Tension and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE®)
A somatic pathway to recovery
We shake with joy, we shake with grief.
What a time they have, these two
housed as they are in the same body.
-Mary Oliver
Healing is a dedicated and honorable journey, one that mends your relationship with yourself, your body, and your capacity for connection with others.
Tension and Trauma Release Exercises TRE® is a refined body awareness practice that supports the body in completing stress responses, releasing chronic holding patterns, and restoring a felt sense of safety and presence after overwhelming or traumatic experiences.
TRE® is a somatic self-help tool that, once learned in just three sessions, can be used for ongoing emotional and physical support. TRE® teaches clients and groups to become more aware of subtle body signals before stress escalates, allowing for earlier intervention rather than solely on recovery, so that you can spend less energy coping and more energy living.
In three sessions, you will learn to:
Experience and build a relationship with your body’s natural ability to neurogenic tremor
Trust your body’s response
Learn modulation and integration
Leave with embodied confidence and competence with the practice
Build your own practice to use TRE® strategically — during stress, travel, life transitions, or recovery
TRE® sessions are gentle and yoga-like, with simple exercises that lead into neurogenic tremoring. This natural and built-in self-regulating mechanism often feels like shaking or vibrating, helping the body to integrate the overwhelming experiences of trauma and reduce hyper-vigilant body responses. Rather than focusing on the memory or story, TRE® sessions invite the body’s innate intelligence to lead the way.
This work is subtle, powerful, and profoundly effective. TRE® is for long-term self and communal support and transformation.
What people like about TRE®:
It’s a simple, clear, and easy way to connect with their bodies without feeling overwhelmed.
It’s not an open- ended commitment of sessions, but a learned practice to weave into their lives to support handling anxiety loops, conflict, hypervigilance, and work and relationship stress
Rather than dissecting problems, TRE® allows tension and stress patterns to resolve at the physiological level, which makes it complementary to therapy models
Memories and stories often do not appear much to the relief of many survivors
It’s an simple practice that requires little effort or time once learned
Stopping, pausing, and resting are just as important and helpful as the tremoring
Who is TRE® best for?:
Caregivers, parents, athletes, activists, survivors of trauma, and high-functioning people who live with a body that constantly feels “on”
For those who are in burnout, who need a recovery model that supports relaxation
Those who have done therapy or insight-oriented work, who understand patterns intellectually, but their body still feels tight, guarded, braced
Folks who feel like their relationship to self and others is suffering and who are looking for long-lasting change
TRE® supports people with:
Better sleep
Reduced anxiety
Improved mobility
Emotional regulation and presence
Greater capacity to remain present under pressure
Greater capacity for pleasure and the joys of life
Integration of trauma
My Approach:
Sessions are grounded in presence, pacing, and agency.
You are taught how to:
Start and stop the tremoring
Slow it down or modulate intensity
Take breaks
Stay oriented to safety and choice
I do not believe healing requires pushing through discomfort or overwhelm. I believe it requires safety, choice, and attuned support.
If you’re ready to no longer live in response to life but in relationship with it, book a consultation to see if TRE® is the right fit for you. I work with individuals, couples, families, and groups, both in-person and online.
Testimonial
"I felt very comfortable working with River from the beginning. The TRE sessions were friendly, grounded and focused at a slow pace that suited me. The exercises were clearly demonstrated and are now ingrained as a valuable tool I can use on my own, safely. River's email check-ins throughout our were were very helpful and holding. I'm grateful for River's warm approach and gentle curiosity in our work together."
-Jeanne
