Are you in a lot of pain or discomfort? Have you tried other treatments or therapies and found that you still hurt? Bowen may be the therapy for you.
The Bowen Technique is a very gentle, unique, remedial technique. Don't let the term gentle be mis-leading. It really is gentle but is also powerful.
So what is Bowen? It is easiest to describe what it is not:
- it is not a form of massage,
- it does not involve manipulation,
- no oil is used.
A Bowen treatment treats the body as a whole, integrated system - yes your foot is connected to your knee bone!
Bowen can help with a range of problems from frozen shoulder, painful knees, TMJ syndrome, backache to more general conditions of feeling stressed and tired.
This therapy is suitable for people of any age: from babies to the elderly, from pregnant women to sports people.
Bowen is very accommodating: it can be done with you lying down, lying on your side, or whatever position is comfortable for you. You can even be sitting in a chair.
The treatment can either be done through light clothing or directly on the skin. The choice is yours.
A sessions consists of a series of moves - the Bowen move and the “break”.
So what is a Bowen move?
The Bowen move is a gentle rolling move across tissue: muscles, tendons, ligaments. The pressure needs to be enough that the skin is moved over the underlying tissue but it should not be painful.
Normally, a series of four such moves are made on the body and then there is a “rest”. Yes, there is a break in treatment of a couple of minutes.
and the break...?
This part of the treatment is unique to Bowen. Many clients, at first, find this "odd" but these "breaks" allow thebrain/ body to process what has happened.
I like to think that the break sets up a conversation between the brain and the body. The brain is constantly checking the body for information as well as instructing the body as to how it should move. If an area has been injured, the brain registers that "this area always hurts". With the Bowen move, a pleasant message is sent to the brain which now starts to reconsider whether the “injured” area still hurts. This is when an injured area recovers.
Still have questions?
Contact Elizabeth Hughes, your local, friendly mobile massage therapist and bodyworker.