theoretical input, which would help me to frame and integrate my personal experience of TRE.”
“I found the online format to be very convenient in terms of time and organization and as it was during the COVID pandemic, so doing it online was very helpful.”
“I quickly realized that TRE was working very well for me, in the sense that I rapidly observed a significant release of physical tensions and pains to start with, followed by deep emotional release as well. “
“What I liked very much about the training was that it was very experience based. I also liked, of course, that you provided a theoretical framework. But it was always the experience and the practice at the forefront, and how you connected the experiences to the more scientific and theoretical aspects.”
“I sensed a secure and safe framework, boundaries, settings and space. This is essential when you do this kind of work: to feel safe and secure. There was no judgment, and a lot of empowerment.”
“Through the supervised personal sessions …….. was able to go much further in my exploration of how I can use TRE.”
“So, I think the fact that there is a comprehensive approach to the training, with all these practical elements, is excellent. Especially because you have to work on yourself a lot. Thanks to all of these elements integrated into the training, I feel secure and empowered to handle unexpected situations with clients and support their processes.”
Read the full interview here.
“What I have noticed with longer practice, is how I achieve inner peace. For me, I first had the physical experience of reduced pain and increased function of my ankle, and then I continued doing TRE for a longer period.”
“I experienced with this regular TRE practice that it really changed how I feel about the stressors in my life. For the stressful event, my body seemed to want to tremor quite a lot every day for more than a week, sometimes more than once a day. But afterward, when faced with some everyday challenge, I felt like “OK. I can do this! There are a few things in my life I just have to deal with”. I stopped thinking, “my life is over” and similar thought patterns, which I tended to do previously.”“I was actually able to process whatever it was that was stressing me with a different, more resourceful, perspective – that I could cope. Importantly, the “I can deal with this” thought really came from within, like a felt experience in my body, not just an effort to think positive. This is something I have only experienced with TRE. TRE made me actually feel like I could cope which goes beyond just knowing and telling myself that I can, in a more verbal, cognitive, way.”
“TRE for me makes the connection between what’s rationally going on in my head, knowing that I actually in most cases can cope, and aligns the body with this knowledge.”
“Basically, what got me into TRE was first the physical rehabilitation of my ankle injury and then with more practice and the training I got more involved with the rest of it, the self-development, stress and trauma aspect.”
“I’m a big fan of online trainings, as I live far from everything. The schedule was perfect, easy to follow and not disturbing of my regular life. The whole training experience for me was very interesting because I really had to think about the process, what was going on and then learning more and reading about TRE and trauma.”
“So, the training for me was really amazing. Beside the modules, the other aspects like the feedback sessions and the practice were very interesting and I can truly say the training changed my life.”
“It was “the discovery” for me – I realized recently that this is what I want to do! I’ve had such amazing results and sharing this process, TRE, with people.”
“When I see what happens to people, it’s an amazing experience. It’s amazing for me and for them – and then again for me because I help them get there.”
“It was really an experience that changed my life and it is a very, very good training.”
“I keep practicing my own tiny bits of TRE every day. The time and duration vary depending on how life goes although I always tremor a little bit before I go to sleep. I’ve been sleeping more and longer since I have started doing this.”
Read the full interview here.
“Doing TRE is like moving meditation to me and it has become part of my daily routines. I can feel how this helps me to ground and gives me a feeling of being fully present in the moment.”
“The practice section with feedback was highly personalized, my mentor provided detailed feedback after each recorded video, which allowed me to grow as a TRE instructor but also as a person. The TRE training and the empathic approach of the very qualified teachers have allowed for a profound shift in my own life.”“Furthermore, I did the online global TRE training which was a great experience. The other students came from all over the world so the exchanges in the group were incredibly rich. The teachers created a secure space for us to feel completely safe and through the sharing with the other students I also learned a lot.”
Read the full interview here.
What Does Science & Research Say About TRE?
While scientific evaluation of TRE is an emerging field requiring larger clinical trials, current studies provide encouraging preliminary evidence for its benefits across mental, emotional, and physiological health. Because every nervous system responds at its own pace, individual experiences vary—some notice rapid shifts, while others require more time and consistency.
Key Clinical Findings
Published studies have reported encouraging preliminary outcomes across several areas. A controlled study involving East African refugee women found significantly greater reductions in self-reported trauma-related symptoms in the TRE group than in a delayed-treatment control group (read our study summary).
Exploratory and randomized studies involving people with multiple sclerosis have also produced promising findings related to fatigue, pain, spasticity, walking ability, and quality of life (Denmark pilot | Denmark RCT | Argentina study).
Other pilot studies, workplace evaluations and case reports suggest possible benefits for perceived stress, sleep and psychophysiological regulation. Taken together, the emerging research supports continued investigation of what practitioners and participants have observed through years of TRE practice.
About Dr. David Berceli, Creator of TRE
Tension, Stress & Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) was developed by Dr. David Berceli, Ph.D., an international expert in trauma intervention, somatic therapy, and conflict resolution.
While living and working for over two decades in war-torn countries and disaster relief zones across the Middle East and Africa (including Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Yemen, and Israel/Palestine), Dr. Berceli observed how human bodies instinctively contract to protect themselves during threats—and how natural tremoring followed when safety was restored.
David originally designed TRE to help large groups of survivors of severe trauma release deep-seated physical stress without relying on extensive verbal communication; but he quickly recognized that the body’s tremor mechanism is equally effective for managing everyday stress, preventing burnout, and enhancing personal resilience.
Today, TRE is practiced globally, with certified providers, trainers, and workshops active in over 70 countries worldwide.
Is TRE Safe? Responsible Practice Guidelines
To ensure a safe and well-regulated experience, learning the exercises and understanding the tremoring process under the guidance of a Certified TRE Provider is strongly recommended.
Additionally, while TRE is a powerful supportive tool, it should not be considered a standalone trauma therapy. For individuals dealing with severe, complex, or developmental trauma, TRE is most safely and effectively used when integrated into a broader treatment plan supported by a qualified trauma specialist.
Courses and education in Trauma Release Exercises
We offer introductory courses, advanced courses, and instructor training in Trauma Release Exercises.
Introductory course: Read more about this here.
Online weekly group: Read more about this here.
English Online Instructor Training. Read more about this here.
TRE online Talks and Sessions. Read more here.
Trauma therapy and individual TRE learning sessions with Hans Holter Solhjell
TRE Global Certification Trainer, Somatic Experiencing and Feldenkrais method Practitioner
You can get individual trauma therapy and TRE learning sessions with Hans Holter Solhjell. These sessions are both for beginners and those with intermediate and advanced, long-term experience with TRE. You will learn how to go deeper into your TRE experience, work with sticking points in the process, and we also include other methods, like Somatic Experiencing, Awareness Through Movement (The Feldenkrais Method) etc.
You can read more about Hans here.
Get in touch via the contact form.
“I have now tried out the TRE method for almost three weeks.
I am very satisfied with the way you communicated this “tool” and think it was particularly good to receive both video and notes afterward. (This is especially with a view to remembering various exercises when one subsequently tries out the method alone).
Concretely, I notice a significantly better quality of sleep and less stiffness/muscle tension in the body. I Have performed the exercises 3-4 days apart. I am excited to see how the method will develop in practical terms. Notice that the small, more frequent tremors in the muscles that occurred at the start have now turned into larger, more “stretching-like” muscle movements. Fascinating and exciting!“
-Hilsen Anita
TRE™ denotes the TRE trademark. Dr. David Berceli holds the Copyright, Trademark and Service Mark (SM) for all TRE training materials and the TRE process.
All rights to use is reserved and TRE FOR ALL, Inc (TFA) (NGO) holds distribution rights. Also protected are: Trauma Release Process SM, Tension Release Process SM.
TRE website: http://www.treforall.org