Practicing Shaking Medicine Safely

Safety Precautions are a vital and ongoing topic within our Shaking Medicine ecosystem. I’m sharing our guidelines here to increase awareness and ensure everyone can practice therapeutic tremoring safely and effectively. Therapeutic tremoring, the focal point of Shaking Medicine founded by Dr. Keith Motes, is a somatic healing practice that releases stress, anxiety, and trauma while promoting nervous system regulation. This practice is generally very safe, and most people can handle standard class lengths (20-40 minutes). However, we recommend a “less is more” approach for sustainable benefits. For those with extreme or severe conditions, starting with guidance from a certified Shaking Medicine Teacher or by booking a personalized coaching session is highly recommended. This all ensures your therapeutic tremoring practice is safe, empowering, and effective.

Why Safety Matters in Therapeutic Tremoring

Therapeutic tremoring, as practiced in Shaking Medicine, engages the autonomic nervous system to release tension and emotions. While safe for most, proper precautions prevent overwhelm, ensuring a safe therapeutic tremoring practice that fosters resilience and well-being. Our guidelines, inspired by Yoga, Qi Gong, and pioneers like Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing, emphasize gradual progression and self-regulation in somatic practices to suit your unique needs.

• Key Safety Goals:

  • Support sustainable somatic healing without overwhelm.

  • Empower intuitive, personalized tremoring.

  • Ensure safety for all, especially those with severe conditions.

Sustainable Practice: Build Gradually for Lasting Benefits

There’s no need to rush the release of tension, stress, anxiety, trauma, or suppressed emotions through Shaking Medicine. A sustainable practice consistent practice with adequate integration time between them is more effective and beneficial than attempting to address everything in a single session or a short period of time. In SM, you are encouraged to empower yourself by resting and modifying as needed, as you know your body best. Prioritizing a gradual approach ensures safety and supports long-term healing, allowing you to build resilience while honoring your unique capacity. Less is More is a key motto of ours.

Starting Out:

• Begin with our Shaking Medicine Beginners Course (or equivalent) doing one class maximum in a day.

• Rest 24-48 hours between sessions to integrate.

• Adjust duration based on comfort—standard sessions are safe for most.

Nervous System Capacity: A Titration-Based Approach

Shaking Medicine promotes a sustainable method to enhance your nervous system’s capacity over time, inspired by the somatic concept of titration from Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing. Avoid pushing too hard or progressing too quickly. Instead, gently explore the edges of physical discomfort, tension, stress, anxiety, suppressed emotions, or trauma to release blockages and stuck energy. This careful approach maximizes safety and effectiveness, allowing you to process and heal gradually and effectively. Sometimes you have to feel it to heal, but only in manageable increments that respect your body’s limits. It is enough to kiss the edges of discomfort. No need to push through anything intense.

Titration Tips:

• Start with gentle therapeutic tremoring, pausing if sensations become overwhelming or too intense.

• Focus on small micro-releases, then integrate them before continuing to avoid re-traumatization.

• For severe conditions (as outlined in this blog), limit to 1-3 minutes at a time or preferably book a 1:1 coaching session for personalised support.

Science Insight: Titration supports vagus nerve regulation and sustainable healing.

Nervous System Capacity: A Titration-Based Approach

Shaking Medicine promotes a sustainable method to enhance your nervous system’s capacity over time, inspired by the somatic concept of titration from Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing. Avoid pushing too hard or progressing too quickly. Instead, gently explore the edges of physical discomfort, tension, stress, anxiety, suppressed emotions, or trauma to release blockages and stuck energy. This careful approach maximizes safety and effectiveness, allowing you to process and heal gradually and effectively. Sometimes you have to feel it to heal, but only in manageable increments that respect your body’s limits. It is enough to kiss the edges of discomfort. No need to push through anything intense.

Titration Tips:

• Start with gentle therapeutic tremoring, pausing if sensations become overwhelming or too intense.

• Focus on small micro-releases, then integrate them before continuing to avoid re-traumatization.

• For severe conditions (as outlined in this blog), limit to 1-3 minutes at a time or preferably book a 1:1 coaching session for personalised support.

Science Insight: Titration supports vagus nerve regulation and sustainable healing.

Intuitive Practice: Trust Your Instincts and Stay Present

Every element of Shaking Medicine is an invitation, offered as a guideline rather than a requirement. You’re encouraged to trust your instincts and intuition, engaging only in practices that feel right for you. Never push through pain or discomfort and modify, adjust, or skip anything that doesn’t support your well-being. This intuitive approach ensures SM remains a safe, personalized experience, empowering you to honor your body’s unique needs at every step. To fully embody this, stay as present as possible during each class. Set aside distractions, release external obligations, and tune deeply into your body’s sensations, allowing the practice to unfold naturally.

How to Stay Present:

• Create a calm environment (e.g., soft lighting, quiet space).

• Have the intention that the time you set aside for you to practice Shaking Medicine is sacred as you are making a conscious choice to shed the old and cultivate health and wellbeing.

• Focus on breath, feeling, and sensations during therapeutic tremoring as opposed to being caught in the analytical logical thinking mind.

• Pause if distracted or uncomfortable, resuming when ready.

Personalized Support: One-on-One Classes for Tailored Guidance

For those seeking additional support, Shaking Medicine offers one-on-one personalized classes. These sessions provide tailored guidance to address your specific needs, ensuring a safe and effective practice. Sometimes to go that next step further we need that extra layer of safety with having some personalised support. Whether you’re navigating unique challenges or desire more individualized attention to grow your SM practice and cultivate your highest potential, these classes are available to support your journey. Message us to schedule a session and deepen your SM experience. One-on-one sessions are particularly recommended for individuals with more complex or severe health conditions instead of our pre-recorded courses or group classes, ensuring a tailored and safe Shaking Medicine practice. Book a coaching session to start safely.

Who Benefits:

• Beginners or those exploring therapeutic tremoring for sensitive nervous systems.

• Individuals with trauma, anxiety, or medical conditions.

• Practitioners seeking deeper somatic healing.

Natural Healing Cycles: Embracing the Process

Healing through Shaking Medicine follows a natural cycle of ups and downs. While the overall trajectory of consistent practice is clear improvement in quality of life, you may experience moments of discomfort as your body processes and releases old tension, suppressed emotions, trauma, etc. At times, this may feel like a purging process, similar to how a fever helps the body eliminate pathogens. While mostly participants feel significantly better after SM, it’s normal to occasionally feel challenging emotions, traumas, or old tension patterns arise as part of the healing journey. We encourage an appreciation for even these harder times as they are fostering a healthier, more vibrant, and peaceful life. On the other side of the harder times is more lightness, love, joy and radiance that we get to embody and feel.

• What to Expect:

  • Initial therapeutic tremoring may stir mild discomfort or emotions.

  • Consistent practice (standard sessions) leads to vitality.

  • View challenges as healing milestones, not setbacks.

Natural Healing Cycles: Embracing the Process

Healing through Shaking Medicine follows a natural cycle of ups and downs. While the overall trajectory of consistent practice is clear improvement in quality of life, you may experience moments of discomfort as your body processes and releases old tension, suppressed emotions, trauma, etc. At times, this may feel like a purging process, similar to how a fever helps the body eliminate pathogens. While mostly participants feel significantly better after SM, it’s normal to occasionally feel challenging emotions, traumas, or old tension patterns arise as part of the healing journey. We encourage an appreciation for even these harder times as they are fostering a healthier, more vibrant, and peaceful life. On the other side of the harder times is more lightness, love, joy and radiance that we get to embody and feel.

• What to Expect:

  • Initial therapeutic tremoring may stir mild discomfort or emotions.

  • Consistent practice (standard sessions) leads to vitality.

  • View challenges as healing milestones, not setbacks.

Frequency of Practice: Find Your Rhythm

The frequency of your Shaking Medicine practice will vary based on individual circumstances. Some may practice daily or every other day, while others might need more time between sessions ranging from every 2 to 7 days initially. This depends on factors such as your current life stage, levels of accumulated stress, anxiety, or trauma, your resilience, and your mindset and belief systems. There is no universal approach. We recommend starting with a few sessions per week if within your capacity, with a minimum of once per week to see meaningful results in a reasonable timeframe. The SM Beginners Course is usually a good goal for your first week of embodiment. If a class feels too intense, adjust by doing less—your needs may vary from day to day.

• Recommended Frequency:

  • Most People: 1-3 standard therapeutic tremoring sessions (15-30 minutes) weekly.

  • Sensitive Individuals: 1-2 sessions (5-10 minutes) with coaching support.

  • Adjust based on daily energy and comfort.

Progression and Milestones: Build Toward Intuitive Mastery

The goal of Shaking Medicine is to cultivate your intuition through embodied practice, fostering a deeper trust in your inner knowing to determine what feels right for you. With regular practice, whether daily, weekly, or somewhere in between, you’ll experience profound long-term benefits, building your capacity for SM gradually over months. A key milestone, often reached around 20 embodiment classes, is when SM becomes second nature which is the focus of our SM Intermediate Course. At this stage, therapeutic tremoring becomes intuitive, much like a wild animal or infant, allowing you to use SM effortlessly. This paves the way for the next major stage: complete animalistic homeostasis. There’s no rush. Progress at a pace that feels sustainable, ensuring a safe and effective journey.

• Milestones:

  • Beginner (1-10 sessions): Build comfort with therapeutic tremoring.

  • Intermediate (10-20 sessions): Achieve intuitive practice with our Intermediate Course.

  • Advanced: Reach animalistic homeostasis for lifelong wellness.

Self-Regulation: Key to a Safe Practice

Self-regulation is fundamentally important to the safety of embodying Shaking Medicine. As you learn to reconnect with your therapeutic tremoring mechanism, we'll ask you to frequently pause and restart the process, even perhaps before you feel the need to stop. Grounding, integrating, and resting between SM shapes and entire sessions are essential for a sustainable practice. The aim is to unravel one layer at a time, integrate the shift, and then move to the next, ensuring SM becomes a lifelong tool for well-being. If you feel overwhelmed, overly fatigued, experience excessive pain, uncomfortable breathing, intense emotions, uncertainty, or painful cramping, pause the tremoring process for the day or ease up significantly. Allow time for integration before gently resuming. As always, every element of our sessions is a guideline—modify, adjust, and trust your intuition, engaging only with what serves you and leave the rest behind or come back to it when it feels right. We have many suggestions on offer. If even one or a few of them land in any session that is more than enough to have a powerful impact.

• Self-Regulation Tips:

  • Pause every 2-3 minutes to check in with your body.

  • Use grounding (e.g., deep breathing, touching the floor).

  • For severe conditions, limit to 2-3 minutes and seek coaching.

Who Should Be Cautious with Therapeutic Tremoring?

Certain conditions may require caution when practicing Shaking Medicine, including severe physical injuries, recent surgery, broken bones, pregnancy, significant mental health conditions, major medical issues, trauma, PTSD, complex trauma, emotional overwhelm, panic attacks, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, or any medical condition involving non-therapeutic tremoring, such as Epilepsy, Parkinson’s, or Multiple Sclerosis. In these cases, we strongly recommend starting with a one-on-one personalized session with an SM teacher rather than a group class to ensure safety and proper guidance. Being cautious doesn’t necessarily mean you cannot practice SM, but it does require due diligence. If you’re particularly sensitive, begin with just a few minutes of tremoring to assess how your body responds over the following day(s). You might also focus solely on the physical or energetic warm-ups in our classes, which are powerful for initiating healing, before gradually incorporating therapeutic tremoring as you feel ready.

Therapeutic tremoring in Shaking Medicine is generally safe, and most people can enjoy standard sessions (20-40 minutes). For those with extreme or severe conditions, prioritize getting one-on-one personalised coaching sessions or start with only 1-3 minutes of gentle tremoring if you do decide to make your own empowered choice to try Shaking Medicine on your own and/or with your medical advice from a healthcare professional. Below is a thorough list of conditions requiring caution:

• Physical Conditions:

  • Severe physical injuries (e.g., sprains, fractures, torn ligaments).

  • Recent surgery (within 6-8 weeks).

  • Broken bones or joint instability.

  • Pregnancy (especially high-risk or third trimester).

  • Chronic pain conditions (e.g., fibromyalgia, arthritis).

  • Cardiovascular issues (e.g., uncontrolled hypertension, heart disease).

  • Recent concussions or traumatic brain injuries.

• Mental Health Conditions:

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

  • Complex trauma or developmental trauma.

  • Emotional overwhelm or severe anxiety.

  • Panic attacks or panic disorder.

  • Bipolar Disorder (manic or depressive phases).

  • Schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders.

  • Severe depression with suicidal ideation.

• Neurological and Other Medical Conditions:

  • Epilepsy or seizure disorders.

  • Parkinson’s Disease or other movement disorders.

  • Multiple Sclerosis or other neurodegenerative conditions.

  • Autoimmune disorders with active flare-ups (e.g., lupus).

  • Severe respiratory conditions (e.g., COPD, asthma with active symptoms).

  • Uncontrolled diabetes with fluctuating blood sugar.

Precautions for These Conditions:

• Start with 2-3 minutes of gentle therapeutic tremoring.

• Focus on warm-ups (e.g., stretching, breathing) before tremoring.

• Book a personalized coaching session for tailored guidance.

• Consult a healthcare provider before starting.

Disclaimer: Always seek medical advice if you have concerns about these conditions.

Safety Checklist for Therapeutic Tremoring

To ensure a safe therapeutic tremoring practice, especially early on, follow this checklist:

1. Assess Your Health: Check for conditions requiring caution (see above) & consider consulting your professional health care provider.

2. Warm Up: Take the time to warm up your muscles and slow down your logical thinking mind.

3. Start Small: Shake in short amounts. Stopping & starting frequently as guided in all of our Beginners Courses.

4. Use Titration: Gently approach discomfort, pausing frequently and backing out.

5. Stay Present: Focus on body sensations & breath and avoid distractions.

6. Seek Support: Book a coaching session for severe conditions.

7. Rest and Integrate: Allow 24-48 hours or more between sessions.

Questions: We’re Here to Support You

If any of the above applies to you or if you have concerns about whether Shaking Medicine is right for you, please message us. We’re here to ensure your SM journey is safe, effective, and tailored to your needs. Contact us for guidance from Dr. Keith Motes and our team.

Key Takeaways

• Therapeutic tremoring in Shaking Medicine is safe for most, with standard sessions (20-40 minutes) suitable.

• Use titration and self-regulation for a safe therapeutic tremoring practice.

• Severe conditions (e.g., PTSD, Epilepsy, pregnancy) require careful consideration and personalised coaching sessions are recommended.

• Build gradually for sustainable and long term results.

• Trust and grow your intuition as you deepen in Shaking Medicine.

FAQ

Is therapeutic tremoring safe for everyone?
Most can safely enjoy standard Shaking Medicine sessions, but those with severe conditions should start extra gentle and book a personalised coaching session. Consult a doctor if needed. Read above for full details.

How do I avoid overwhelm during therapeutic tremoring?
Use titration, pausing frequently, and integrating your session regularly to respect your nervous system capacity.

What’s the difference between Shaking Medicine and TRE?
Shaking Medicine, founded by Dr. Keith Motes, uses spiritual & scientific aspects, creative sequencing, and explores therapeutic tremoring all over the body in shapes ranging from standing, all fours belly, side, and back, while TRE, founded by Dr. David Berceli, focuses on a 7 step process and 1 main tremor shape making it more militaristic and mainstream focused.

How often should I practice therapeutic tremoring?
Most can practice 2-5 standard sessions weekly; sensitive individuals should start with 1-2 shorter sessions and consider personalised coaching.