The Bowen Technique
The Bowen technique was developed by Australian Thomas Ambrose Bowen (1916–1982) and during his lifetime as a practitioner he was estimated to treat an average 13,000 patients a year. Since his death the application of the Bowen technique has spread globally and has been found to be highly effective in the treatment and management of many different ailments. With its popularity growing many people with whom the NHS have failed to treat or simply cannot do any more for with modern medicine are finding relief and a return to health with Bowen therapy.
How Bowen Works
The actual mechanism behind the success of Bowen is currently restricted to theory as it encompasses aspects and elements of the human body which are poorly understood and more research is needed in order to fully understand how the technique modifies the body. Below, however, is a brief synopsis of current theory relating to the manipulation of the fascia (connective tissue) and how Bowen works.
Figure shows fascia difference in a healthy arm (left) and an arm which has been in a cast for 6 weeks (right).
Fascia is the term for the connective tissue which forms a fibrous sheath around the muscles and organs within the body. The fascia interacts with many different components of the body including bones, nerves and blood vessels and seamlessly connects our entire body. It is the fascia that is the structure that gives us our structural integrity. The connective tissues which make up the fascia are made up of different collagen fibres and possess a great degree of sensory nerve endings, with the work of Dr Robert Schleip describing the fascia to possess approximately 6 times as many sensory nerves than its red muscular counterpart. With such a large component of sensory nerves, it would appear to indicate that the fascia is not just inert tissue but a complex sensory organ which connects to every organ and muscle within our body. Modification to the fascia through injury or emotional state could therefore drive localised or systemic changes within the body. Experiments with molecules produced during our body in response to stress have shown increased tension within the fibres of the fascia which could be the cause behind that “pent up” feeling and may also lead to injury and disease progression. Investigations into the fascia during injury have also shown it to change structure and density (see image) and damage to the fascia tissues within the lumbar region of the back have been linked to lower back pain. It is likely that the fascia plays a complex role as a sensory organ within the body and modification to it may be the cause and driver of many different ailments.
The Bowen technique aims to make subtle adjusts to the fascia causing it to rearrange and allows the body to “re-balance” leading to changes which reduce pain and tension. As the fascia acts as a network for the transport of kinetic energy, the manipulation of the fascia could well be viewed as altering the regulation of energy within the body, with many Bowen application sites coincidently covering meridian lines.
The brain is our central processing unit, computing and processing huge amounts of sensory inputs such as touch, light, sound and movement every second. When the Bowen practitioner applies small gentle applications to stimulate certain areas it triggers the brain to ask questions and challenges the central nervous system to evaluate what just happened. The immediate response of this is generally the client enters into a deep state of relaxation. If we consider the fascia as a sensory organ which possesses a degree of innervation it could be that a degree of cross-talk is initiated between itself and the brain. This cross talk during a state of deep relaxation could be responsible for the initiation of the healing process and the key the success of the Bowen technique.
