Understanding Trauma

Before exploring TRE in depth, it is essential to understand trauma: what it is, how it affects the body and nervous system, and why body-based approaches like TRE are particularly effective for healing.

Trauma is not what happens to you. Trauma is what happens inside you as a result of what happened to you.

– Gabor Maté

This section provides a comprehensive foundation for understanding trauma from a somatic perspective. You will learn:

• What Trauma Is – Defining trauma by its impact, not the event, and understanding different types
• The Nervous System – How your autonomic nervous system works and responds to threat
• How Trauma Lives in the Body – Chronic tension, body memories, armouring, and fascia
• The Window of Tolerance – The zone of effective functioning and how trauma narrows it
• Healing Principles – Pendulation, titration, and why talk therapy alone may not be enough
• Why TRE Works – How TRE addresses trauma at the somatic level
• Trauma and Relationships – How trauma affects connection and why healing often happens in relationship