Claire Coleman tries TRE®, the new exercise craze born out of a war zone

I’M lying on my back with my knees bent and slightly apart, and my legs are twitching uncontrollably. For some reason, rather than making me anxious this strikes me as utterly hilarious — I just have a mental picture of myself as a cartoon, with my upper body still and my rubber spaghetti legs doing some crazy dancing I’m powerless to stop. I’m not powerless, of course, but I’m rather enjoying this weird out-of-body sensation.

I’m trying out a new therapy that is rapidly gaining traction as stressed-out types seek more creative ways to relax. This particular approach was developed by a man called David Berceli, who worked in trauma counselling in war zones. He came up with the idea after seeing how children in bomb shelters would shake involuntarily when they were scared.

He theorised that what he calls neurogenic tremors are a natural human and animal response to stress — in a thunderstorm you might see your dog having an attack of the shakes but afterwards they’re fine. But adult humans have learnt to hold in this response.

Berceli went on to create a practice he called Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercise (TRE). The basic premise is that you start by doing a series of exercises that get the body moving and tire it out a bit before lying down and shaking. You’re literally shaking off stress. And the beauty of it all is that you don’t have to relive the trauma to get relief. Instead, the shakes apparently help to re-establish a brain-body connection and reset everything.

That’s the theory, anyway, and Berceli claims he has successfully worked with everyone from military personnel through to groups of people who have lived through natural disasters.