Gentle Touch Produces Miracles
Fibromyalgia Relief At Your Fingertips
Gentlest, Most Effective Pain Therapy Ever!
The Bowen Technique: In short, it worked!
Wonder From Down Under
Bowen Therapy From Australia
One Of Those Too Good To Be True Stories.
Power of the Gentle Touch
Hands-On Approach To Relief
Bowen Technique and Frozen Shoulder
What is Bowen - and How Does It Work?

Bowen Technique Helps Many Conditions

Letting You Breathe Easy:  Bowen and Asthma Relief

The Tom Bowen Story

How A Gentle Technique Can Produce Such Profound Results

Bowen Technique National Migraine Research Program

Bowen Technique and Asthma Relief

Bowen Therapy:  An Innovative Modality that Completes Our Holistic Practice

Bowen Technique Added To Primary Care Services

Bowen Technique and Frozen Shoulder (Research Study)

Fibromyalgia Treated Successfully With the Bowen Technique 

Bowen Technique and Childhood Asthma

The Bowen Technique - A Model of Quiet Restraint

The Bowen Technique Explained

Gentle Touch Bowen Therapy

The Bowen Technique:  Some Personal Experiences

Clinical Experiences of a Bowen Therapist

Gentle Touch of Healing Hands

Medical Rethink (Study:  Bowen and Frozen Shoulder)
 
NST - Advanced Bowen Therapy

NST - Gentle Hands Can Restore Your Health

Bowen Therapy - Of Special Interest For Pain Relief

Original Bowen Technique:  A Gentle Hands-On Healing Method

by Sylvia Thompson

(Reprinted from The Irish Times, July, 200 Edition)

What is it? 

A hands-on non manipulative therapy, the Bowen Technique involves the practitioner rolling the muscle and connective tissue on various parts of the body.  The thumbs and fingers are used but the touch is gentle, with little pressure applied.

A feature of the technique is a series of breaks during which no work is done and the patient is not touched.  This is believed to give the body an opportunity to respond to the information gradually and begin the process of healing itself.

What does it treat?

The Bowen Technique is a complementary therapy and not a substitute for medical advice or treatment.

However, practitioners prefer that their clients are not undergoing other treatments at the same time as the Bowen Technique.  Back pain, neck pain, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, repetitive strain injury and other musculoskeletal disorders are believed to respond well to the Bowen Technique.

Practitioners also report success with asthma and other respiratory problems, hay fever, kidney problems, insomnia and arthritis.

A First Timer's Experience

(A 54 year old male member of the caring profession)
My first reaction to the therapist was that she seemed very relaxed, confident and reassuring.  I was asked to fill in a brief form regarding my personal and medical details.  Then, I explained my particular medical problems and the therapist spoke a little about the Bowen Technique.

I was asked to take off my jacket and shoes and lie on my abdomen on the plinth.  The therapist began to make rolling movement of the muscles on various parts of my body - my ankles, my lower back, my mid back, my shoulders and my neck.

After this, she left the room and came back a few minutes later.  She explained that these gaps were to allow the healing to begin.

During this process, there was soothing music in the background.  The room was warm with a pleasant aroma.  Then, she asked me to lie on my back and repeated the rolling movements with her thumbs and fingers on my ankles, legs, shoulders and neck.

The session lasted an hour and I felt a bit mystified by the process, wondering how such a simple, gentle movement could effect major change.  The therapist emphasized the need to drink plenty of water after the treatment.

She advised me that I need at least three to four sessions to get some real benefit.  She also said that I shouldn't participate in any aggressive exercise such as golf or tennis between treatments.  I felt relaxed and refreshed afterwards.

An Advocate's View

Mara Brady is a fifty-something mother of two grown-up children.  "Six years ago, I developed a pain in my left arm which my GP diagnosed as tendonitis.  Following a course of anti-inflammatories, I had a cortisone injection in my left shoulder.

When the pain returned I decided to go to a chiropractor.  After protracted visits the problem eventually healed, but later I developed similar symptoms in my right shoulder.  I went back to the chiropractic but my shoulder didn't repair.

Around this time, I read about the Bowen Technique and found a Bowen Therapist.  Two years later, I am still going once a fortnight.

She has worked on both my arms and shoulders.  Each treatment gives me a great sense of calm.  I believe the treatment taps into your whole body, sending messages to the brain to repair damaged tissues.  It has also had a great effect on my bowels and digestive system, which are good barometers of how you are feeling.

I also sleep better.  I believe everybody needs "a little bit of Bowen."

The Medical View

Dr. Muiris Houston The Irish Times Medical Correspondent says:  "There is considerable evidence from random controlled trials of the effectiveness of all types of manipulation for back and neck pain.  A specific random trial looking at the Bowen Technique for frozen shoulder has demonstrated an improvement of 23 degrees in the range of movement of the shoulder joint in the treatment group.  Overall, 67 percent of patients in the trial showed significant levels of improvement in their symptoms."

© 2000 The Irish Times

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