Episode 27 TRE- Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises and Polyvagal Theory- Helping the body to let go of held stress

Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) Podcast- A Polyvagal Theory Informed Therapy

Hello and welcome to Episode 27. Today I have a very rich discussion with Richmond Heath, Physiotherapist, about TRE ( Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises.) Richmond is the Executive Director of Trauma Release Australia and a Level 3 TRE trainer. He was responsible for bringing Dr David Berceli and TRE to Australia in 2011.
Richmond also holds an Advanced Diploma of Aboriginal Studies, is a qualified Bowen Therapist, teaches Clinical Pilates, and has a diverse background in both public and private health sectors including youth, community, mental and indigenous health. Richmond coordinates the professional training and supervision of TRE trainers Australia wide providing TRE workshops and training for groups, corporations, organizations and local regions all around Australia and Asia Pacific.
I am sure you all will sense from Richmond his passion for TRE, not only in his own personal journey but to bring this approach to others.
As you will hear, the theoretical premise of TRE is very much embedded in PVT. In our journey as practitioners, we know that we need a variety of tools to draw from as every nervous system we support is unique. SSP practitioners who incorporate TRE have shared with me they find an integrated approach critical to help resource the nervous system.
Please enjoy my conversation with Richmond.
Some points from our conversation but please listen in as Richmond discusses Polyvagal Theory from a slightly different lens.

• TRE Founder David Berceli once posited – “Just as the defence cascade is a subcortical phylogenetically ordered pathway, doesn’t it make sense that the body would have evolved a similar subcortical & phylogenetically ordered pathway to release or come back out of those defensive states?”
• ‘Coming down the curve’ - allowing all our systems of the body to restore themselves to their natural variable, flexible pulsation & movement
• When Stephen Porges attended a TRE Global Summit, he summarised the spontaneous movements invoked with TRE like this:
  • “Tension (or collapse) in the body is a defensive response”
  • “TRE is a neural exercise of convincing the body to trust gravity & let go of its habituated defensive responses”
  • “TRE is getting the body to give up its self-protection so its rhythms can return & it can retune defensive patterns in the musculoskeletal structure”
• ‘Movement= external movement ( body movement through space) and internal movement (pulsation & variability within all the systems of the body)
• PVT- 3 categories of movement
  • calm, curious & connected movement (ventral vagal state)
  • compulsive movement towards & away (sympathetic state)
  • contained (hypertonic mobilization) collapsed (hypotonic immobilization) & disconnected movement (dorsal vagal state)
• Discharge emotional energy/memories in the body
• Reduce chronic tension- body and mental
• Develop a different relationship with your body- start to trust your body.
• Defensive states are also associated with a process of disembodiment –as sympathetic arousal states are activated along with a shunting of blood to the heart & lungs & muscles of the limbs, there is a reduction in blood flow & awareness of the hands & feet – so with any level of stress we are also subtly beginning to lose connection with our body
• Just as this process of disembodiment is driven by the nervous system & not our cognition during stress, so too, the process of re-embodiment is a subcortical phenomenon ultimately controlled by & limited by the nervous system – not our cognition

• Link to TRE Website- https://traumaprevent

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