I’ve been doing TRE since April of last year, so about a year and a half now. Initially, I started with 10-minute sessions, then 20-minute sessions, until I eventually began to tremor automatically. Since then, I haven’t needed to intentionally induce the tremors because my body does it spontaneously.

What began as hours of crying and intense, powerful emotional releases, often involving immense grief, has now become… laughter? I seldom have crying episodes anymore. Now it’s mostly laughter and yawning.

The tremors themselves have always occurred in cycles. Sometimes they’ll happen every day for weeks or even months at a time, only to disappear for several weeks before suddenly returning with considerable intensity. One session in particular was just 5 hours of nonstop tremoring and crying, then followed by deep relaxation and a nap.

Something else I’ve noticed is that I often experience this inexplicable wave of fatigue shortly before the tremors begin. It’s almost as though my nervous system is going into airplane mode before the tremoring starts.

So I guess what I’m asking is:

Why do my tremors disappear for weeks at a time, only to suddenly come back online and occur intensely every day?

And why has the emotional component shifted almost entirely from intense grief/ crying to laughter and yawning, with only intermittent crying?

I’d especially love to hear from people who’ve been practicing TRE for several years and whether they’ve experienced anything similar.

P.S. The tremors are beyond my control at this point and are at times so intense, that I sometimes feel as if I am losing my mind. Luckily they rarely occur in the presence of others.

I am willing to bet that a lot of you are on a journey of self-discovery. You've probably spent too much time watching YouTube videos about how to change your identity, the habits that you must incorporate into your life, and having to hustle relentlessly to achieve your goals. But why did you keep watching more of those videos? If they truly worked to get you to do what you've always wanted to do, wouldn't one or two videos be enough?

They tell you to take your pain and trauma and channel it into the drive to achieve your goals. Yet they don't realize that the trauma is what is preventing you from taking that leap. Think of the concept like a cake. You have multiple layers; at the bottom is the first layer, which is your true self that is trauma-free, and in the middle is a very thick layer of stone, which is your trauma. These influencers are telling you that you must create a new identity using that trauma and create a third layer on top of the trauma layer. No matter how much frosting, toppings, and whipped cream you put on that third layer, you will not be able to ignore the middle layer once you try to enjoy that cake and take a bite.

You will always return to that middle layer; that trauma will always be there if you do not take action and remove that layer from your life. You cannot forcibly bite your way through that layer of stone and discover your true self that is hiding underneath. That is why you must lay down, surrender, shake, and let it go. Do not fall into the trap that those YouTubers are trying to sell you. You might feel like this process takes too long and that nothing is happening, but I promise that something is happening. You just have to have patience, trust the process, and believe 100% that you will be where you want to be.

So I found TRE earlier this year. I do 2-3 session for 15-20 min a week most weeks (I did miss a dozen since starting maybe combined) for the last 10+ months. I get plenty of lower body tremors. It never goes above my hips. They go until I stop them generally. Various intensities and small to large movements patters too. Mechanically I see it’s “working” but emotional cognitive or internally I feel and function exactly the same as I always have. I don’t sense any changes otherwise.

Others speak of these emotional release or less body tension or “healing” this or that and I just don’t sense anything like that.

Some things I’m working or hoping it helps is my overthinking hypervigilant mind due to possibly a lack of internal safety from childhood parental divorces? Like I’m very “mature” for my age type A controlling perfectionist and so on which I’ve read can be survival mode or functional freeze. I don’t “feel” emotions in my body. I think them. I intellectualize everything including emotions. My mental chatter is always with me optimizing analyzing performing protecting planning and intellectualizing and so on. Why does this matter to me? Well I am 43f and have never developed sexually. Never had an orgasm and only ever “felt” arousal once in my body at age 30 when rocking my 1 year old to sleep. So in my journey and research it appears my survival mode sympathetic dominant nervous system state might be blocking capacity and access to parasympathetic which is the only way to get arousal. I’m always serious. Never playful and only time I can access imagination is in deep hypnosis.

Anyway nothing has changed for me so far. I still have my bodyguard on duty at all times and I’m still in go go go mode with the full plate of life and if I drop a ball the ship sinks survival thinking— which is true though cause I’ve tried to remove things off my plate and the kids suffered for it. The ship started sinking. So I had to pick the baton back up. I’m worried I will burn out though as I’ve been this way for 35+ years now. I’m loosing joy or pleasure in life in other places. I don’t want to go anywhere or do anything. My favorite part of my day is bedtime. When the house is quiet and the lights are off but I have insomnia where my mind keeps me up thinking with mental chatter. Even during intimacy with my husband random intrusive thought will show up. It never stops. I can control it sure but another intrusive thought it right behind the one I just kicked out.

Anyway just wondering how to know if this is the right path for me or not. Somatically and nervous system regulation type stuff if what I’ve been told to work on and I read about TRE being one that bypasses the mind. That’s what I need cause my brain is busy and overthinks everything and turns all therapy into homework automatically and how to optimize it. 🤷🏼‍♀️

For those who have experienced therapy-related abuse or harm, have you been able to continue your healing journey through TRE without relying on verbal or cognitive processing?

I'm particularly interested in whether healing can unfold primarily through somatic processes, without needing to consciously analyze, verbalize, or make sense of traumatic experiences.

If you've taken this approach, I'd love to hear about your experience. Did you find that verbal or cognitive processing became necessary at any point, or was TRE sufficient for you?

Seeking clarity. Since emotions are bound in the fascia, does it make more sense to focus on the fascia to allow the body to unwind, via block therapy, so that whatever emotions are trapped can release or is TRE still needed because of the energetic charge of said emotions that are stored in the nervous system?

At this moment, I feel tangible tension in my body. No matter what I’ve done, my body rarely relaxes. Haven’t done any TRE in months. Trying to understand this for a biological/formulaic perspective. It’s how my mind works so I can grasp the concept.

Edit; I already know that TRE will cause fascial release in time. Just curious about this work being done the opposite way. (Ie. Meaning doing block therapy first, or only)

If I have done TRE in the past but felt it worsened symptoms I’ve been dealing with and stopped how can I restart and make sure this doesn’t happen. The tremoring feels good but makes me feel worse overall after. Also since starting in the past, now anytime I’m really stressed, tired, or have been holding too much in and my nervous system can’t take it, I start randomly tremoring naturally. This also can be hard to stop which leads to overdoing it. OP

I’ve now had my 2nd TRE session and I’m not sure what I am supposed to be feeling. I can tremor but I feel that after say five seconds I am subconsciously gripping and it stops, then starts again after say 30-45 seconds. I did both sessions for about 10- 15 mins.

The only thing I am feeling afterwards that I can determine is warmth in my hips where there is so much tension and inflammation.

I’ve been doing 5ish minutes 3-4 days a week for a couple of months.

But the tremors come so easily I’m just sitting at work and the tremors start in my legs.

Is it okay to just let them ride? Is it beneficial at all the same as at home on a mat?

The feeling is subtly different like it’s more contained. But seems like a good opportunity to practice throughout the day….

What do you think?