Steve with David Berceli Oslo Mar 2011
Just arrived home from three days with David Berceli in Oslo. I learnt loads. A quick list of some of highlights I can remember right now:
Stay focused on self regulation.
Stay with the body. ‘Where is it in the body?’.
The tremors reveal existing issues they do not create new ones. When people come out of freeze it is inevitable to feel things. It is healthy. We need to do more TRE to then help the charge of the fight and flight responses resolve.
As a therapist, can you stay present in the face of huge charge and intensity emerging in the client? Presence is the most important skill to help people go deeper. ‘Meditating in a monastery is easy, can you do it in the middle of a war situation.’
Presence involves staying in your social engagement system, the new part of the parasympathetic nervous system (also called the ventral vagal complex). The social engagement system is a set of cranial nerves that facilitate our communication to others and orientation to what is around us. (David has integrated the polyvagal theory of Stephen Porges into his model of TRE).
TRE starts with neurological change, psychological change follows. Trust the tremors to lead the process. The story is secondary to the releases triggered by the tremors.
Trauma can be seemingly innocent events early in our development.
Keep being playful and curious. David Berceli is always laughing, it is very refreshing and inspiring to see his skill in staying present with sometimes hugely difficult stories.