E09 - Finding Hope Through TRE: Svava Brooks' Journey from Freeze to Freedom

What happens when a trauma survivor discovers TRE and becomes the practitioner she needed? Alex Greene speaks with Svava Brooks, a TRE practitioner in Reykjavik, Iceland, who has mastered integrating neurogenic tremoring with mindful self-compassion and polyvagal theory. Svava didn't set out to become a provider—she entered the training for her own healing. But what she discovered transformed not only her life but her approach to holding space for others.

As a complex trauma survivor in functional freeze, Svava shares practical wisdom from taking "a thousand tiny steps" into social engagement. She reveals why TRE alone wasn't enough—she needed self-compassion practices to befriend her body and build the safe attachment capacity she'd never experienced. She discusses why she teaches the "hand on heart" practice first, how to work with freeze patterns during tremoring, and why going "slower than slow" creates lasting change. Now bringing TRE to every town in Iceland, Svava offers insights on sustainable healing practices, integrating somatic work with other modalities, and creating compassionate containers where bodies feel safe to release.

Key Highlights:
00:04 - Introduction and Congress Overview
 03:10 - Robert Schleip on Fascia
 05:29 - Fascia Responds to Stress
 08:45 - Fabiana de Silva's Vagal Resets
 11:17 - Self-Help Grounding Through Squeezing
 12:18 - Gil Hedley's Vagus Dissection
 14:01 - Sounding and Vagal Activation
 18:06 - Fascia, Consciousness, and Soul
 21:28 - Meeting Stephen Porges
 25:32 - Traumatic Brain Injury Insights
 30:00 - Liza's TRE Presentation Experience
 32:51 - 100 People Experience Tremoring
 40:00 - Future Congress Plans
 42:40 - Sami Yoiking Healing Songs
 48:34 - Human Algorithm Workshop Preview

Resources Mentioned:
ACE Study (Adverse Childhood Experiences Study): https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/s0749-3797(98)00017-8/pdf 
Polyvagal Theory: https://www.polyvagalinstitute.org/whatispolyvagaltheory 
Kristin Neff - Self-Compassion Research: https://self-compassion.org/the-research/ 
Dr. David Berceli: https://treglobal.org/about-dr-david-berceli/ 
Svava’s Website: https://www.svavabrooks.com/ 
Find us Online:
Neurogenic Integration: https://neurogenic-integration.com/
Instagram: @neurogenicintegration

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Neurogenic Integration Podcast, where we explore the incredible potential of neurogenic trembling beyond the basics. I'm Alex Green. And I am Stevia Songfield. Together, we'll be diving into how this natural innate process can be seen and applied across different professions, healing modalities, and in scientific research. Whether you're a practitioner, a coach, a therapist, a body worker, researcher, this podcast is for you. Join us as we uncover the science, share experiences, and explore how neurogenic integration is revolutionizing the way we approach stress, trauma, and well-being. So take a breath, get comfortable, and let's dive in. All right. I am so excited to sit down this afternoon with uh my colleague and who's become my friend, uh, Svava Brooks. And Swava is in Reykjavik, Iceland today, where she lives. I'm in Colorado, where I usually am. And uh Svava is a TRE colleague. She's been in the TRE tension and trauma releasing exercises world for a long time, um, both in the United States and Portland, Oregon, uh, and San Diego, where she has lived previously, uh, and now back in Iceland, where she is uh sort of spearheading TRE Iceland and growing a community of practitioners uh in Iceland. And I've been fortunate to have the opportunity this past year to travel to see Ice uh see uh Svava uh several times um as we have sort of resumed the TRE program, a certification program there in Reykjavik this year. And so I've been fortunate to uh co-teach with Swava and get to know her a little bit along the way. And what I was hoping to cover today with you, Swava, was just to hear about, you know, to me, everybody who finds their way to neurogenic tremoring and TRE, there's always a something about it that has been um some reason why TRE was the right thing at the right time. Um and it's there's also a reason why we tend to stay with it. And so I think of you, Swava, as a very um passionate facilitator. You've been passionate in the trauma world, you know, through your whole professional life. And and I so that's the that's the story I'd like to hear from you. What your your your personal journey with TRE and trauma work and and why that is so important and compelling for you. So Sfava, welcome to the podcast. Thank you, Alex. Thank you so much for your introduction and for giving me this opportunity to to share. Um, of course, as you know, I'm incredibly passionate about Tier E and I'm like a I I say broken record, but you know, um I think it's something that um every time I speak about Tier E or introduce a new person to it, I I feel teary because it has been so life-changing. And um, and just last night I was finishing a class online uh with a group of people and I was in tears at the end of these four classes. Uh, there was a young man. If I just dive right into his impact of just four sessions, um he was he he was trying to communicate what he'd gotten out of you know the work, and in the first few sessions he was kind of confused, but he was so grateful to be here. He's like, My sisters have worked with you, they sent me, you know, and and he's like, I've been crying a lot in between sessions, and he's like, I'm so happy that I'm crying, I've been angry for years, and I didn't know how to get to my emotions, and and he was just you know so thankful. And then he told a story yesterday that I think really just summarizes David Braselli's vision. I was so moved that he's like, Yeah, I don't know what's happening to me, and I don't really understand it, but I I feel so much more open and like I'm I'm more connected. He has two little boys, and he said, even I was at um at the doctor's office this week, and I never do stuff like this. He said, and there was a young woman with her elderly father, and she was all worried, she didn't want to leave him because he was hard of hearing or whatever, and he was like, This young man, he's like, Well, I'm sitting here waiting for my turn, and he said, So I stood up and I told him, I'm happy to look out for your dad and make sure he gets into his appointment, and you know, and then he was just like, I don't know. I've been telling people this, something weird is happening to me. And that they said, and I was like, I think you get it, Alex. I was so moved, and basically, right? It's like once our fists come down, right? When we come out of that fight, flight, freeze, and we actually start to see the world and not just where's the lion, where's the danger? Um, then all of a sudden, and we connect to our hearts and our vulnerability, all of a sudden we we see the pool to to relate and connect and to help other people. Yeah. So I mean, it was I couldn't have ended this, you know, four-week training or this four-week class any better myself, because the whole people, all of the people in the class were like, Yeah, that you know, we get it. So, and so it was really, really moving. And someone that was very so soft spoken and he had trouble communicating, like, I don't understand. I'm I'm I'm really struggling with finding words, but I have found my feelings, something is softening up inside of me, and I'm starting to relate to people, and it gives me hope. Yeah, well, that's a that's a perfect example of yes, yeah, the kind of somatic opening, the heart opening. And I loved your anal, you know, when the fists come down, what what then? Um, what a good way to put it. And I mean, and and I personally can relate to that because when I found Thierry, I was online, like so many people looking, you know. I had gotten um uh I'm a complex trauma survivor, childhood trauma, and um I feel like I've tried everything under the sun. And, you know, by the time I found Thierry, because I recognized that every time stress reached a certain level in my life, I was a mom, three kids, you know, relationship, and you know, working as a prevention educator on child sexual abuse prevention, both in Iceland and in the States. Um, very passionate about that because, you know, that being my history, and you know, I had found a way to recover in many ways from that. I recognized when the stress in my life reached a certain level, it was like this compulsion took over. It was like this this old habitual reaction um took over. And I didn't like it. I didn't like myself when that happened. It was very much kind of, you know, the fists came up and I became kind of a bulldozer. Um, I was productive, um, but I kind of, you know, bulldozed over people a little bit of a bully, but uh, and and I also just completely ran on empty. I would run and fight until I collapsed. And so I had chronic migraines, chronic um just muscle tension and swelling, uh, stomach issues, you know, the usual, you know, stress-related uh symptoms. But when I was online looking, I found a video where David was, I don't know, I haven't seen this video since, so maybe it's maybe it's been taken over. It was just for you. It was a video just for you. Yeah. Um, where he was guiding a group of people through TRE, and I was just so struck by it. And it was literally like a physical reaction. My body was just like pulling me in, and very physical, very strong reaction to what I was watching, and I was just so curious. So I Googled, okay, what is this? And I found a training in San Diego like a week later, module one. Uh and that and I signed up for it, and there I was a week later. I was like, okay, I'm really not sure what I'm doing here, but it's so clear this body was ready for this, so I'm just here, I'm curious, and I just literally dove in. What ye what what year was that approximately? Oh with 95. 1995? No. No, no, no. No, no, sorry, like in 95. 2015. There was a five. Okay. Okay. I was like, wow. Yeah, no, you were truly early. Okay. No, no, no. Two 2015. 2015, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Um, and and truly, I mean, and that's this is kind of the story that I tell people or when I introduce them, you know, to Thierry in my class, is that um in that weekend, my whole world just kind of blew open with the fact that my body knew something that I didn't know, that I didn't know my body had this capacity. And so through that weekend, and then when I realized, you know, what was going on in my body, my body was very eager for sure, but there was also part of my nervous system that was like, uh, I don't think so. No, we're not doing this. And because I knew how to contain all the repressed physical stuff, and so I had to really learn to kind of negotiate with my body. Um that um, so that's why I also decided decided to sign up for the provider training, because I knew I would need the structure and support to yeah, to make it happen. And so with TRE and then learning about nervous system regulation and and the polyvagal theory, I think was really the map that I was looking for for 20 years because once I saw that and understood, I was like, wow, there's nothing wrong with me. I'm just stuck in, I was in a functional freeze most of my life. Yeah. Yeah. So cool. Well, so Svava, you know, you I've often heard you share, you know, when we've been teaching and I've seen you with students, something that I think is um makes you really effective in your teaching is is, you know, you had your own very, you know, we've all had our journey with it, but you kind of like to me, you really sort of um studied your experience pretty carefully. And and you also describe well how you know your sort of thawing from functional freeze and the the nervous system shifts and changes that happened for you. You know, kind of it was sort of like, I think I've heard you say it was kind of like a two-year period, and you know, maybe more ongoing than that in some ways, but this sort of concentrated period. And I think it'd be really helpful if you could share what that what that start that two-year journey was like. Like what because I think because I think a lot of people start TRE, they have some powerful experiences, they do connect to the method, they connect to the polyvagal theory, the ideas behind it, but then they don't exactly know like what's this gonna be like, like what what what's in store for me. And so I wonder if you could kind of or speak about that, uh almost imagining somebody who's maybe at the beginning of that journey and wondering what it might be like. Yeah. Um, well, I very quickly recognized that there were two things going on for me that both my body was really drawn to this and really wanted it. But at the same time, there was a really hard press no inside. It's like we are not doing this. It's like it was like this, it was almost hard for me to understand this this push and pull. Um, but I trusted I had a brilliant teacher and guide and supporter, and she just kept encouraging me. It's like your body can do this too. Um, you know, just gonna take a little more time, and we're just gonna have to go slower. And so, just like you said, I went through the teacher training twice because the first round I was just slowly entering my body because up till then, literally, my body had just been here to carry this head, you know, like there was a very little connection, and if anything, there was a little bit of hate going on here. We we weren't really friends. There, this wasn't um a good relationship. I'd rather not know what was going on down here. Exactly. I see. Um because and and that's where I feel like I was really blessed that I was exposed to self-compassion kind of alongside with Tier E. And I did a workshop with uh Kristen Nuff, you know, the one of the gurus of the, you know, one of the um scientists and teachers that that has looked a lot into self-compassion. And um what what she spoke to really resonated to me, uh to my body and my heart as well, uh, where she explained that you know, that we had capacity for self-compassion, we have capacity for warmth, we have capacity for nurture and connection because I literally thought that was broken in me, like I didn't have that. Um but she through that, you know, that that training with her, uh, she laid out uh research and demonstrated and talked about, you know, when it comes to long-term change and working with our body and our health, it's a long-term process, it's never a quick fix. Um, she said what was the most often missing for people was self-compassion. And so she and then she related it to uh polyvagal theory and the vagus nerve, and how that just like we have access to you know hormones, um, you know, adrenaline cortisol when we need it, our body is brilliant, right? Gives us access to that. And I I knew those very well. We were we were buddies, um, but I did not have as much access to the the cortisol, I mean the the oxytocin, the feel-good hormones. And so she kind of you know basically laid it out there in a way that you know oxytocin works against uh and heals, you know, the damage that we can do from chronic cortisol and adrenaline. And I had already done the ACE study. I had figured out on the ACE scale ACE study that I'm I'm an eight, which pause with that just to explain, because to me the ace study is so important. Some of our listeners will know what it is, but not everybody. So like linger on that for a second, if you will. Yeah. So talk a little bit about the ace. Yeah, yeah. Just yeah, just for somebody who doesn't know what it is. Just why why it was important and what what that what we learned from that very pivotal childhood the adverse childhood experience study was is a study that I learned about first in 2006, living in San Diego. There were these big trauma conferences that I went to, and I heard Dr. Folletti, one of the co-authors, speak about the study. And so he basically talked about, you know, they had like 17,000 people, like Kaiser Permanente, so middle-class Americans that answered these questions over, you know, 15-year time span, which basically brought to the forefront the direct correlation to childhood trauma and abuse and to most of the high-risk illnesses, heart disease, you know, lung, you know, hypertension, hypertension today. I mean, so later in life. So basically, when I heard Dr. Uh Folletti speak, he basically was telling me, given my A score, because you check off for what kind of abuse or trauma or neglect you have been exposed to throughout your your childhood, and that adds up. And so the age of and so the highest is a a score of 10, right? Yeah, yeah. And this this study has been modified and uh for sure, but basically he laid it out there that with an ace a score of eight, I have lost uh 20 years of my life. Wow. So when I heard that, it was almost like a little kick to the gut. And and I've had personal conversations with Dr. Falletti where he was like, Yeah, he said, I can see it in the audience when people take in the information. So uh, but he also talked about what is it that we can do, what we are learning about how we can heal and restore. Um, but it still took me almost 10 years from the time I found the ACE ACE study to TRE. And but I kept, you know, I kept it, it it it was the piece that really uh emphasized my need to take responsibility for my health and understand that you know you take anyone and put them in in a certain environment, you know, it will influence the body, right? Yep, yeah, exactly. Yeah, um, and so you're gonna have to bring help me bring it around since I sidetracked into the ace. Oh, yeah, okay, let me think. Okay, so so yeah, that's good on the ace, and I think where we were was like, why did you bring up the ace? Um because yes, yeah, sorry, sorry to interrupt. Yes, not compassion, you got it. No, the oxytocin of the field, yeah, restoring the oxytocin system. Yeah, okay. And so I was like, okay, and because she and because she also spoke to the same part of my nervous system that had protected me, you know, to the part that I dissociated as a child. I left my body, I have memories of leaving my body. That that nervous system, part of my nervous system, if I worked with it, I it was also the part that I could feel, you know, care and nurture and and trust again by working with it. And so so I took to heart what she said, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna give this a year. I'm like, she says it's gonna work. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna believe her. And so for a whole year, I committed myself to placing my hand on my heart. I had my phone ring three times a day. I still have it on my phone. It's like, so how about hand on heart, hand on heart, hand on heart, you know? And at first it was like, you know, I was like, oh, this is so American, you know, you know, I rolled my eyes, but I'm like, okay, I have a body, I know what I've been through. If she says this works, I'm gonna trust her, I'm gonna do my own study. And so months rather than weeks, right? And I started just while I was brushing my teeth or a red light, you know, just almost like I barely noticed what's happening. Um and then one day I was like, I can feel this, I can feel the touch, I can feel the warmth. And then I started asking, I started adding, you know, three questions, you know, the pillars of self-compassion. You know, am I being kind towards myself or am I judging myself? You know, am I am I loving? Am I connected? Right? If I connect to me, I'm more likely to connect with others. Can I remember? I'm part of humanity, I'm I'm not the only one struggling, right? And the third piece is like, am I mindful? Am I here and present? Or am I stuck in that spiral in my head spinning out? You know? Yeah, yeah. Um, so this has been a practice for years, and it just really supported um me connecting with my body, me trusting my body, me loving on my body, and um uh so it worked, and so and so this is the the first tool that I teach everybody that walks into my practice. Yeah. Because I think it just it works beautifully a lot. It's foundational. Yeah, no, it's foundational. Yeah, no, that's that's so well articulated. I'm just gonna pause for a moment, like to me, that what you're saying is such an important piece, and it's it's it's it's actually what really stood out to me most when I started to teach with you, Swava, was um, you know, both you know, in our private communications, you know, I you know, I felt quickly, oh, you're a you're a heartful person, you're a heart, a heart-centered person, you're more than just that, you're an intelligent person at all these other things. But I but I could sort of sense that that was like a part of your bearing, so to speak. And then when we did our first class back in May or whenever it was, and then you know what, you and I switched off kind of leading our our TR the sessions, and to me, and it was really struck by how you brought in the whether we yeah, mindful mindful self compassion or a heart centered approach. Um, and it was and to me, it was like it was like two sides of a coin. It was, and as I've seen you do. teach the it's like both pe you know yes there's the tremoring and what the body's gonna do and how it's gonna express but there's there's no um but that connection to self is is baked right into how you facilitate so just a just a brief reflection of how much I see that that marriage uh in your in your in your first facilitation but yeah keep going with kind of like so so it's like so it sounds to me like you were lucky that that as you found TRE and and in you intuited that I w I need to do this but I also you had this push pull of like your body wants it but also there's resistance. Yes. But around the same time you you learned the importance of uh of rehabilitating the self-compassion piece and so keep going with this sort of two year journey where a lot of change and re-regulation was happening. Yeah it because it was the self-compassion that helped me remind myself you know with an ace score of eight I was not at home or comfortable in my body right like I said earlier we were not friends um and it wasn't like my trauma was something that I was repressed and I remembered all of it it was just parallel and I as a young woman had just told myself when I went to America that it's in the past don't need to talk about it don't need to deal with it and then of course it comes knock in one day and I'm like oh okay I guess I gotta deal with it. And like I said I had tried everything but the body but I realized with TRE how my body was was responding to the tremoring there was a lot of freeze like my body would go into in my tremoring session a lot of locked up a lot of you know and and when I understood what that what that was I can still remember when I told my provider I don't understand my my thighs keep locking up you know or my my chest keeps locking up and and they would just like you know validate and normalize what was happening and then the more the further I got into the training I recognized it's like these were just the chronic tension patterns that you know literally probably almost pre-birth um you know I had developed pretty deep into into my muscle tissue and fascia uh and my nervous system so um so that you know all that gave me the understanding that I needed to go slower than slow I needed to go super super super slow and I had to do it in relationship with my body so it's like really turning myself towards and really befriending and helping my body uh each step along the way that this may be uncomfortable but it's not dangerous. Right uncomfortable but not dangerous right and so I often describe the path from the peak of the polyvagal theory down into my social engagement. It's like the the litty teeny tiny Legos that's how slowly like so thousand steps down really really slow because the the social engagement system the safe attachment grounded I didn't have that right I didn't have that so I was creating that I was reparenting and kind of reorganizing from the inside out you know what is safety like what is warmth and what is love like is it safe to receive right and so self-compassion I was I was I learned how to safely receive love and building this this back and forth connection uh with my body that my body along this way got understood that I was listening like you know we didn't always agree and but I was like someone was someone was there someone was there exactly and and I think that's the most important piece and I think you know you can't teach it's like you know we're we're creating both this witness to the process and being with the process like both it's an active participation and the the safety of holding you know yeah um yeah so I I don't know if I was able to to explain oh no it's no really really beautifully said so let me let me ask a couple follow-ups because you know to me to me you're describing something so important and um because there's so many people and like I say like I I I and I'm I'm actually learning something as I listen because because I'm thinking about again I'm thinking about my people who get started and then they run into some difficulty and and and then how to how to you know how to how to keep them going. And I love this idea of a thousand little steps and and and the the even the language of re you know you're re you're building a capacity that you know that blueprint of safe attachment um wasn't didn't wasn't there the way that we hope it would be but but but that but that it can be that it can be cultivated so you're describing it so beautifully so so when you say slowing down um like well practically speaking what does that mean? Did you mean that you had to sort of do smaller units of tremoring like um did you were you and and during your journey were you did you did you did you get your was your most successful work when you were all by yourself or when you were facilitated or um yeah so keep going with what what what what was successful as you continued. Yeah yeah thanks Alex those are great questions because I found out early I did not want to do Tier E alone that did not feel safe. Yep so and that's why I struggled with my work between my meetings with my my mentor my trainer because I'm like I showed up like I know I'm sorry I didn't do anything I just blocked out it's like my body's like no we're not doing this and so I figured out that when my husband was my ex was watching TV somewhere I could stay in their space. So having uh uh the voice and the presence of another human in my space was was so the co-regulation piece which is crucial right um and so that that was a big hurdle and so just allowing myself to of course sweet body of course you need it support of course you you we could we don't go in without a rope knowing someone is holding on like someone is going to pull us back if you know we don't you know manage or whatever because that's the the fear inside somewhere and something that I'm uh a huge advocate when I teach today is like I really emphasize the stopping and the pausing. Pro I don't know maybe more than some but uh for me I had no break right I was go go go go fight fight fight until I collapsed you know go go go go go fight until I collapsed so I didn't have the social engagement system so I didn't have the inner break I didn't know when when is enough enough right so so that's what I tell people when we talk about you know the nervous system in the Vegas like we are practicing the pause the stopping and and also part of the the stopping is also I invite people to you know use your mind in the breaking process explore how you can pretty early like so first few sessions we're we're constantly practicing the stopping the tremor is not the worry I'm not worried about that anyway it's how do we it's the self-regulation piece that we can go go in and out and and build that capacity and the piece but but then you know Leah those thousand steps there were probably I'd say towards the end of those two years and into my first few of teaching uh where when I was doing my own tremors that I was like I'm not feeling anything I don't know why I'm tremoring I I'm just trusting the process I'm just trusting the process and I wanted to make sure if I'm teaching people I'm holding space for tremors that I will continue to do my own tremors. And and then what what I feel like if I go move on fast but what has really I think deepened my process is that over the last since 2019 um uh COVID right we started doing TRE online and I partnered up with a colleague and Tilda's day I meet her two three times a month and we hold space for each other tremoring and I I am blown away how impactful that ongoing consistent practice has been for my body, my nervous system, my tremoring and as a facilitator or provider um that you know so you've heard me speak to our the groups that we're supporting now I'm like if there's anything I know now wish I would have known then do keep doing peer swaps. Do as many as you can because it's crucial um to our work. So yeah so part of those two years my body was definitely fighting it because like I said I was you know I PTSD I was dancing between you know very um highly charged sympathetic arousal to a functional freeze or a collapse. So the process down um took took some time and so self-compassion practice ongoing was a huge huge part of that for me. So if we were gonna compare like do a little bit of like like here I get maybe here's my question. It's like if you were to compare what life was like sort of like right at the beginning right before you sort of did this two-year Tieri journey and then you know somewhere when you at least had mostly come down your thousand steps. And of course that's an ongoing process in its own way but but when you you know when the lion share of the coming down had occurred how would you describe the difference in your body mind nervous system like what what what's yeah um to really sum it up they used to call me the Ice Queen Yeah um I was I played sports growing up I was I was a tough I was a tomboy right I was like yeah um but now I know I'm Queen of Hearts right I know that I'm I'm basically teaching people how to fall in love with themselves their bodies and their hearts and their spirits and so yeah um the two ends of the that spectrum uh what really comes up for me when you ask that question and it's gonna make me emotional is that what was the hardest thing about being a mom and so stressed out and when you know um my control my need to control took over and I could see the fears in my kids' eyes not you know and I was just trying to be a good mom you know trying to keep them fed and clean and protected and all that and then so that's what's changed. I'm a completely different mom you know uh I'm soft I'm silly I'm I'm playful I'm generous you know I don't worry about the messes you know um so there's a lot more joy and there was a lot more play and so which you know I did a lot of this work for them I started it for them and I also recognized as I was doing it for my kids I'm like oh wait they're looking at me I have to love me I have to and inside of me was a little girl that I'm I've reparented you know the six year old me so I realized I have to parent her and love me in order to model for my kids what self-love and being comfortable in your own skin and joyful uh fe looks like feels like sounds like so um so many things I mean I basically my joy for just for most things uh food like I I just ate because it's a it was a something everybody does right but all of a sudden I started feeling joy from from eating and tasting food and you know I have a lot of foodies around me that loved food and planning parties I was just I I like to decorate the table whatever but but now I get excited about food it brings me joy um and yeah I've just I've really opened my heart up in a way that I mean I love people I can't I just can't help it. I think you get that about me Alex and um and I know from that place I create safety for people people telling me their stories almost at the grocery store you know and being having worked with uh childhood sexual trauma survivors for a long time you know led peer support groups um uh for a long time you know I it's it's in my capacity to hold that and again I think that's where the self-compassion has helped me because I don't take it in as much but I can hold it because I understand it you know so um the last big discovery for me with through my Tier journey is that I did end my marriage because I think you know what brought us together was no longer kind of the basis for being together. We wanted different things we were different people and I also discovered I'm an artist you know so I I paint and draw most days it's brings me so much joy that I make sure I make time for that. And so creativity just kind of exploded into my life and so and again I think a lot of the things that came with coming down in that polyvagal theory I was like oh my god it works it's like all the things that are down here I I know what this is I can count them wow oh my gosh it's really it's I mean I've I've heard a lot of this but like hearing it all together like it's it's really it's really moving and it's really inspiring Spava so I really appreciate you sharing. Yeah Alex thanks for asking um I wonder let's let's finish with I'd love to and it's not like we've you know maybe we've got another 10 minutes or so but what um what are your dreams for TRE in Iceland? Why is that important to you? Why did you move back there? What have you been doing? I mean to me you've like you've sort of planted a major flag um maybe tell us about that and then also like what what what you hope to achieve with that and by the way you have a track record of sort of achieving things through your previous work with your the not for profit for child awareness around childhood sexual trauma. So yeah so tell us about that piece like what's your sort of mission well I think first of all when I you know I never meant to be a provider I just went into the teacher training because I needed it for me but then at some point it's like people need to know this you know and I also started getting survivors that kept coming and asking me. It's like what are you doing? You seem to be doing all right and I'm like well let me show you let me tell you right um but I mean I moved back when I you know got divorced and I have a big family huge community here uh big network since I did a lot of my non-for-profit work here in Iceland as well co-founded a nonprofit with my sister where we um we educated 15% of the population on the risk and and the importance of prevention especially for parents and teachers and support staff. So bringing Tiery here it's like you know we are also on a small volcanic island there's a lot of historical trauma here you know uh volcanic activity uh sea villages uh snow flood I mean avalanches so I I want I want to see a provider in every town around the island and I want to get the TRE into the hands of as many people as possible here and because um as you know and we those of us who know it just works so beautifully with with other healing modalities and I'm already have you know uh therapists uh physios doctors that are sending people my way that are hearing about it and hearing about you know somatic healing and how important it is to include the body and they recognize this person has hit a wall let's see if we can help the body a little bit to see if we can you know get get under the the the tension that's holding this person back or holding that person down. So yeah so I'm on a mission to you know uh get as many people involved you know I I don't I don't want to be the only TRE provider in Iceland. Well okay well so we have the the first cohort that are coming up that'll be about 10 yes 10 people uh coming in so that's super exciting yes and we have another training coming up in February end of February and then and then you are of course you're doing your one-on-one work in person with people and online um and you're leading regular groups what's what's which has been a which been when you moved back a year or two ago that's been a pretty successful way to do it because you've been able to so yeah just share a little bit about kind of your format and stuff. Yeah so basically I offer the groups um either four or six weeks um and because as we know it takes about three to six sessions for people to kind of really get a hold of TRE and understand it and embody it and um so I've you know also when I was doing a lot of the online work through COVID I grew you know a lot of people in Iceland were showing up for my TRE classes so I I knew before I even moved here that there was interest in it. So I just you know started going into a few yoga studios offered offered those you know four to six week classes and it's become very very successful. So I I do that you know all through winter and um both online and in person. And then I also have um gone and spoken at a few you know the a nurses association or a teachers association and so I get I get asked to come talk about stress and trauma and you know how to heal the body so I I look forward to opportunities like that. But that model of teaching consistently group classes is is really working. I also like you said people can come in and do a one-on-one session with me. I do offer like a free 30-minute chat with anyone that's curious because a lot of people it's like well not quite buying this so when I get them on the phone and I just explain to them what it is and what we're gonna do and they're like hey that makes sense I want to try that so they usually come in for a session or or sign right up into doing a group class. So it's it's not a hard sell once you explain it to them you know because a lot of them they're curious for a reason but I can also share in my group I have three group classes going on right now. I actually just finished one yesterday and in one of the groups this woman there and this is not an isolated incident she's like I've been on my way for two years. So it's like it takes people are curious but they're like I'm not so sure what this is so but more and more people are sending are being sent by friends and family like the young man I spoke about here in the beginning his sister just recently came through actually I think both his sisters and and in the online class that I had recently with eight people all of them were sent by friends and family. So yeah the word gets out word is getting out word is getting out very cool well um yeah well swab this has been so lovely what are there any closing thoughts words inspirations questions well what do you what do you want to close with well um just I appreciate the opportunity Alex to share with you you know my story my passion for for the work um I my my the most my favorite piece about Thierry is that that gives people hope um and someone that was struggling without hope for a very long time um I feel emotional just sharing that is that you know I understand that piece and people like they light up and so that's where we're telling people yes it's great but you've got to slow down yes it's awesome but you've got to slow down it's like they because they want to just go home and shake and shake and shake but once you really emphasize the need to go slow and the need to go gentle and need to be kind towards yourself and like I said the slower you go the faster you heal. So but that is so hard for people in the beginning but um anyone is interested or retrieved keep doing it and even if there are 500 pieces of Legos in those thousand where you I don't know why I'm doing it I'm not feeling anything keep doing it there is something going on your body and your psyche and your heart is responding to it or it wouldn't be tremoring right um and find someone to tremor with regularly oh so inspiring spava thank you so much and I'll see you in a couple weekends because we get to teach again yes so that's exciting Alex that's it for today's episode we hope you found inspiration and new insights into the power of neurogenic drawing. If you enjoyed this conversation make sure to subscribe share and leave a review it really helps us reach more people interested in this transformative work. And if you want to dive deeper connect with us or to learn more about our sessions courses and upcoming trainings head over to neurogenicintegration.com