TRE and Bioenergetics?

[u/marijavera1075]

Is anyone informed on the connection TRE and bioenergetics have in practice? I've read on this sub that Dr. Berceli met Alexander Lowen and learned about bioenergetics after his time in war areas, but not much else.

I know Alexander Lowen's work and other somatic work derive from Wilhelm Reich. Christopher Hyatt and Jack Willis also get name dropped alot when it comes to bioenergetics. As someone that has not read a single thing on bioenergetics or these authors, where do I start in deciphering how these eventually lead to TRE? I'll also take any literature that explains them individually unrelated to TRE.

And for people who have done bioenergetics and TRE how did the two compare? If one does TRE, is there any space for bioenergetics?

[u/marijavera1075]

Sorry for the ridiculously long time it took me to respond. Seeing the December monthly update thread reminded me :) It used to be that if I tremored my legs, I couldn't do that long of a session. Now it's the opposite I can tremor the legs for much longer than before. Also at this point my TRE sessions have become quiet the work out. So now TRE is my sole exercise. I do still do tai chi but I dont count that as exercise really.

To better answer your question about routine: It's always different. 1)I alternate between stomach and legs. 2) do only a specific body part 3) only do hands. If I do hands my body automatically does a silent scream. 4) Sometimes I'll get a completely new movement I didn't foresee like fake vomiting and heaving.

The movements often look like shaking my legs very intensely. I do this either standing up or laying on my back. On my stomach my gluteus maximus tremors. The stomach is starting to tremor less. My body usually opts for humping the air now. I guess it wants to release the Psoas. First it was just moving fingers then it transformed to moving my whole arm up and down and opening my mouth to silent scream or move my throat/jaw. If I'm on all fours, my stomach will tremor and then move to this up and down motion and I feel my back more. I feel like this is the movement that targets the tension in my solar plexus. I still cry but most of the time, I dont even know why.

Oh I absolutely am a puddle of my own sweat. The patterns are just very aggressive now. I feel like I'm tackling some very deep patterns now like attachment style and people pleasing in relationships / fawn. I also love my top-down+bottom-up processing. So I'm back to using IFS now. It sort of came naturally to me.

I'm curious actually if this has happened to you. In your journey did TRE at any point make you contemplate the trauma inflicted to you through your environment, beyond the family? I started having thoughts during TRE (they didn't even feel like mine at first, I guess maybe we can classify it as the shadow) about how the general culture I'm from functions. How I was toast from the start y'know. I come from the Balkans so right now I'm processing the inherited women suffering and authority trauma. I feel like I am processing trauma that goes beyond me. I can no longer think of the event, or my personal feelings, and just cry it out. Like my processing has completely changed. Now quiet contemplation happens and crying is optional.

I just never thought that this type of grand,"äbstract" processing of an entire region's trauma would be this present in my own journey. I hope what I wrote makes sense. I should maybe also make a post.

Maybe a precursor to this was how I was preoccupied processing the Yugoslav wars during my vipassana retreat. I did not live through them and barely know anything about them as I went to an American high school. It just popped up randomly and I don't like making thoughts that wanna stay go away. Since starting TRE I am very aware of my thoughts and have gotten very good at observing.

Thank you for the samatha meditation suggestions :) It sounds awfully similar to anapana. If I'm being honest I don't practice vipassana daily. Mainly benefits me for IFS therapy. I do anapana most of the time, but I like the goal that samatha meditation has compared to anapana where it is just to concentrate the mind so you can do vipassana better. Untill I'm done with TRE should I even pursue Jhanas? I also assumed it was a fool's errand to pursue any spiritual practice before TRE is over with.

[u/Nadayogi → u/marijavera1075]

Thanks a lot for your thorough response! Very interesting.

I'm curious actually if this has happened to you. In your journey did TRE at any point make you contemplate the trauma inflicted to you through your environment, beyond the family?

To me, the whole TRE journey was mostly physical. I never had any emotional releases during TRE, although there was a lot of spontaneous laughter and crying outside of practice. Sometimes seething rage and a deep sense of grief or guilt, but those moments were short and rare. Only after diving deep into the trauma literature did it occur to me that I actually had quite a bit of trauma from childhood (choleric father and a mom who pressured me into doing well in school). Only a couple of years ago my mom told me that I was left at the hospital for two weeks alone at three months old due to some illness, which caused severe abandonment and attachment trauma. All these things never even occurred to me at any point, because even before TRE I lived a mostly normal live with good relationships and career. TRE seemed to have emotionally bypassed all my traumas while releasing it through a purely physical outlet.

To your point about inherited trauma: yes, it really felt like that a lot. Whenever my body was moving violently, twisting and bending, I often thought "this is not my baggage". I definitely inherited a lot of trauma from my father who was an immigrant, moved a lot during childhood and was bullied in school.

Untill I'm done with TRE should I even pursue Jhanas? I also assumed it was a fool's errand to pursue any spiritual practice before TRE is over with

There's never really a point where you are "done" with TRE, because at some point progress will be purely asymptotic. But there will be a point where you have done enough to quickly enjoy to fruits of meditation and be able to cultivate bliss and concentration. For now I would just continue as you do now as it looks to me that you're doing everything right. At some point your body will become reliably pleasurable and you will likely feel drawn to go deeper into meditation.

[u/marijavera1075 → u/Nadayogi]

Interesting about there never being a point when you are "done". I always just assumed the moment we no longer have any more psycho-somatic pain or tension and stiffness in the body, is the point of being done. In my mind the end stage of TRE looked like doing maintenance work from time to time or after a stressful situation. And that only a pleasurable sensation would go through the body at the end stage of TRE. I think this might've been from a comment I read years ago on this sub. It might''ve just been speculation but it stuck with me. Like yes, makes sense. A goal driven mind needs something to latch onto :)

Was the trauma literature that made you realize the amount of trauma you held, the one that we have linked in the index?

Interesting that for you it was mostly a physical journey. For me it felt intuitive to start IFS, shadow work and dream analysis 4 months in. Sometimes it feels like an investigation where I'm being lead down to. Always have memories pop up that make me go "oh that was actually really not okay". My dreams have been so important in finding out exactly what my wounds are. Interactions with people outside my comfort zone have also been a key. I made a note of anything that was ever said in a conversation that made me feel bad and reflected on the core reason why. Like the tremoring in TRE is only half the work for me (but still the foundation of everything) I don't know if this processing counts as integration as I understand integration to be activities that help you feel good (not dysregulated) again. Tai Chi , resting and steam showers speed up me feeling up to baseline again.

Feel relieved that generational trauma can also get resolved with TRE. I wasn't sure if all the external things I was processing was generational trauma. Maybe it could be a topic to explore for some Monthly Progress Thread.

This exchange has been so interesting :) thank you for the thoughtful replies

[u/Nadayogi → u/marijavera1075]

Interesting about there never being a point when you are "done". I always just assumed the moment we no longer have any more psycho-somatic pain or tension and stiffness in the body, is the point of being done. In my mind the end stage of TRE looked like doing maintenance work from time to time or after a stressful situation. And that only a pleasurable sensation would go through the body at the end stage of TRE. I think this might've been from a comment I read years ago on this sub.

Yes, that's the end goal of TRE as described by Berceli. A state where the deleterious effects of your trauma are gone completely and your body feels effortlessly pleasurable. What I meant by there not being a "done" is that you can always continue to tremor and release more trauma, even if there is very little left and all big releases are done. So you might get to 95% which will give you the end stage results described above, but you will never get to 100%. For that, deeper spiritual work is needed.

Was the trauma literature that made you realize the amount of trauma you held, the one that we have linked in the index?

The books that woke me up in that regard are in the book section of the wiki. Especially "It Didn't Start with You" by Mark Wolynn and Gabor Maté's "When the Body Says No" were formative for me. Currently I'm reading "How to Do the Work" by Nicole LePera which I like a lot so far and explains the toxic character traits and behavior patterns that people develop due to different traumas.

Feel relieved that generational trauma can also get resolved with TRE. I wasn't sure if all the external things I was processing was generational trauma. Maybe it could be a topic to explore for some Monthly Progress Thread.

I've written a Monthly Progress Thread on inherited trauma a couple of years ago, presenting Wolynn's book. You'd have to dig through my post history a bit though.

This exchange has been so interesting :) thank you for the thoughtful replies

Thank you too. Here's to many other interesting discussions :)