Click on the following link that will lead you to a 20 minute on-line interview of Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) – a bodily approach to healing trauma. Conscious Media Network

Click on the following link to see a visual example of Neurogenic Tremors created during the Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE).

Click on the following link to hear four women speak of their experience of the Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE).

Click on the following ling to hear a therapists reflection on using Trauma Releasing exercises.

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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been clearly identified as one of the biggest problems facing active duty military returning from Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) (Gupta, 2004). Even the estimated reports that one out of every eight soldiers who fought in Iraq suffers from PTSD symptoms may be conservative (Hoge et al., 2004). Additionally, according to Friedmans study (2004) there is substantial reason for concern that the reported prevalence of PTSD among returning soldiers will increase in the coming years.

Friedmans study also presents the alarming insight that many soldiers refuse to seek help due to the perception of PTSD. Many fear that admitting to experiencing symptoms of PTSD could harm their careers, cause them to have difficulties with their peers or superiors, or be a stigmatizing admission of an inherent weakness of character. PTSD among the military is often seen as a failure, a weakness, an embarrassment, and evidence of an innate deficiency of the right stuff (Gupta, 2004). A perfect example of this can be found in a personal story of a soldier from the front line. He arrives on the scene right after an ambush and recalls an even more horrific sight than the battle itself.

“All I could see is the shredded remains of an Iraqi soldier. Really, it could have been a goat or a pig. Just unrecognizable guts in a body bag that was half unzipped back at the base where the bloody soldiers returning from the ambush were explaining and shouting and laughing. The young soldier who’d done the killing, or believed himself responsible, was sitting there shaking like a dog in a thunderstorm. It was hard to believe a person could shake like that. Hilarious. That was the consensus. Hilarious! Look at him! He cant take it!…He’s breaking down! He can’t handle it!” (Laskas, 2004, p. 58).

This serious misconception about PTSD has the power to deter many active-duty personnel from seeking the mental health care they may desperately need (Britt, 2000; Kellicker, 2004).  Hoge et al., study (2004) revealed that those returning from Iraq who reported the most severe symptoms were the least likely to seek treatment.

The government is aware of and very concerned about the enormity and severity of this problem. As a result of these findings (Gupta, 2004; Hoge et al., 2004; Britt, 2000; Kellicker, 2004), the Department of Defense has become more active in providing mental health care in the war zone. The Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD and the Defense Department’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center are all collaborating to provide mental health care in the United States and are committed to monitoring the progress of this disorder (Friedman, 2004). Additionally, Congressman Harold Ford recently introduced legislation that seeks to authorize $100 million to supplement the Department of Veterans Affairs patient capacity (Ford Introduces, 2004). Congressman Bernie Sanders also announced a $5 million federal grant that will go toward Gulf War syndrome research (Sanders Announces, 2005).

In light of the prevalence of PTSD and the hesitation to seek appropriate medical care, a methodology for PTSD prevention and recovery that can be applied to large-scale populations, can be self-directed, is immediately effective and can also be integrated into the lives of normal military activity is needed. Successful research into a body based prevention and recovery process for PTSD symptoms would prove to be of paramount importance. If a body-based methodology can be designed, it would be both personnel-efficient and cost-effective.

Until recently, research and recovery methods for PTSD remained primarily in the field of psychology which involved long or short term counseling utilizing various cognitive and behavioral techniques. Ogden and Minton (2000) explain that the limitation with these traditional psychotherapeutic techniques is that they simply address the cognitive and emotional elements of trauma. However, they lack techniques that work directly with the physiological manifestations of trauma.

Because of a new era of cross fertilization of scientific fields of study such as psychobiology and neurophysiology, PTSD has entered a new era of research that combines the psychology with the physiology of the client (van der Kolk, 1994). The scientific basis for psycho-physiology resides in the systematic investigation of body-mind relations (Porges, 1995). Psychophysiology emphasizes the continuity between neuro-physiological and psychological processing. This is a diversion from the antithetical view of mind-body evaluations that has dominated psychology and psychiatry until recent years. Research by psycho-physiologists has demonstrated that the nervous system provides the functional units for the bidirectional transduction of psychological and physiological processes. Thus, from a psycho-physiological perspective, it is possible to link, not merely in theory, but also via measurement, psychological processes with neuro-physiological processes and brain structures (Porges, p. 302).

It is now recognized that the objectives of these intricately coordinated neuro-physiological defenses during a traumatic event are for the purpose of maximizing the individuals chances of surviving the traumatic event (Nijenhuis & Van der Hart, 1999). However, despite this clear neuro-physiological relationship in PTSD, there is scant medical literature and research that addresses this attempted crossover with psychotherapeutic techniques. Given the gravity of the present situation of PTSD among military personnel, continued research into psycho-physiological techniques of recovery is warranted, particularly since many manifestations of the post trauma symptoms reported by these soldiers consist of a combination of psychological and physiological disorders.

Neuro-physiological studies in animal experimentation have already demonstrated that physiological shock occurs during the time of a traumatic event. This shock produces a sharp and immediate biochemical reaction in the animal causing the secretion of protective hormones (Deuschl, Raethjen, Lindemann, Krack, 2001). The increase in protective hormones is accompanied by a high energetic charge in the musculature of the body. This provides the organism with the ability to create a fight/flight or freeze response. This is also true of humans. Additional neuro-physiological research in animal experimentation has also demonstrated that after the traumatic event animals utilize an innate neurogenic trembling mechanism (similar to the soldiers trembling in the story mentioned earlier) that discharges the high biochemical and neuromuscular charge from the body thereby facilitating a spontaneous recovery from the traumatic event (Feldman, 2004; Levine, 2002; Muggenthaler, 2001; Scaer, 2001). This trembling mechanism according to animal researchers provides animals with a built-in immunity to trauma that enables them to return to normal life in the wild after a highly charged life-threatening experience (Levine, 2002). Muggenthaler (2001) offers additional theoretical insight into these tremors exhibited by animals. Her research demonstrated that these tremors involve an expenditure of energy at a particularly vulnerable time of physical stress. Since animals do not expend energy uselessly during a threatening or stressful event, it would indicate then that these tremors are somehow involved in the survival process. She believes that for these tremors to have survived the evolution of the species, there must be a survival advantage to this behavior. Scaer (2001) states that experiments on animals who were not allowed to successfully go though this tremoring process had a reduced resiliency to subsequent life threatening experiences.

Recent research and literature on the effects of tremors in humans after a traumatic episode is corroborating the same evidence previously reported in animal research. Psychogenic tremors in humans, much the same as the instinctual tremors in animals, is the natural response of a shocked or disrupted nervous system attempting to restore the neuro-physiologic homeostasis of the body (Feldman, 2004; van der Kolk, & van der Hart, 1991). This restorative mechanism allows the organism to thaw out or release itself from the freeze response in the human just as it does in the animal species (Feldman, 2004; Heller & Heller, 1977; Scaer, 2001). Levine (2002) proposes that the key to healing traumatic symptoms in humans lies in our ability to mirror the fluid adaptation of wild animals as they ’shake out’ and pass through the immobility response and become fully mobile and functional again (p. 18). By reinforcing and harnessing these primordial and instinctual tremors instead of treating them as a pathology, humans, like animals, can resolve the somatic expressions of their trauma so that the homeostasis of the human organism can be restored (Levine, 2004).

It is well-known and documented that psychogenic tremors are a common result of a traumatic event. Although there are no precise estimates of the incidence and prevalence of psychogenic tremors, clinical experience suggests that it is not rare (Chou, 2004). The psychogenic tremors commonly reported in PTSD are also recognized as diagnostic features of Panic Attacks (300.21), Social Phobias (300.23), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (300.02) of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR, 2000).  The onset of these tremors can often be attributed to a traumatic event (Walters & Hening, 1992; Smaga 2003). Even though it is well accepted that body tremors are commonly present in a number of psychological illnesses, the purpose, etiology and potential therapeutic value of these tremors has received little attention in relation to the number of cases reported. Although the patho-physiology of tremors has made significant progress, many hypotheses on the purpose and value of these tremors are not yet based on sufficient data. Modern psycho-physiology needs to develop and test various hypotheses as a way of developing a rational medical theory and therapy to address this phenomenon (Deuschl et al., 2001).

Numerous therapeutic techniques have attempted to extend or translate the therapeutic value of psychogenic tremors from animal research to human clinical phenomenon. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (Ogden & Minton, 2000), Somatic Experiencing (Levine, 2001) and Bioenergetic Analysis (Lowen, 1977), are just a few examples of psychotherapeutic techniques that apply the use of psychogenic tremors as a form of trauma recovery. Reports on the efficacy of treatments that include psychogenic tremoring show significant positive changes in their clients (Ventling & Gerhard, 2000). Additional literature has reported similar findings regarding the use of body tremors as a therapeutic intervention. It has been found therapeutically effective with women (Ladas & Ladas, 1977),  children (Ventling, 2001), and persons who experience violence and war induced traumas (Berceli, 2002, 2003, 2005). It is also effective in the alleviation of migraine headaches (Mahr, 1991) and as an effective psychotherapeutic process (Mahr, 1995, 1996; Gudat, 1997).

Somatic clinical approaches that utilize the tremoring reaction of the body as a means of assimilation and integration are part of a developing field of research with encouraging results. Some are firmly grounded in neuro-physiological and neuro-anatomical data and others are more speculative. However, results from these modalities substantiate the growing consensus that the human species possesses the innate potential to heal even the most debilitating traumatic injuries (Levine, 2002). It is precisely here, in the innate potential of the human organism that a possible methodology can and should be explored. Due to the seriousness and pervasiveness of the problem of high rates of PTSD among military personnel, the development of a self-help methodology of trauma prevention and recovery is imperative.

Scott & Stradling (2001) offer a very poignant insight into the future of therapeutic intervention and possibly the beginning of a paradigmatic shift in PTSD recovery.

Because of recent advancement in research into the biological plausibility of PTSD symptoms, the cognitive-behavioral (CB) paradigm has shifted from a stimulus-response (S-R) model to a stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model. This paradigmatic shift of the biological response in PTSD has created the awareness that CB models and biological models must be complementary to, and consistent with, each other. Because of the interplay between the neuro-chemical and neuro-anatomical experiences of PTSD the psycho-biological experiences of PTSD must be addressed in order to provide a flexible and successful treatment rationale. However, despite this awareness, effective methodologies of clinical practice have not made much progress in addressing this new parallel psycho-biology.

If the restoration of a psycho-somatic homeostasis can be achieved through the successful and complete release of psychogenic tremors, the possibility exists that a new methodology for PTSD prevention and recovery can be designed that is applicable to large-scale populations, can be self-directed, is immediately effective and can also be integrated into the lives of normal military activity. Military training programs can include an exercise routine in their basic training that elicits psychogenic tremors. This body-based therapy can provide military personnel with a safe and effective method to both monitor and resolve PTSD symptoms as they experience them. This self-guided technique can provide immediate relief of PTSD symptoms where the U.S. military psychologists claim they are most desperately needed – in the line of duty (Rabasca, 2000).

The hypothesis of such a research study is that through the process of bidirectional transduction, the bodys natural tremoring mechanisms can restore the psycho-emotional homeostasis of the individual. Once this homeostasis is restored, there should be a measurable reduction in the reported psycho-somatic symptoms of PTSD. By providing a method for the organic release of the psychogenic tremoring reaction in the individual, the young soldier whod done the killing, or believed himself responsible will no longer sit there shaking like a dog in a thunderstorm while his colleagues conclude: Hilarious! Look at him! He cant take it!… Hes breaking down! He cant handle it! (Laskas, 2004, p.58).

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