Physical Therapy
The Importance of Touch
Our skin is our largest body organ and not only is it responsible for covering us it is the pathway for touch and a powerful means of communication. Touch is one of our most important and powerful functions for our long-term health and wellbeing and is fundamental to the human experience.
Research has shown that where there is greater physical contact during childhood and adolescence, rates of adult physical violence are lowered. Touch communicates without words, reduces stress and nurtures growth and development. Most importantly it can influence and change pain.
Bessel Van Der Kolk is one of the world’s foremost experts on traumatic stress. He encourages all of his psychologically traumatised clients to have a form of hands on therapy as a means of getting back in touch with themselves viscerally as part of their healing process. This proves that the power of touch really is significant for our health.
How the Bowen Technique Works and Your Bowen Session
The Bowen Technique is a ‘whole person’ remedial therapy that treats you in your entirety and not just your symptoms. It is a hands-on treatment where I apply gentle pressure from my fingers and thumbs over precise points on your body, to perform sets of rolling type moves, unique to Bowen. These moves stimulate the soft tissues and muscles of your body. There is no forceful manipulation or adjustment of hard tissue involved. During your treatment session, I will leave the room for a few minutes at a time, to allow your body to respond to the moves that have been applied. This process is believed to encourage the body to reset, rebalance and repair itself, thus providing a simplistic and effective method of managing both physical pain and stress or emotional related problems.
Fortunately Bowen Therapy has no contraindications making it a treatment apt for every-body. The young and old, active or infirm can all benefit from this type of therapy and no one person is the exception to the rule. Treatment can be performed directly over your skin surface whilst remaining in your underwear and towels will be used for your comfort and modesty purposes. If this is an issue for you, then very thin, loosely fitting, non-slippery clothing can be worn so I can still work as close to your skin as possible. If you come to sessions wearing bulky, tight fitting items, you will be asked to remove them prior to treatment.
Treatments are best scheduled 5 – 10 days apart with a course of 3 being booked in the first instance. Some symptoms can resolve after the course of 3 sessions, whilst others may take a little longer. It is best practice for you not to wait until you have pain or feel unwell with your symptoms, in order to benefit from Bowen Therapy. To get the best benefits out of your Bowen Treatments, you are advised to have monthly treatments to prevent problems occurring and manage your health holistically.
Conditions Bowen can help with:
- Babies – Colic, Sleep Problems, Poor Settling/Restlessness
- Children – Bedwetting, Growing Pains, Sleep and Behavioural Problems, Glue Ear, Travel Sickness
- Chronic Pain – Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Complex Pain Syndromes, MS, ME, Arthritis, Sciatica, Chronic Pain Dysfunction, Poor Sleep, Stress, Anxiety and Depression, Energy Levels
- Digestion – IBS, Reflux, Crohn’s, Constipation, Bowel Dysfunction
- Gynaecological – Infertility, Menopause, Polycystic Ovaries, Period Issues
- Pregnancy – Morning Sickness, Pains, SPD, Mood Changes
- Musculoskeletal – Sports Injuries, Whiplash, Joint Pains, Posture, Flexibility, Performance
- Respiratory – Asthma, Hay fever, Sinus Problems.
The list is endless…
The History of Bowen
Thomas Ambrose Bowen (1916 – 1982) was born in Australia, from parents who originally came from Wolverhampton. Tom was not an academic man, leaving school aged 14, he worked as a milk carter and labourer, but he enjoyed participating in and teaching sports.
Following his days at work, he began treating his colleague’s ailments in clinics and was clearly good at it because his reputation began to grow and his time in clinic went well into the night hours. As his reputation grew he was encouraged to embark on a full time career change and opened a full time clinic from his rented home.
Tom was self taught by reading books and developed both his technique and informal business with no formal training or qualifications. Evidence suggests that in 1973 Tom attended the Osteopathy, Chiropractic and Naturopathic Committee and advised them his success came from being a self-taught practitioner and following this in 1975, a government report on natural health practices, identified that Tom was treating 13,000 patients annually with Bowen Therapy.
Tom’s therapy was not limited to humans. He regularly treated domestic animals, horses and farm animals all of which appeared to benefit and so later Equine and Canine Bowen Therapy were created.
Tom was not one for documenting his work, being self-taught and an experiential learner, he invited people into his clinic to observe him treating. It is reported that six students in particular studied Tom’s work. Keith Davis, Kevin Neave, Nigel Love, Oswald Rentsch, Romney Smeeton and Kevin Ryan became regarded as ‘Tom’s Boys’ and are all individually responsible for Bowen, as we know it today. Tom’s philosophy was to help all those he could and continued doing so until his death.
Booking a Session
I am more than happy to have a free 15-minute phone consultation with you prior to booking you a course of 3 sessions. Treatments will last 45 minutes and I strongly recommend completion of the course to get the optimum out of this therapy. On completion of your 3-session course, I will review where we are with your progress and it may be that we need not meet weekly and could extend the session gap to monthly. This of course will not be known until completion of the course and appraisal of your symptoms, suffice to say you are a unique individual and who knows what you and your body are capable of achieving. I simply look forward to helping you with the change you want.