# Great Shakes: Trembling therapy addresses stress at its core



## 1A (Aug 12, 2004)

FYI...

SHANNA MCCORD
Sentinel staff writer

SANTA CRUZ ? When Jackie Iddings wants to get rid of stress, *she sits with her back against the wall and shakes.*

After a few minutes she feels calm and whatever was bothering her doesn?t seem so important anymore.

"It gives me a sense of freedom in my body," Iddings said about the trauma-releasing exercises that induce shaking. "I can tell at a very deep level that old stresses and traumas are let go."

The shaking is provoked through a series of five simple exercises that target specific muscles to contract, relax and release built up tension caused by overwhelming experiences such as traffic, job and money problems, war, the loss of a loved one and general everyday worries.

The exercises have been said to also relieve imbedded issues like physical and emotional abuse.

*Iddings begins the exercises by rolling her foot from side to side and stretching the sides of her ankle. Then she stands with her legs apart and bends forward to touch the ground. She puts one foot on the seat of a chair and performs heel raises with the other.*

By now, her muscles are feeling stretched and fatigued, which trigger the quivering to start when she sits with her back against the wall as if she had a chair.

"There?s tension in the body because we haven?t had a chance to shake it off," Iddings said.

Shaking, says David Berceli, the creator of this type of exercise, is the body?s natural way of discharging excess energy and recovering from stress and trauma.

In fact, he says, it?s something animals do a lot. If a cat or dog becomes scared or threatened, they automatically start shaking.

"It?s a primitive response," Berceli said. "There?s an animal instinct in the human species."

More effective than talking with a therapist, Berceli said the trauma-releasing exercises rid the body of toxic feelings that can prevent someone from peace of mind.

"To relieve deep chronic tension, I use the body first," he said. "I use the body to relax the mind."

Ten years ago, Berceli had just moved back to the United States from Beirut, where he had been helping women and children recover from the devastation of war, when he found himself unable to handle the stress that had accumulated overseas.

He sought counseling, but "it didn?t give me a methodology to get rid of the post-traumatic stress."

*Through various exercise experiments, Berceli soon found that the sacrum and pelvis are critical areas of the body, key to unlocking tension and trauma.*

Berceli said that too often people have been programmed to discourage shaking, when in reality it?s the body?s natural response to trauma and should be encouraged.

Many times they use alcohol, get massages or exercise to relax, but those things, he says, only mask the symptoms.

"Now they have a way to move on," he said.

Iddings, who says she?s never quite recovered from the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, was introduced to the trauma-releasing exercises by her friend Robyn Michele.

Michele invited Iddings to join her at one of Berceli?s workshops held in Santa Cruz in February.

Michele uses the exercises daily to keep her anxiety levels low.

"I couldn?t think of anyone who doesn?t need it," she said.

Berceli, who lives in Tempe, Ariz., has taught the exercises at workshops in Florida, Arizona, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York.

Contact Shanna McCord at [email protected].


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