Bowen Technique
Bowen move on back
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 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!
Frequently with an injury, you just feel the discomfort in one part of your body (such as your shoulder) but you whole body is adapting to the effect of your injury/discomfort.
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. Bowen helps the body to heal itself naturally.
This therapy is suitable for people of any age: from babies to the elderly, from pregnant women to sports people.
Bowen can help during pregnancy as well as postpartum supporting both mother and baby.
What is a Bowen session like?
First, normally a treatment starts with you lying on a massage couch on your stomach. If you cannot lie on your stomach, that is not a problem. Bowen is very accommodating: it can be done with lying on your side, or whatever position is comfortable for you. It doesn't have to be done on a massage table, treatments can be done with sitting on a chair.
The treatment can either be done through light clothing or directly on the skin. The choice is yours.
What other treatment do you know that is so accommodating?
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 uncomfortable.
Normally, a series of four such moves are made on the body. The therapist then lets the body "rest" for a few minutes. Yes, there is a break in treatment.
This part of the treatment is unique to Bowen. Many clients, at first, find this "odd" but these "breaks" allow the body to process what has happened.
I like to think that the break sets up a conversation between the brain and the body. (When was the last time, you stopped to think/feel how some area of your body is feeling?) The brain is constantly checking the body for information as well as instructing the body as to how it should be moving. (The brain initiates and controls muscle movements.)
In a Bowen session, the brain has received a signal indicating that a muscle movement has occurred that it (the brain) did not ask for. A conversation is started between the body and the brain. To me the importance of this break is that in an area that has been injured, the information from that area is of pain and discomfort. The brain registers that "this area hurts". It tends to limit moving this area. What the Bowen move has done is to send a pleasant message to the brain. The brain now starts to reconsider whether the area hurts or not. This is when an injury can start to heal.
A Bowen session consists of a series of these Bowen moves.
Give Bowen a go, it might help you! Book a Bowen session
The treatment can either be done through light clothing or directly on the skin. The choice is yours.
What other treatment do you know that is so accommodating?
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 uncomfortable.
Normally, a series of four such moves are made on the body. The therapist then lets the body "rest" for a few minutes. Yes, there is a break in treatment.
This part of the treatment is unique to Bowen. Many clients, at first, find this "odd" but these "breaks" allow the body to process what has happened.
I like to think that the break sets up a conversation between the brain and the body. (When was the last time, you stopped to think/feel how some area of your body is feeling?) The brain is constantly checking the body for information as well as instructing the body as to how it should be moving. (The brain initiates and controls muscle movements.)
In a Bowen session, the brain has received a signal indicating that a muscle movement has occurred that it (the brain) did not ask for. A conversation is started between the body and the brain. To me the importance of this break is that in an area that has been injured, the information from that area is of pain and discomfort. The brain registers that "this area hurts". It tends to limit moving this area. What the Bowen move has done is to send a pleasant message to the brain. The brain now starts to reconsider whether the area hurts or not. This is when an injury can start to heal.
A Bowen session consists of a series of these Bowen moves.
Give Bowen a go, it might help you! Book a Bowen session
