Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE)

Domain IV · Body-oriented psychotherapy · David Berceli · 2000

What it is

TRE (Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises, also written Tension, Stress and Trauma Releasing Exercises) is a structured self-help exercise method. David Berceli, a bioenergetics-trained trauma educator with a PhD in social work from Arizona State University, developed it in the early 2000s. He…

Format

• TRE has no treatment phases in the psychotherapy sense. The structure is (a) one session format, the exercise routine, and (b) a learning course that moves from guided to independent practice.
• Within each session (both opened accounts agree):

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Fiol 2025 (multiple sclerosis research sample): 24–25 sessions of 60 min, 3 per week (two in person, one online), each opening and closing with about 10 min of sharing. Led by certified TRE instructors with a body-mind therapist and a neurologist.
• Version followed: David Berceli's standard seven-exercise TRE sequence (TRE for All / TRE Global): five standing preparatory exercises, a wall sit, and a supine tremor position. The exercise detail comes from the account by certified provider Andreas Herold (2015) and the TRE protocol in the US Army-funded trial (Kent, 2018), where the trainers were taught by Berceli from approved manuals. Berceli's own books…
• Core idea of change, in the method's own terms: Berceli holds that repeated stress and trauma leave deep, chronic muscular contraction, especially in the iliopsoas, calves, quadriceps, adductors, diaphragm, neck and jaw. In his account, defensive fight, flight and freeze responses that could not be completed stay stored in procedural memory as this tension. The exercises are meant to "painlessly increase the tension…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Lower-back pain (make the arch smaller); neck strain (turn less); dizziness.
• Lingering activation or spaciness. Do not let the client drive or leave until they are oriented.
• People copying others' tremor intensity or comparing. Normalise any degree of tremor, including none.
• Dizziness on coming up. Rise slowly, head last, and pause standing before the next exercise. Back pain: bend the knees.
• Knee pain (make the bend shallower, or stop); losing balance (use the wall). If the client cannot balance, a supported two-leg version is.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.