TRE® (Tension & Trauma Releasing Exercises) is a body-based practice developed by Dr. David Berceli, created to help individuals release deep muscular patterns of stress, tension, and trauma. By activating the body's natural tremor mechanism, TRE® offers a simple yet powerful way to restore balance to the nervous system and allow the body to move out of survival states and into safety and regulation.

Your nervous system is like the microchip of your body — an intelligent control center that governs every function, from digestion and hormone production to muscle tone, mental clarity, and emotional health. It is always working behind the scenes to assess whether you are safe or in danger.

When a threat is perceived — whether physical or emotional, conscious or unconscious — the body activates the fight-or-flight response. This is not a mental choice; it happens automatically through the autonomic nervous system.

Imagine you’re being chased by a lion. Your body will instantly prioritize survival:

• Your heart rate spikes

• Blood rushes to your muscles

• Your digestion shuts down

• Your immune system pauses

• You’re no longer focused on connection or healing — only escape

This is what your body is supposed to do in the face of danger. The problem is, in modern life, we experience ongoing stressors — deadlines, arguments, pollution, overstimulation, past traumas, toxins — but we don’t get to run or fight. The response is triggered, but the loop never completes.

When this happens chronically, the nervous system becomes dysregulated.

If neither fighting nor fleeing resolves the threat, your body enters a third state: freeze. This is a primal shutdown designed to protect you in moments of helplessness. The freeze state can feel like:

• Numbness or dissociation

• Fatigue or chronic exhaustion

• Apathy or emotional flatness

• Difficulty focusing or remembering

• Digestive and hormonal imbalances

• Low immune function

• Chronic tension, pain, or inflammation

• Feeling stuck or like you’re not really “here”

This is not weakness. It is your body doing its best to survive what it perceives as overwhelming or inescapable.

Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, explains how your nervous system responds to cues of safety or threat through three states:

1. Ventral Vagal (Safety & Connection): You feel calm, open, engaged, and present. This is the state where healing, growth, digestion, and connection happen.
2. Sympathetic (Fight or Flight): You feel agitated, anxious, angry, hypervigilant. Your system is activated for action.
3. Dorsal Vagal (Freeze/Shutdown): You feel shut down, disconnected, helpless, or foggy. This is conservation mode — the body powers down to protect itself.

TRE® helps move the body gently out of freeze or fight and back into ventral vagal regulation, where the body and mind can heal.

TRE® activates the body’s neurogenic tremor response — an involuntary shaking mechanism that originates in the brainstem. These tremors are not pathological; they are part of the body’s natural ability to release tension and complete unresolved stress cycles.

Animals tremble to discharge stress — think of a dog shaking after a fright. Humans have the same mechanism, but we’ve been conditioned to suppress it. TRE® reawakens this capacity.

The tremors move through the muscles and fascia, releasing stored tension and gently guiding the nervous system into safety. Over time, this allows the body to down-regulate and return to a natural rhythm of resilience and flow.

• Chronic anxiety, panic, or intrusive thoughts

• Feeling emotionally overwhelmed or flat

• Insomnia or hypersomnia

• Muscle tension or unexplained body pain

• Sensitivity to noise, light, or stimulation

• Poor digestion, bloating, or constipation

• Constant exhaustion or burnout

• Disconnection from emotions or body

• Difficulty relaxing or feeling safe

• Cycles of overworking or collapsing

As you move toward nervous system regulation, your body begins to shift from defense to vitality. Regulation is not just about feeling "less stressed" — it’s about being more connected, more alive, and more resilient.

• Feeling present, grounded, and connected to your body

• Trusting your instincts, boundaries, and decisions

• Emotions moving through you without overwhelming you

• A deeper sense of self-worth and calm confidence

• Increased self-trust, intuition, and alignment with your needs

• Sleep that restores you

• Digestive ease and physical vitality

• Creative flow, clear thinking, and mental spaciousness

• The ability to respond to life, not just react

Regulation isn’t about staying in a calm state all the time — it’s about flexibility. A healthy nervous system can move fluidly between states, activating when needed (like during exercise, creative output, or quick decision-making) and returning to calm when the moment passes.

We need both sympathetic activation and ventral vagal safety — they serve different purposes. Sympathetic brings energy, action, and focus; ventral vagal brings connection, restoration, and presence. The goal is to have the capacity to move between them with ease, without getting stuck in chronic fight, flight, or freeze.

When your body feels safe, everything improves — because the systems responsible for healing are reactivated:

• Better Detoxification: Liver, kidneys, lymph, and gut systems switch back on. The body can eliminate toxins efficiently.

• Improved Immunity: Chronic stress weakens the immune system. Regulation supports natural immunity and recovery.

• Pain Relief: Fascia and muscles soften as tension is released, reducing chronic pain and improving mobility.

• Hydration & Nutrient Absorption: The body becomes better at absorbing what it needs to repair, regulate, and restore.

• Fascia Function: The fascia network conducts electrical and chemical signals. As it rehydrates and releases, transmission improves.

• Posture and Breathing Improve: Natural realignment and relaxed breathing emerge, further signaling safety to the body.

• Injury Recovery Enhances: The body heals faster outside of defense mode.

• Hormonal Balance Returns: Cortisol and adrenaline decrease, while hormones that support wellbeing, like oxytocin, increase.

• Mental Clarity and Emotional Agility: You think more clearly and feel more emotionally stable.

Stress is part of life. The aim of TRE® is not to eliminate stress entirely, but to build capacity and resilience so that stress no longer overwhelms you. Over time, you gain the ability to move through life’s challenges without shutting down, burning out, or disconnecting from yourself.

You become more adaptive, more grounded, and more alive.

TRE® is foundational to the SYNK philosophy. Because when your nervous system is in balance, every other healing modality becomes more effective. Detox pathways open. Digestion improves. Emotions move. You reconnect with your body, and yourself.

It’s not about fixing. It’s about returning — to safety, to softness, to flow.

In a one-on-one session, I’ll guide you through gentle movements to activate the tremor reflex. The process is safe, grounded, and trauma-informed — no need to talk or re-live past experiences. We create a space where your body leads the way, and over time, you’ll gain the confidence to practice TRE® as a self-care ritual on your own.