Shake it Off Naturally - Reduce Stress, Anxiety and Tension with Trauma Release Exercises, David Berceli PhD

[Jones]

Drawing on some of the knowledge of Peter Levines work of how the body releases trauma, and also Steven Porges polyvagal theory, this book suggests that you can induce the trauma release response by fatiguing and stretching muscles creating neurogenic tremors.

It is essentially a collection of essays, research and case notes written both by the author and practitioners in various fields, from body workers of various schools to psychologists, organised into three major sections:
Section 1: Self-Induced Therapeutic Tremors
Section 2: Physiological Benefits of Body Tremors.
Section 3: The Psychosocial Applications of TRE (Trauma Release Exercises)

The final section - Section 4 gives a selection of exercises to fatigue the major fight - flight muscles in the thighs and pelvis, finishing with laying supine on the floor with the knees bent in a fashion to evoke neurogenic tremors. The idea is that when the body gives over control to the neurogenic tremors then the natural shaking off of trauma can also then occur.

The final exercise might be something that those doing HIIT might be interested in adding on since you're shaking any way?

Cautions/Contraindications and Special Conditions etc:
It's imperative that individuals with the following diagnoses or conditions, or people who take medication for the following diagnoses or conditions consult with suitably credentialed professionals to ensure that they learn self regulation with the exercises appropriately and correctly.
- post traumatic stress disorder, depression, manic/depressive/bipolar conditions, psychosis, borderline personality, schizophrenia, dissociative disorders, anxiety and stress disorders.
- if you have had any other mental illness or mental health issues in your past whether or not you sought and/or received professional treatment.
- irregular blood pressure (high or low)
-irregular heart conditions (surgery, pacemakers, arrhythmia)
- hypo or hyperglycaemia (medications)
- epilepsy
-Severe chronic pain
-recent surgery
-pregnancy
-broken bones, strains or sprains.

The list of exercises given in the book:
Exercise #1
1. Take off your shoes and socks for best results.
2. Spread your feet slightly wider apart than your shoulders and point them straight forward. Roll onto the sides of your feet rolling them in the same direction. You should be on the outside of one foot and on the inside of the other foot. Hold this position for a few seconds then sway the body in the opposite direction and invert your feet. Continue swaying back and forth like this very slowly 5-8 times in each direction. To end the exercise, shake out your feet.

Exercise #2
1. Place one foot infant of you and put all your weight onto the front leg. The back leg is on the floor just for balance.
2. With the front standing foot - come up and down onto your toes, raising your heal as hight as possible then lower your foot to the floor.
3. Repeat coming up onto your toes and back down about 5-8 times depending on the strength and flexibility of your legs. If it becomes painful or begins to produce a burning sensation then stop the exercise.
4. Come to a standing position on both legs and vigorously shake the leg you just exercised to eliminate any pain, burning or discomfort.
5. Repeat this same exercise with the other foot. When finished, vigorously shake the leg to relax the muscles.

Exercise #3
1. Slowly bend forward gently putting both hands on the ground close to your feet.
2. Lower your buttocks slightly as though you were going to sit in a chair. This will cause the knee to bend. Do not let the knee to bend beyond the length of the foot.
3. Straighten the leg as far as you can without hurting or pulling the back leg muscles (hamstrings). Repeat this process 5-10 times, depending on the strength and flexibility of your legs.
4. Although this exercise is a great leg stressor and very useful, many people may find it too difficult or painful for their knees. This exercise can be modified by slightly bending the knee from a standing position. Simply bend you standing knee as comfortably as possible and then straighten it. Repeat this about 5-10 times. If this exercise is too difficult even when standing, please consider it an optional exercise and move onto the next exercise.

Exercise #4
Stand with your legs spread apart so that there is a stretch on the inner thigh muscles.
1. Hang over forward (it is not necessary to touch the ground if that is too difficult). You will feel a stretch on the inner thigh (adductors) and the backs of the legs (hamstrings).
2. With your hands in the centre position of the legs, take 3 deep breaths and allow the body to slowly stretch naturally without any effort allowing gravity to do all the work.
3. Then slowly walk your hands over to one foot. Hold this position for three slow, deep breaths. Then, walk your hands over to the other foot. Again, hold this position for three deep breaths. Then, walk your hands back to the middle of your feet and reach between your legs behind you. Hold this position for three deep breaths. You might begin to feel some mild shaking in your legs. Allow this to happen. To complete the exercise slowly, come back into a standing position placing your hands on your legs to use them for support as you stand.

Exercise #5
1. Keep your feet in the same position as the previous exercise.
2. Place your hands party on the lower back and the buttocks to support the lower back.
3. Gently push your pelvis slightly forward so that there is a gentle bow in your lower back. You should feel a stretch at the front of your thigh. This exercise is not about arching the back but about pushing the pelvis forward so that the back naturally arches. This should be a gentle stretch according to your body's ability.
4. Gently twist at the hips (keeping the bowed position) looking behind you in one direction. Take three deep breaths.
5. Turn again from the hips in the opposite direction looking behind you (keeping the bowed position). Take three deep breaths.
6. Return to the forward position (keeping the bowed position) and take three more deep breaths. To finish, release the bow and come to a normal standing position.

Exercise #6
1. Sit with your back against the wall as though there was a chair underneath you. This will put stress on the upper leg muscles (quadriceps muscles). After a few minutes, you might begin to feel some slight tension, tightness, tremoring or shaking in these muscles. If it becomes slightly painful, move up the wall about two more inches. The tremoring/shaking might get slightly stronger and the tension will begin to subside. Once again, if this position becomes to stressful, move your back up the wall two more inches. The goal of this exercise is to try and find a position where your legs are tremoring/shaking and there is no pain. After 3-5 minutes of tremoring/shaking, come off the wall and hang over forward. Keep your knees slightly bent while you touch the ground (if possible). The tremoring/shaking will most likely increase. Stay there for about one minute if possible.

Exercise #7
1 a. Lay with your feet together and knees gently relaxed open in a rest position.
1 b. If you cannot open your knees, then keep your feet flat on the floor with your knees straight up.
2. Lift your pelvis off the ground for 30 seconds to one minute.
3. Gently set your pelvis down on the floor and let your knees relax in the open or upright position for one minute. You may begin to feel some tempering or shaking in your legs.
4. If your knees are open, slightly close them about two inches. If your knees are straight up, slightly open them about two inches. Lay in this position for two minutes. The tremoring/shaking may get stronger. If you find it pleasant and comfortable, allow this to continue. If you find it unpleasant slide your legs down into a flat position, sit up if necessary, and allow yourself to integrate the experience. If you want to continue you may do so by returning to the position that caused the discomfort and see if it is still there or if it has dissipated.
5. Close your knees again two more inches and allow the tremoring or shaking to come into the legs. This sensation might become increasingly stronger. At any point if you are uncomfortable, straighten your legs and relax on the floor.
6. Close your knees again two more inches and allow the shaking to continue. At this point you can continue shaking until you feel it is time to stop. Do not shake more than 15 minutes, as your body can become fatigued. If at any point the process is uncomfortable, just simply stop it by sitting up and getting a drink of water.
7. For the last part of this exercise, turn the bottoms of your feet so they are flat on the floor. Keep your knees slightly apart and the shaking will continue. Allow this movement to move into your pelvis and lower back.
8. To end the exercise, simply let your feet slide down so that you are lying flat on the floor. If you prefer, you can roll over onto your side and curl up to rest or you can lie on your belly. Choose the most comfortable position for your body.

At 19:25 in the following video, a soldier that was close to an IED blast, works through the trauma stored in his body using the exercises.

 

[Hi_Henry]

Here is a combination of the above technique that I found in the comments of the video,

Iceman

 

[Jones]

Here's a video of a girl who'd broken her elbow and still had a painful shoulder going through the trauma release. They don't show the video starting from her doing the exercises, but despite being in position to induce the neurogenic tremors from the thigh/buttock/pelvis muscles, her tremors start in her arm first and then the lower body tremors come later. The comments mention that she had 6 sessions though, so this might be a later session.

As an added note, I didn't realise that the psoas muscle and the diaphragm were connected until I went looking for more video's.

https://corewalking.com/walking-and-breathing/

 

[Jones]

In David Berceli's opening chapter, he acknowledges that in the medical and psychological professions, shaking or tremors are seen as part of the pathology of diseases, but more in line with the work of Peter Levine and Stephen Porges he states:

The premise of this book is that a specific self-induced body tremor can potentially be the brain's deliberate activation of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) to down-regulate an over excited system. Therefore the tremor mechanism is not seen as part of the pathology of human neurophysiology but rather the brain's attempt to correct the pathology of a hyper-aroused nervous system.

That's not a new idea for those of us that have read Levine and Porges.
I'm pursuing the idea further though for a number of reasons. In some Enneagram circles there is talk of an emotional stacking of the heart, head and gut centres and what is referred to as the bottom drawer emotion being able to give some relief when it is expressed fully (catharsis). I'm still not entirely sold on the idea of the emotional stacking but one point they talk about is that the head centres bottom drawer emotion is anxiety and is often followed by the caveat that they don't know of a way to express anxiety other than that they've observed that anxiety usually follows the expression of anger in head centred people. I'm wondering if this tremoring is a way to express anxiety? I haven't found the answer to that yet.

When I was discussing this possibility with Dr. Stephen Porges he wrote that:

There is a "medical" bias to use "tremor" as a clinical symptom. However, there are normal "physiological" tremors in all humans that represent the CNS (Central Nervous System) regulation of the motor pathways.

More specific and relevant to your work, are "isometric" tremors. Isometric tremor occurs wen there are voluntary muscle contractions without movement such as pushing against a wall. There is an afferent feedback from muscles to brain during the isometric contraction and the afferent feedback from the muscles to the brain when the [muscular movement] tremor occurs. However, I think how the sensory feedback of the tremor is interpreted is the core of your treatment model. I think it has to do with "accepting" the involuntary (uncontrollable) muscle activity in a context and state of safety. I believe that the "normal" sensory feedback from isometric tremor is telling the brain that the body can no longer protect itself. And what you are doing is a restructuring of these "helpless" and uncertain body signals (and memories) into a context of safety and predictability.

By many accounts the tremoring is a pleasant sensation, however depending on the individual, their background and reasons for seeking help, it can be uncomfortable so I think predictability and the ability to consciously override the tremoring helps with the sense of safety. In animal models it has been shown that being able to both control and predict unpleasant things leads to no long term stress effects observed by both behavioural stress markers and cortisol level testing via cheek swabs. (Shalke et. al., 2006 - https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e8...67.1503460295.1541048014-219015300.1519352012 and Dess et. al., 1983 http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1984-19814-001)

Overriding the tremors is achieved easily enough by sitting up, standing and/or walking around.

Back to Porges letter:

I think an adaptive strategy would be to educate the reviewers that body tremor at specific frequencies is how the nervous system regulates muscle control. This naturally occurring neurophysiological process is labeled "physiological" tremor to contrast it with pathological tremor. You also need to explain that isometric tremor, a naturally occurring benign tremor, increases the amplitude of physiological tremor and is categorically NOT pathological tremor.

The next letter from Dr. Cassiani Ingoni - neurophysiologist has some very interesting points.

...the self-induced tremors evoked by the Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) act as a very specific training protocol with significant potential of inducing functional long-term changes in neuro-muscular crosstalk: e.g. changes in neurotransmitter receptor properties, density, and distribution at the neuromuscular junction; changes in muscular end-organ receptor signalling; and changes in central and peripheral nervous system processing of proprioceptor information.

Repetition is a key factor in the induction and consolidation of changes in neuronal function within specific neural networks. Moreover, the timing/association between the stimuli and the cellular response is a critical factor in determining the occurrence of functional changes in specific neuronal cells. Neurons can undergo short-term changes in their properties when reversible modifications (e.g. phosphorylation of certain amino acidic residues of neuronal ion channels) induce a change in the electrical properties of a certain area of the membrane (usually at the synapse level), which in turn modulates the activation of that specific cell to subsequent stimulations. These kinds of modifications (e.g. sensitisation, habituation, in-habituation) have a short life at the cellular/molecular level unless they are immediately reinforced by similar repetitions of the same activation patterns.

Repetitions within a very short time-span allow the cellular changes to become permanent by inducing new gene transcription and consolidation of the molecular changes at the level of neuronal cells or population of cells. Thus, a high number of repetitions of certain patterns of coupled muscular and neuronal activation - such as the ones induced by TRE - very quickly achieves and consolidates changes at the muscular cell level, the neuronal level, and of the whole neural pathways which might underlie the "holding" of a "physical" tension pattern. Importantly, changes at the level of the cerebellum - the primary site of sensory-motor association- are likely to determine functional changes at the cortical level as well, through neural pathways that couple these two brain areas. Moreover, physical exercise itself induces the production of neurotropic factors, which help the re-wiring by inducing new cell growth and shaping of the networks.

It is not known for sure how long it takes for a neurological path to develop or how much repetition contributes to the formation and engraining of the new neurological pathway. It has been established however that single neuronal cells in culture can establish new functional networks in less than 15 minutes. It is not clear how quick this happens in the organisms in vivo, but I don't see a reason why it should take longer than 1 - 2 days at most to establish a new neural path.

That last bit, if true, blows me away! It gives a whole new take on changing habits where it is generally accepted that it takes 60-90 days to change a habit and the enormity of the impact of the 'routinary' predators mind!

Repetition is probably the main factor to determine long-term survival of newly born cells or of newly made connections - use it or lose it! However, repetition can probably act faster than we can imagine. At the single cell level even a few short repetitions create a cellular memory within one minute, which is then either consolidated or lost, based on successive presentations of the same stimulus. For additional information about this process you can read more about Sensitization and Habituation in neurons.

 

[Jones]

In the absence of research into the effects of endogenous tremors for health, Dr Berceli has done a review of the literature available on mechanical vibration.

Here's his review on the literature.

In the early 1900's Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was among the noted pioneers of mechanical vibration with the introduction of the vibrating chair, platform, and bar (Shwarz, 2006). These machines were the forerunners of the current multimillion-dollar industry of vibrating back, foot and neck massagers. The first description of the functioning or the rhythmic neuromuscular stimulations (RNS) method (the technique that today's vibration methodology is based on) dates back to 1960 when Professor W. Biermann, from the former East German Republic, described so-called "cyclical vibrations" as being capable of improving the condition of the joints (by stretching muscles and tendons) relatively quickly (Cardinale & Bosco, 2003).

Russian scientist Vladimir Nazorov utilised the first serious application of vibration on human muscles in the 1970's. He used vibrational stimulation on gymnasts in training for Olympic gold (Isurin & Tenenbaum, 1999). This process was called vibrational therapy. It was performed by having athletes stand on platforms or use machines that produced vibration. Numerous studies demonstrated that low-amplitude and low-frequency mechanical stimulation of the neuromuscular system had positive effects on athletic performance (Carindale & Bosco, 2003; Torvinen et. al., 1999). For many years, it was primarily used by elite athletes to help increase the strength and coordination of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems, as well as to increase the rate at which athletic injuries heal (Bosco et al., 1999).

The last statement makes me wonder if doing the trauma release exercises would make for a faster recovery of HIIT sessions.

Continuing:

Russian scientists also utilised this technology to help their cosmonauts combat the degenerative effects of micro gravity. In the late 1990's Guus van der Meer, Dutch Olympic team trainer - was the first to recognise the benefits of vibration in healthy populations, and, developed the Power Plate.

Over time vibrational therapy developed as a serious field of research known as Biomechanical Stimulation ([BMS], Bosco et al., 1999). It was then used in physical therapy and rehabilitation programs to correct restricted body mobility, range of motion, the coordination of musculoskeletal and nervous systems and to increase the rate of healing injuries (Bosco, Carindale & Tsarpela, 1999; Bosco et al., 2000). BMS research has demonstrated that exposure to vibration frequencies between 20-50Hz increased bone density and was also helpful in providing pain relief and the healing of tendons and muscles (Bosco et al., 1999)

Biomechanical stimulation has evolved into the most recent form of vibrational therapy known as whole body vibration (WBV). Whole body vibration has been recently proposed as an exercise intervention because of its potential for increasing force-generating capacity in the lower limbs (Carindale & Wakeling, 2005). Kerschan - Schildl et al. (2001) have demonstrated that whole body vibrations can positively alter muscle blood volume. It has also been recognised by many professional athletic trainers that low - frequency vibration used as a training tool appears to increase muscle strength (Torvinen, et al., 2002).

He then goes on to list all the ways that mechanical vibration for health and relaxation benefits have become a part of life from vibration chairs at airports to various in home massage devices.


A letter from Dr Robert Scaer, MD gives the following explanation of the tremor process:

The brain is basically forming and discarding neutrons, dendrites and synapses (neural nets) constantly through every perception we receive and ever response that we make. From a neuro - physiological standpoint, it's much more complex than simply forming and/or dissolving good/bad neural nets. During time of tremoring, the product of trauma-induced neural nets, the intrusive as well as unconscious bombardment on our consciousness by trauma-linked messages of threat, seem to be progressively extinguished. Neurogenic tremors therefore appear to be providing the environment for the extinction of negative, and the formation of positive neural nets. Neurogenic tremors therefore, seem to be able to inhibit, or down regulate the amygdala. All effective therapy works through this mechanism. The neural net formation or dissolution feature is a secondary phenomenon, not unique to any technique and in fact common to all. Neurogenic tremors appear to help to provide the optimum environment for this process.

The tremors elicited in the Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) are clearly a reflexogenic pattern held in procedural memory. This is evidenced by their ability to be elicited in every human with relative ease. In this regard, they are a natural part of the genetic composition of the human organism. They do not contain trauma specific cues that can re-elicit specific traumatic experiences, rather they are a generically based discharge of the human organism. In short, neurogenic tremors seem to achieve extinction of a conditioned sensorimotor response. The freeze or immobility response is stored forever in procedural memory unless it is released, or the act of survival is "completed" through a "discharge".

The rest of the book basically proposes that through tremoring, the human body can produce it's own healing vibrations after highly stimulating events or over-arousal of the autonomic nervous system and will choose to if it feels free and safe to.

 

[Jones]

The next contributor to the book is an anthropologist - Erwin Schweitzer, PhD.

He covers some of the research already covered and notes notes the common attitude that trembling is a pathology, while in contrast citing Bradford Keeney (2007: 4 & 5) "....negation of the trembling body constitutes the last great taboo of our time".

He advocates TRE for anthropologist who often have stressful or traumatic experiences while living with and studying other cultures and that makes up for approximately half of what he has written.

However, he does throw in some accounts of cultures that use trembling for healing. While one of the accounts is from myth or legend, others have been directly observed. He does, however, state at the end of his chapter that he doesn't know if the trembling seen in the cultures he mentions is the same as the trembling evoked in the exercises in the book.

He has opened his chapter with the following poem, attributed to Unavnuk, an Inuit shaman (Rasmussen 1999 [1927]:34)

The great sea has set me in motion,
Set me adrift,
Moving me as the weed moves in a river.
The arch of the sky and mightiness of storms
Have moved the spirit within me,
Till I am carried away
Trembling with joy.
​

[....]
According to Inuit tale Uvavnuk sang these words subsequent to a mystic initiatory experience that she had in arctic Canada. One evening a ball of fire appeared in the sky and fell on her. This experience filled her with light and made her sing about "trembling with joy". Following this incident she became a great angakkuq (shaman) (Tedlock 2005: 84-85; Rasmussen 1999 [1927]: 34)

Next Schweitzer states "I use the terms "healing" and "spiritual" in conjunction because these are often intertwined in the cultures which anthropologists study".

There are parts of the next section, having also watched the San Healing Dances on youtube, that remind me of Frank and the Crane Dance etc - so I think it's important to take the warnings about contraindications in the first post seriously.

San Healing Dances

In order to provide the reader an insight into trembling practices of cultures around the world, I will begin with the case of San healing dances. I will focus on one San language group called the Jul'hoansi. The roughly 35,000 Jul'hoansi people mainly reside in Southern Africa within the borders of Nambia and Botswana. [....] San communities come together on a regular basis to sing, dance and tremble to heal individuals as well as the whole community from sickness. Individuals are able to trigger trembling in their whole body and to transfer the tremor through touch to other people.

The San are the tribe that use clicking sounds in their language - where a word has a click sound in it, the click is designated with a '|' or '!' - I'm guessing it depends on which part of the mouth makes the clicking sound.

Hunting and gathering does not constitute their primary mode of subsistence any longer. Rather most individuals sustain their livelihoods with a number of economic activities including wage labor and agriculture. When available, San also make use of modern technology such as mobile phones and cars. Moreover, due to the historic legacy of colonialism and present discrimination by state police, most San people live within largely landless, impoverished communities.

Despite on -going socio-cultural changes, San communities regularly, some even once a week, engage in communal healing dances (Keeney 2007: 63). Every community member - old and young, women and men, sick and healthy - participate in the ritual for healing as well as the prevention of illness (Katz, Biesele, & St. Denis 1997: xvi, 21; Keeney 2007:63). The healing dances are their primary approach to curing. In this context curing must be understood as a holistic practice. It comprises the physical, psychological, social and spiritual well-being of the people (Katz et al., 1997: 18 - 21). It is difficult to establish for how long San people have been practicing their healing dances. Keeney (2007:43 claims that San people possibly possess "the oldest healing practice on Earth".

Maybe not given the latest DNA research for the origins of the human race.

How do San people actually practice their dances? San healing dances are inherently a collective endeavour. Members of the community gradually gather at an open space close to their camp at dusk. They come together around a bonfire. They clap, sing and dance with persistence. The dances may last until dawn (Katz et al., 1997: 19). During the dances, San people believe that they share the spiritual healing power n|om which facilitates strong trembling and shaking (Katz et al., 1997: 18, 115). These tremors can move through the whole body (Keeney 2007: 52). The San woman |Am describes this describes this experience in the following words: "It feels like there is a hole going through your body. You tremble in rhythm, even your crotch trembles. If you reach !aia [healing trance], you call out for water, because you are hot inside. Even if you don't know the songs, you can !aia. The n|om itself tells you how to sing and dance". (Katz et al., 1997: 116)

People who are particularly skilful in trembling and the use of n|om are called n|om-kxaosi, stewards of the n|om. These San healers can pass tremors to other people by touching them with their trembling hands and other body parts (Keeney 2007: 16). San people perceive this transfer as a healer giving an arrow, needle or similar pointed object to the receiver (Keeney 2007: 53) Experienced healers are also able to sense sickness in other peoples's bodies. Through absorbing the illness into themselves and shaking it off, they are believed to cure people (Tedlock 2005: 84)

[...]
Mastering the tremors can take many years of practice. According to Keeney, novice healers learn to shake their body first. The next step in the learning process is to centre the trembling in the belly. From the belly they learn to direct the pulsating movement to the heart. Subsequently, the vibration is directed to the mouth through which sounds are created. Alongside the progress of the trembling skills the practitioners' perspective on healing also transforms. At the beginning of their learning process healers tend to perceive their skills as a form of personal power. The healing is seen as a battle against evil spirits. However, the better they become in trembling and the use of n|om, - love and compassion toward other people and beings becomes the focus of the healing process (Keeney 2007: 52, 67-68)

I wonder if the move to love and compassion comes from confidence through practice, that no matter what happens you can just shake it off? I also wonder if the dances themselves cause neurogenic tremors that kick off the healing trembling response of the body?

Next, the Dine (that has a mark over the 'e' and I don't know how to make my keyboard do that), otherwise known as Navajo, so I'll use Navajo.

Keeney (2007: 43) notes: "More than anyone, the shamans have been the technicians and masters of ecstatic experience. They are the experts of shaking medicine." Tedlock reports that the uninitiated shamans among the Navajo people of the southwestern USA, are seized by uncontainable trembling. Navajo people perceive this trembling as a symptom of spirit possession. After novice shamans learn to control the tremoring, they can also utilise it or diagnosing other people's sickness (Tedlock 2005: 84). Similar to the Navajo shamans, many reports about trembling shamans in South America and Siberia exist.

He also has a few sentences about some South American/Mexican traditions that include trembling and also makes references to some Western religions that use trembling and glossolalia but doesn't give much further information about them.

 

[Jones]

Central Pattern Generators (CPG) in Tremorgenesis - Riccardo Cassiani Ingoni, Phd.

Ingoni recounts some personal experiences of shock and trauma where he ended up tremoring. He studied biology and neuroscience.

I decided to investigate the neuroscience of involuntary movements in trauma, first as a subject of my masters theses in neuropathology and then in my doctoral program in neurophysiology. This led me to the role of central pattern generators in tremor genesis. Central pattern generators (CPG) are neural networks that can endogenously (i.e. without rhythmic sensory or central input) produce rhythmic patterned outputs; these networks underlie the production of most rhythmic motor patterns.

Tremor is one of the most common types of involuntary movement, which can affect a single muscle of the body or the whole organism at once. A very common kind of tremor is the chattering of the teeth that is experienced in cold temperatures but also during fearful events.

He then goes on to catalogue the different types of involuntary reflexes - knee jerk, pupil dilation, yawning, sneezing etc. These are considered stereotypical, programmed into our neurophysiology, and are activated in a graded fashion depending on intensity of the stimulation.

The biological mechanisms of complex rhythmic movement and the basic rhythmicity of tremors are beginning to be elucidated. These discoveries point to the existence of a phylogenetically (natural evolutionary relationship) conserved mechanism in the nervous systems of all animals. Such mechanisms are comprised primarily of specific neural circuits located in the spine, which have been termed 'central pattern generators.'

CPG's are a unique kind of neural network. These nets consist of groups of neutrons that are linked functionally to each other in a way that the electric firing between the cells is cooperative and it autonomously produces a rhythmic patterned output. In essence, the activation (by a sensory input) of a few higher-order neutrons initiates a cascade of communication between all other cells that is based on reciprocal facilitation and inhibition within the network that culminates in one rhythmic output to the effector organ. Spinal CPG's underlie the production of most rhythmic motor patterns and coordinated body motions in the absence of another rhythmic sensory input from the muscles or from other centres in the brain.

In the attempt to characterise the biological features of CPG's, scientific research has focused initially on less complex neural systems like the ones found in invertebrates. Earlier studies were carried out in vitro on the nervous systems of insects. The first evidence that rhythmic motor patterns are generated autonomously by the central nervous system was the demonstration that the locust nervous system, when isolated from the animal, could produce rhythmic activity resembling that observed during flight of the living animal. Subsequent work in a wide variety of animals showed that he nervous systems isolated from their sensory organs could produce rhythmic outputs to the muscles resembling that observed during normal walking, swimming, or flying. The research on CPG's demonstrated that this network-based rhythmicity does not depend on the nervous system acting as a whole, but that CPG's are relatively small circuits of cells that are embedded within discrete portions of the spinal cord and of the brain stem. This finding is interesting because it suggests that very complex movements like terrestrial locomotion are especially efficient albeit they do not require the brain as the main coordinator of each single muscle and body part involved. The reciprocal coordination of left and right sides required for behaviours like undulatory swimming and locomotion is built - in. Although sensory feedback and the mechanical properties of the musculoskeletal system contribute to the global coordination, they are not strictly required. This explains why experiments in limbed vertebrates have shown that individual limbs can produce stepping movements. Likewise, experiments in fishes and invertebrates have shown that a few or even single segments of the spinal cord can produce a basic swimming pattern.

The same mechanisms are likely involved generating generalised body tremors. The role of the brain and of the sensory feedback from the periphery to the spinal CPG's modulates their intrinsic motor pattern so that they can adjust to environmental changes. Still little is known, however, about how all of this is achieved with such precision. CPG's would have evolved so that, in response to sensory input from the muscles, the network is first activated and then it can assume multiple configurations that produce different motor outputs. This implies that there is a lot of neural plasticity happening in the spine during shaking. CPG's in brainstem and spinal cord neurology have a role in regulating the kind of proprioception and interoceptive stimuli reaching the higher associative areas in the brain, thus regulating sensory-motor integration qualitatively and quantitatively.

This is where it gets interesting and starts to talk about how CPG's and tremoring may help with emotional healing.

How is the brain affected by spinal CPG's? Sensory-motor efficiency and interoceptive awareness (perception of physical sensations/bodily states arising from musculo-skeletal, autonomic nervous, and endocrine system influences) have a big role in the context of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One important threat- sensitivity brain circuit that is linked to both interception and proprioception is called the 'salience network', which includes brain sites such as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the front insular cortex. This network plays a function in salience detection, which pertains to the ability of directing one's behaviour to the most pertinent actions to maintain homeostasis. This ability is based primarily on one's awareness of bodily sensations. In conjunction with the amygdala, disregulation of the salience network in PTSD is known to produce symptoms of hyper arousal and hyper vigilance, emotional detachment, and alterations in interoceptive awareness. One possibility is that movement-based embodied interventions involving body tremors may have a function in restoring correct interception and proprioception though a normalisation of the brain's salience network.

Pattern Generation in TRE

Several types of movement patterns observed in TRE have typical features of CPG-driven motions. Besides the high-frequency muscular tremors, many other rhythmic and cyclical movement patterns observed in a TRE session appear to be expressions of CPG activation. One such typical pattern is the coordinated undulation of the entire vertebral column that resembles the movement scheme employed for swimming. Another example is the release of the diaphragm through spontaneous emergence of cycles of contraction and relaxation of this muscle. The basic neurology underlying the movements is almost entirely of spinal cord origin - while the higher-order brain derived inputs are involved in the voluntary and involuntary modulation of this intrinsic rhythmicity. Conscious suppression of the diaphragmatic spasms associated with crying could represent an example of top - down control of the brain that overrides the spontaneous neurology associated with a certain behaviour and wit emotional expression. This suppression leads to chronic contraction patterns associated with emotional numbing. It is plausible that TRE elicits and endogenous neurological process by which a disinhibition/facilitation of the body's intrinsic movement patterns leads to a re-organisation of spinal cord neurology. The reduction of the tonic inhibitory action exerted by the cortex on the spinal CPG's, together with the facilitation of homeostatic processes between spine and brainstem, and the feedback of this renewed plasticity to associative brain areas related to emotional expression of limbic system origin and in the cortex, are all factors which may lead in time to increasingly better emotional regulation and augmented self-awareness.

Basic features of CPG's in Tremorgenesis
- Supraspinal structures (brain) do not organise basic motor patterns.
- Rhythm can be produced by neuronal circuits contained entirely in the segments of the spinal cord.
- Spinal circuits can be modulated by tonic descending signals from the brain (although descending signals do not contain the rhythmic pattern evoked in the spinal cord.)
- Spinal CPG networks do not require sensory input (from the muscles) but are strongly regulated by it.
- Once a certain threshold of activation is reached in CPG's in one spinal segment this can activate others below and above it's location like a domino effect.

Role of sensory feedback
- Controls the timing of the different phases in the cycle.
- Shapes the pattern of muscle activity within a cycle by reflex pathways to motor neurone.
- Contributes to excitation of the motor neurone.

Role of the brain
- Voluntary control, can facilitate, inhibit, or repress movement to some degree (exhibited in the common behavioural freeze-flood-dissociation response)
- Integrates sensory experience with emotional experience.

 

[MildredStewart]

Are you talking about this book?

I saw it on Amazon and thinking about buying it.

 

[Jones]

Yes, that's the one. There are a few earlier ones by the same author:

"Trauma Releasing Exercises"
https://www.amazon.com/Trauma-Relea...2323275&sr=1-1&refinements=p_27:David+Berceli

And
"The Revolutionary Trauma Release Process: Transcend Your Toughest Times"
https://www.amazon.com/Revolutionar...2323275&sr=1-2&refinements=p_27:David+Berceli

The idea doesn't seem to be too complex, though I haven't read the other two books so there may be more info that's helpful.

I've done a number of sessions, some with the exercises to kick off the tremoring and some without. I noticed on some of the youtube discussions that not everyone needs to do the exercises at all times to generate the tremoring.

Also a body worker mentions in the first book that he can see where there are blockages in the body by the tremoring patterns/cycles and that gives him an idea of what he needs to work with. I haven't had the tremors move any higher than about diaphragm level and I suspect some kind of blockage in my thoracic spine area. I was in a car accident last year and had injuries mainly to my upper body, neck and head so I was curious to see if the tremoring revealed anything held in those areas. It would be good to work with a practitioner though because they seem to be able to suggest things like placement of feet and position of knee changes to facilitate the tremoring. They also sometimes support the head and neck. There may be more information about what and why they're doing that in the earlier books. It could just mean that those area's will take care of themselves with time and practice.

I note that the after effects seem to be subtly calming.

 

[seek10]

I thought I will give a try to these trauma release exercises (TRE), as I know I have lot of body stored trauma that comes out in sleep. Before I tried with Rolfer, but it didn't work out that much as my body was reacting too much and we have few rolphers around here and too costly etc.

I could find very few video's that has all the exercises in sequence and without all that theory. Here is one. Total 7 exercises , 5 warmup, last two essential ones, Most of the you tube video tend to show last 2.

I took some screen shots of process and tried couple of days back. I should say WoW!. I wasn't expecting that much release in so short time. Body felt so light after that and had a very peaceful sleep after some time. There is some thing to these exercises. I did found my self having doubts of left hip nerve pinch problem(faced 3 months back.) coming back. I visited my chiropractor who thought, while shaking body ( involuntary process) my hips joints might have come too close. He asked to me put some pillows or some thing like that so that hips doesn't move too far. yesterday, I tried shorter version of last 2 exercises. It was very good. I also registered for a TRE class here.

 

[beetlemaniac]

I thought I will give a try to these trauma release exercises (TRE), as I know I have lot of body stored trauma that comes out in sleep. Before I tried with Rolfer, but it didn't work out that much as my body was reacting too much and we have few rolphers around here and too costly etc.

I could find very few video's that has all the exercises in sequence and without all that theory. Here is one. Total 7 exercises , 5 warmup, last two essential ones, Most of the you tube video tend to show last 2.

I took some screen shots of process and tried couple of days back. I should say WoW!. I wasn't expecting that much release in so short time. Body felt so light after that and had a very peaceful sleep after some time. There is some thing to these exercises. I did found my self having doubts of left hip nerve pinch problem(faced 3 months back.) coming back. I visited my chiropractor who thought, while shaking body ( involuntary process) my hips joints might have come too close. He asked to me put some pillows or some thing like that so that hips doesn't move too far. yesterday, I tried shorter version of last 2 exercises. It was very good. I also registered for a TRE class here.

Thanks for posting the video seek10, the exercises were really easy to follow. I couldn't get my thighs to stop shaking at the end of the exercise! It might be worthwhile to keep at this for a while to see if the shakes go away. The only issue is that it does take a bit of time, and prolonged lifting up of the hip can tire you out. All in all, worth trying just to experience it's effects. I thought it would be limited to just the shaking of limbs, but after a point, during the last exercise my thighs were literally vibrating in place! It's quite a phenomena and something I haven't experienced before. I did notice some dream activity last night, though it was a little unclear what the dream was about. I remember seeing Joe Quinn in it though .

 

[seek10]

Thanks for posting the video seek10, the exercises were really easy to follow. I couldn't get my thighs to stop shaking at the end of the exercise! It might be worthwhile to keep at this for a while to see if the shakes go away. The only issue is that it does take a bit of time, and prolonged lifting up of the hip can tire you out. All in all, worth trying just to experience it's effects. I thought it would be limited to just the shaking of limbs, but after a point, during the last exercise my thighs were literally vibrating in place! It's quite a phenomena and something I haven't experienced before. I did notice some dream activity last night, though it was a little unclear what the dream was about. I remember seeing Joe Quinn in it though .

Based on the video's i have seen, shaking is for very normal. first time when I did, had shaking for around 10 min or more. Second time after two days, it wasn't much. some times, shutting down emotions to get by can be stored in the body that can be released. I too observed the dreams were clearer and if i don't write it down immediately I tend to forget.

 

[Jones]

I've stopped lower body exercises for a while because I found that I've been carrying a broken lumbar vertebrae that is displaced by over 1cm (spondylolisthesis) and I'm waiting on an MRI to determine the level of spinal cord/nerve root compression as well as further advice on exercises after that. So I'm limited to walking and swimming for a while - not so hard because I find it uncomfortable to sit for more than 15 -20 mins at a time so I walk lots in short bursts - generally pacing around and around the outdoor table while I have a smoke. I had no idea why that pattern had become habitual until the broken vertebrae was found. I used to say to people that I can't sit for long because my body starts to feel stale!

Anyway, I have been continuing some upper body exercises for posture improvement. These have been good because they have given muscle memory and I'm noticing more regularly when I lapse into bad posture habits in my neck and shoulders. I've read somewhere that poor upper body posture can be a frozen partial fetal curl response to trauma, so it has been interesting to notice how I'm now catching my poor upper body posture in stress reactions, noticing the dull aches that the poor posture induces and being able adjust back to a better posture.

Higher up in the thread I mentioned that an assistant to the TRE process sometimes supports the head or neck to assist with the tremoring. I've also noticed that I can now tuck my chin, stretch my crown toward the sky and arch my neck back a little to induce tremoring in my upper back and shoulders - it's kind of like a shudder, sometimes produces goose bumps and on one occasion my shoulders went into a bit of a wild wobble that flapped my arms about for about a minute.

@seek10 I'd be interested in hearing how the class goes.

 

[seek10]

@seek10 I'd be interested in hearing how the class goes.

I attended the TRE class as planned organized by a Yoga teacher who is also certified TRE facilitator. She went through some theory and 7 exercises in the previous video i posted. Since each exercise is meant to stimulate ( or partially strain to level 7 out of 10), there are many variations to each exercise, if some body is constrained some physical issues. But one don't need to do all these exercises every time. According to her, these exercise only opens the flood gates, once opened you don't need to do all the last part -laying down and shake part.
She suggested Do it slowly first max 3 or 4 times a week , each session 10 or 15 min max , Even shaking portion do take of breaks for each 1 or 2 minutes.

If body continue to shake one can try with creating strong hand fist. There were some medication dependent patients in the class and there are some people who got sudden memories of forgotten past troubles and wondering how to react. It does seems to do emotional release and it makes sense if emotions are stored in the physical body.

She mentioned some extreme cases from her training classes with Dr. Berceli. In one case, a woman came to class, she kept shaking for days and kept calling them with panic. she also mentioned it is normal to people shake even after doing it many years as we keep accumulating the stresses of the day and store it.

 

[Jones]

she also mentioned it is normal to people shake even after doing it many years as we keep accumulating the stresses of the day and store it.

That makes sense. Thanks for sharing.