Addiction
Womanzone Project
TRE® Scotland has held a regular TRE® group with a group of women overcoming their addictions. They are part of a Trauma Support Group led by Cat Grant of the COMAS charity. We meet at Serenity Cafe every Wednesday morning before their Support Group session and Lorna and I support them to tremor. We have gone very slowly and taken time to allow the women to get to know their bodies, to learn to ground themselves and feel safe enough to allow their bodies to tremor. We have 5 regular shakers and they are all embracing how TRE® can help them replace addiction with an alternative healthy way to releasing present stress and past trauma. I am continuing the group now the funding is over and am very excited to see how they can benefit from TRE® and add it to their growing tool bag that COMAS is providing them to recover.
Testimonials from Cat Grant and two members of the group:
“I found out about TRE® by accident but it caught my attention. I was putting together a programme for women in recovery from trauma, addiction, poor mental wellbeing and domestic abuse. I met Vicki and she explained TRE® to me so I thought let’s try it. Vicki taught myself and a colleague and I found it very relaxing and doing it with the women’s group has helped me too. We were learning together.
For me I found it helpful when unwell with asthma as it helped me calm down and I used it during a house move. I’ve learned a lot about myself and would advocate everyone at least try it. The Women in the group really committed to working with Vicki. I would make TRE® part of all our trauma recovery work. Thank you Vicki”
Cat Grant
Women in Recovery Manager
“After meeting Vicki for the first time I was very apprehensive about taking a class as I was a bit frightened of shaking due to my past being addicted to alcohol shaking was always a bad place to be, however, I pushed myself to give it a try as I’m already on a journey through other things to understand my body and mind. The first couple of classes I found really interesting knowledge-wise but the shaking part didn’t come easy, trying not to control it to stop has been a process but by coming back and having two great women (Vicki Cook and Lorna Simpson) teaching us and helping us to feel at ease through every class I’m now not frightened to shake and look forward to come every Wednesday. I’m not at a stage where I’m doing it at home but in time I see it being part of my recovery at home. I would definitely recommend anyone to give it a try. Our group has definitely felt benefits and friendship from TRE®.”
“I found out about TRE® when I joined Women’s Zone, finding out more about it from TRE® Scotland’s website, it looked interesting. Vicki came in to talk about TRE® and trauma recovery and I felt she understood my journey and how to recover. We did the Women’s Support group after our TRE session and having that sharing really helped. At first TRE® worried me because I was bought up with an epileptic sister but I also remembered my Dad having seizures when I was very young and I was very calm and accepting of his experience and I helped him. TRE® has been helpful although the tremors were strange to start with as I associated shaking with being unstable. As time went on it became a release, firstly with laughter but now I feel relaxed and I don’t feel unstable. I can see that my body does reset itself. The group is very useful – I am not confident to do it on my own yet but I enjoy the group. I’m starting to understand my body now and tremoring doesn’t frighten me anymore. I want to continue and explore re-connecting my head mind and body. I would recommend TRE® to others.”
If you work for an organisation that would benefit from using TRE® do contact TRE® Scotland.
• Those who live in inner city high-crime areas
Dr. Gabor Maté: Addiction is caused by underlying trauma
Dr Gabor Mate explains that any addiction is an unconscious choice for people to deal with past trauma and stressful experiences – only because they have no other way to cope. And this is addiction to anything – work, success, money, shop as well as drugs or alcohol. We need to give people the tools to cope and heal past trauma – and TRE is one of best ways. And even those who, for example, eat or drink a little too much at the end of a hard day’s work, TRE can be the alternative healthy way to release the day’s stress.
“Being cut off from our own natural self-compassion is one of the greatest impairments we can suffer. Along with our ability to feel our own pain go our best hopes for healing, dignity and love. What seems nonadapative and self-harming in the present was, at some point in our lives, an adaptation to help us endure what we then had to go through. If people are addicted to self-soothing behaviours, it’s only because in their formative years they did not receive the soothing they needed. Such understanding helps delete toxic self-judgment on the past and supports responsibility for the now. Hence the need for compassionate self-inquiry.”
― Gabor Maté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction