When you do a somatic (body-based) shaking practice, you allow your body to return to safety by releasing the energy of fear that is present within you when you face a life threat. A great time to do the practice is when you notice tension and tightness in your body and still feel really connected and present.
Further, stress causes brain changes leading to anxiety, depression, and addiction. “By shaking your body for 15 minutes, you can calm your body after a long day. Shaking activates the parasympathetic nervous system and signals the brain to calm, relax, and let go.
Neurogenic tremors are a common, involuntary byproduct of stress and trauma exposure. Most people recover from these tremors and other stress and trauma reactions on their own.
While somatic experiencing therapy does not involve a complete retelling and processing of your past trauma like some other trauma therapies might, you will be asked to bring up some of these painful memories. Doing so may result in you feeling “activated” or feeling a high level of energetic arousal in your body.
TRE® includes a series of easy stretches using the muscles of the lower body and builds up a little shaking in the legs. Once the body is shaking, you lie on the floor, and encourage these natural vibrations to move through the body, without trying to control them.
A movement practice
Research from 2022 reports that yoga in particular can help with many trauma symptoms, as it combines fluid movement with deep breathing to activate the parasympathetic nervous system — the opposite of fight, flight, or freeze mode.
Ever since people's responses to overwhelming experiences have been systematically explored, researchers have noted that a trauma is stored in somatic memory and expressed as changes in the biological stress response.
When an animal has been under threat they will reset their nervous system by shaking off the trauma. This shaking is a “biological completion” for the animal that allows its nervous system to restore its sense of well-being. Often in talk therapy, an individual continues to relive the story of the past experience.
Shaking is a natural physiological response to stress. Through evolution, it developed to help people recognize dangerous situations so that they could escape or defend themselves. This is why when you face stressful situations in modern life, you get nervous due to this built-in evolutionary response.
Anxiety disorders can cause a variety of symptoms, including sweating, a racing pulse, and rapid breathing. In some cases, a person may find themselves shaking due to their anxiety. This shaking is the body's response to a perceived threat.
Your sympathetic nervous system is activated when you're stressed out and shaking, and your parasympathetic nervous system is what eventually calms it down.
Somatic movement helps to alleviate feelings of anxiety and stress. This movement practise allows you to pay close attention to your soma, your sensations, your position in space, the subtle changes occurring with your digestive system, breathing and heart rate.
Somatic anxiety is the physical manifestation of anxiety. This can feel like a headache, tight shoulders, upset stomach, or fatigue. These symptoms are caused by your body's fight-or-flight response being constantly activated.
Treatment for trauma
By concentrating on what's happening in your body, you can release pent-up trauma-related energy through shaking, crying, and other forms of physical release.
"In a fight or flight situation, your muscles respond by tensing up. If you think of your pelvis as the center point for your body to work off of when trying to get away from trauma, and your body's response to trauma includes making your muscles tense, it makes sense that your hips tend to store a lot of tension."
Initial reactions to trauma can include exhaustion, confusion, sadness, anxiety, agitation, numbness, dissociation, confusion, physical arousal, and blunted affect. Most responses are normal in that they affect most survivors and are socially acceptable, psychologically effective, and self-limited.
Intrusive memories
Recurrent, unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event. Reliving the traumatic event as if it were happening again (flashbacks) Upsetting dreams or nightmares about the traumatic event. Severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic event.
Adults who have experienced childhood trauma usually have heightened levels of anxiety. They may worry excessively and have trouble managing their anxiety. It can lead to persistent feelings of sadness, lack of interest in activities, and difficulty experiencing pleasure.