The difference some space can make

I recently facilitated some spontaneous shaking with a client, using the TRE exercises.

This was a Zoom session, so I asked how things were from my sunny conservatory, and he answered a few hundred miles away in his flat.

He’d had a tough week, and he reported pain in several places. I could see the grimace on his face and his wariness about shaking painful areas.

We’d shaken before, but this time things developed differently. The shaking moved from his legs, to the hips and abdomen, where a lot of the pain was felt. I’m always amazed how the shakes will spontaneously chart a course to where they’re needed most.

I checked in to make sure the shaking was at a comfortable level—we don’t need to go beyond 6/10 in intensity— and we took a few pauses to let him catch up with what was moving.

After the session, I asked how he was feeling. He only reported a slight decrease in pain. But he was smiling from ear to ear. I asked what was happening, and he reported:

“There’s still pain, but now there’s space around it. It’s a very different feeling.”

I hear this a lot from clients. The pain is still there, but it loses the narrow frame that makes it feel big.

When we shake, we don’t need to fix pain or try to manipulate parts of the body. We work on a deeper level, expanding the container itself. This means we’re better equipped to deal with whatever arrives next, whether blissful or painful. We’re grounded in something deeper.