Families are being traumatized at an ever increasing rate around the world. Due to domestic violence, family and school violence, accidents, natural disasters and political unrest individual family members and even entire families are experiencing trauma. Until now, the only method for recovery from trauma meant going to a private or family counselor. Unfortunately these methods of healing are expensive and mainly for those who have availability to these services. Many families who experience trauma however belong to a financial and social class that cannot gain access to these services.

For these and many other reasons, trauma recovery programs are in need of a new paradigm. One in which the family is self-empowered and the healing process can be self-guided. We need new ways in which families can safely engage in their own recovery process. We need methodologies that can be easily learned, self-applied without the guidance of a therapist, have immediate and clear results and can be integrated into a daily family routine.

Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) are designed precisely around these ideas. The exercises are safe and can be practiced by the entire family or support group. They have immediate healing results which can be felt and seen by each individual. After completing the exercises the entire group or family can discuss the physical, psychological and emotional effects the exercises produced. When these exercises are done together they help everyone involved to soften their bodies so that they can listen better, empathize more deeply and respond more honestly to the pain and human suffering that trauma so often evokes.

While working in Africa and the Middle East I discovered that clients who came to me with post traumatic stress symptoms never came alone. They always came with family members or close friends. It was during this time that I began to introduce entire families and support groups to these exercises. The results were astonishing. Families, friends and colleagues began to assist their loved ones in the healing process and actually used the trauma recovery process to bring them closer together rather than allowed trauma to damage the very fabric of family and friend relationships.

I quickly learned that many cultures do not have the concept of healing as an individual or in private therapy sessions. They recognize that the individual who is suffering is going to heal through the support of family, friends and loved ones. They can not even fathom the idea of sending a family member or close friend to a therapist alone. It is as though they are abandoning their friend or family member if they allow them to go to therapy without someone to accompany them.

Using the Trauma Releasing Exercises allows the family to regain control of the overwhelming feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that so often grip the traumatized family. By using these exercises regularly, family members will discover that these exercises not only assist them in the trauma recovery process but they help restore a sense of inner calmness and security that enhances self-confidence in every dimension of their lives.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Information on this site is for information purposes only and not intended to constitute professional advice as circumstances will vary from person to person. Likewise, the results and the performance of Trauma Releasing Exercises and the additional trauma information is assumed by the user, and in no event shall TRAPS or David Berceli be liable for any consequential, incidental or direct injuries suffered in the course of using the exercises or information in this web site. Use of the information contained in this web site may contain restrictions on use.