What is Bowen?

The Bowen technique is a soft tissue treatment which involves the therapist using fingers or thumbs to move over muscle, ligament, tendon and fascia on specific points of the body.

The work is subtle, gentle and can have profound and often dramatic results in a short period of time. It involves no manipulation, massage, or hard and prolonged pressure. During a session the client will normally lie on a therapy table or bed.

As an holistic therapy a treatment will generally address the whole body. Every part of the human body is connected to another, so working over the whole body enables the treatment of both the symptoms and the causes of these symptoms.

A feature of the work is that between sets of moves the therapist will introduce short breaks allowing the client to rest and the body time to interpret what has been done. This is a key element of Bowen and a defining aspect of the technique. The break allows the body the opportunity to create a response to the given moves.

As humans we create appropriate responses to most situations. We can clearly establish where danger is present and determine how we should respond. Similarly we are able to define appropriate responses to other stimuli, whether it be  social, pain, heat, cold etc.

With a Bowen move the response mechanism is thrown into a degree of confusion as to what the appropriate response should be. The moves aren’t painful and so therefore defence isn’t called for. There is no friction or rubbing so no need to increase fluid to the area. The breaks give the nervous system a chance to establish the correct actions and the body can start the subtle changes it needs to correct and repair itself. In the process other information can be gathered by the body and it is common for areas not being directly treated to respond to the treatment.