TRE for Disaster Recovery

Over the last 20 years, TRE has been provided to communities affected by natural disasters all around the world, including Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean Tsunami, the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, the Black Saturday Bushfires in Victoria & the Christchurch Earthquake in New Zealand.

As TRE invokes a natural reflex that releases stress & tension at its core below the level of our conscious control, it provides a body-based entry point to regulate the nervous system that can be used a stand-alone self-care technique or as a complimentary practice to support & enhance other approaches including mindfulness, cognitive therapies & general exercise.

Finding Relief

While it’s normal to experience shock, disbelief, hyper-reactivity, difficulties sleeping & emotional overwhelm in the weeks & months following a traumatic event, the sooner we are able to come out of this acute stress response the better. 

TRE provides this immediate relief by empowering people with a simple technique to relax their body & mind on their own whenever & wherever they need it. TRE does not replace professional services such as counselling & psychology but supports & enhances them by providing a self-care technique to address the underlying neurobiology of stress & trauma often not resolved by cognitive or talk-based approaches alone.

Supporting Recovery

TRE can be used in as little as 5- 10 minutes simply lying on the floor or even in bed to assist with sleep. As TRE requires almost no mental focus or physical effort & does not require recalling or talking about past experiences, it is easy & efficient when people are most time & energy poor and least likely to undertake more demanding self-care practices.

Following Black Saturday, TRE was identified by the Victorian Government’s Hubbard Report as playing a positive role in individual & community wellbeing. 100% of attendees at community recovery workshops rated TRE as ‘extremely effective’ use of recovery grant funding & unanimously recommended it for other areas affected by natural disasters. Click here for the full evaluation report

Building Resilience

TRE provides a stigma-free, body-based tool to calm the body & mind, improve sleep & switch off hypervigilance. Having the capacity to self-regulate the nervous system is vital for community members during the rebuilding process, & critical for volunteers & recovery workers highly prone to vicarious trauma & burnout in their efforts to support others.

Identified by the US Military as one of the most promising techniques to reduce arousal, peer-reviewed research has shown TRE helps reduce domestic violence & mental health conditions as well as improving quality of life & the capacity to deal with adversity. In Australia, front-line health workers consistently report TRE has an immediate calming effect & unanimously recommend it for other staff in their organisations. Click for evaluations of TRE Resilience Training by health care workers in Darwin & from NSW Health.