Shake it Off: Trauma Release Exercises and Pelvic Pain
If you've been working through pelvic pain or vaginismus for a while, and you think you might have some chronic stress or tension that has been difficult to release, it may be a signal that your nervous system is still stuck in protection mode. While yoga and relaxation techniques can support long-term stress management, you may need a different kind of release for pent-up tension. That's where Trauma Release Exercises, or TRE, come in.
What Is TRE?
TRE stands for Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises. Developed by trauma therapist and social worker Dr. David Berceli, TRE is a series of gentle exercises designed to activate something your body already knows how to do: shake.
These aren't exercises in the traditional sense. The goal isn't to strengthen or stretch. Instead, Dr. Berceli's sequence is designed to mildly fatigue specific muscle chains — particularly in the legs and hips — so that the body's natural tremoring reflex can activate on its own.
Why activate a tremoring reflex? It may be one of the most natural things your nervous system can do to release stress.
TRE is still an emerging field, and the research is in early stages. Most of the evidence comes from clinical observations, case reports, and growing practitioner experience rather than large randomized controlled trials. The neurological mechanism behind tremoring has been described in the somatic trauma field — including by physician and trauma researcher Dr. Robert Scaer, who characterized it as an automatic brainstem response triggered to complete and discharge the fight-flight-freeze cycle.
Your Body Was Built to Shake
In yoga, there's a concept embedded in the practice of tapas — one of the Niyamas, or personal observances. Tapas is often translated as discipline or heat, but at its core, it refers to the willingness to sit with discomfort in service of transformation. It's the idea that friction can be purifying. That something built up has to move before it can release.
Neurogenic tremoring — the scientific term for the shaking TRE activates — is the body's version of tapas. It's the friction that clears the buildup.
When your nervous system perceives a threat — whether that's physical danger, emotional stress, or the kind of anticipatory fear that can come with pelvic pain — your body responds by contracting. Muscles tighten. Breath shortens. The psoas, the diaphragm, and the pelvic floor draw inward as a protective mechanism. This is a brilliant, ancient survival response.
In most animals, the story doesn't end there. After the threat passes, animals shake — sometimes violently — to discharge the activation and return to baseline. You've probably seen a dog do this after a stressful vet visit, or a deer after narrowly escaping a predator.
Humans do this too, naturally. But somewhere along the way, we learned to suppress it. We're told trembling is weakness. We hold it together. We stay still when every cell wants to shudder. And the tension that was meant to move through us gets stored — in the fascia, in the hips, in the pelvic floor — sometimes for years.
TRE is an invitation to stop holding it together long enough for the body to complete what it started.
The Psoas: Your Body's "Fear Muscle"
To understand why TRE may be particularly relevant for pelvic pain, it helps to understand the psoas.
The psoas is a deep hip flexor that runs from the lumbar spine through the pelvis and connects to the top of the femur. It's the only muscle in the body that directly connects your spine to your legs — meaning it has a profound influence on both posture and the way you walk, stand, and breathe. In yoga, the psoas is sometimes called the "muscle of the soul."
The psoas is one of the first muscles to engage in a fear response. When you brace, startle, or go into freeze, the psoas contracts. Clinical observations suggest that the psoas acts as a kind of somatic barometer for unresolved stress, and that neurogenic tremors often originate here, spreading upward through the spine and downward into the pelvis, hips, and legs.
This is significant for anyone working with pelvic pain. The pelvic floor and the psoas are anatomical neighbors. They share fascial connections, they respond to each other, and when one is chronically contracted, the other tends to follow. A psoas that's been in protection mode for months or years isn't just a tight hip flexor — it may be contributing to pelvic floor tension that no amount of targeted stretching can fully resolve.
Some practitioners note that certain yoga postures cause spontaneous tremoring precisely because they target the psoas — and that this shaking is a sign of release.
In yogic philosophy, the concept of samskaras — the grooves or imprints formed by repeated experience — helps name what's happening here. When the body has learned to brace, that pattern gets worn into the tissues like a groove in a record. The psoas doesn't know the threat has passed. It keeps the record playing. TRE, and the tremoring it invites, may be one way to lift the needle.
A Note on Safety and Proceeding Thoughtfully
TRE is generally considered appropriate for most people, but there are some important considerations before you begin — especially in the context of pelvic pain and trauma. Proceed with extra care, or work with a certified TRE provider if you:
Are currently in active trauma processing or have recently experienced a traumatic event
Have a complex trauma history, including sexual trauma or PTSD
Are pregnant
Have a cardiovascular condition or recent surgery
Find that the exercises bring up intense emotional responses that feel destabilizing
TRE is self-regulating by design — you can stop the tremors at any time by placing your feet flat on the floor and breathing slowly. But that self-regulation is a skill, and for those carrying significant unresolved material, learning it alongside a qualified guide makes a meaningful difference. TRE Global recommends working with a certified TRE provider before practicing independently if you have a complex trauma or medical history.
It's also worth noting: more shaking is not necessarily better. Shorter, gentler sessions — especially when starting out — tend to support integration more than long, intense ones. Your nervous system needs time to process what moves through it. Think of it like Patanjali's principle of sthira and sukha — the balance of steadiness and ease. The practice should challenge without overwhelm.
You can also ask your pelvic floor physical therapist or mental health provider about incorporating a TRE practice.
Why Yoga and TRE Can Work Well Together
Here's what I find exciting about the intersection of yoga and TRE: yoga may already be doing some of this work, without us having fully named it.
When we move through postures that strengthen the lower body, lengthen the hip flexors, open the inner thighs, and release the low back — we're warming and mildly fatiguing the same muscle chains that TRE targets. We're also, if we're practicing with awareness, building the capacity to stay present with sensation rather than flee from it. That capacity — sometimes called svadhyaya, or self-study — is what makes it possible to be with the tremoring when it comes, rather than gripping against it.
A lower-body yoga flow before TRE isn't just a warm-up. It can serve as a nervous system primer — one that signals safety through movement and opens the psoas from the outside in, so that by the time the body is invited to shake, it's already a little more willing.
Try It: Lower Body Flow + TRE Class
If you're curious what TRE looks and feels like in practice, this official video from Dr. David Berceli is a great resource that guides you through his full sequence.
I've also put together a yoga for vaginismus class that pairs a grounding lower-body flow with TRE — so you can experience both together.
Your body already knows how to release. It just needs the right conditions to remember.