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The Bowen Technique  "In short, it worked."

by Jane Alexander

(Excerpt)
(Reprinted with permission.)

The Bowen Technique is quite simply the most down-to-earth therapy in the book.  There is no need to wind your head around any complex philosophy; no call for mystic mumblings or deep emotional encounters; and no one expects you to devote an inordinate time to a long, drawn-out course of treatment.

Quick, cheap and effective, it manipulates the muscle and connective tissue, leaving you walking tall and feeling relaxed, free and remarkably supple.  A Bowen treatments takes just 20 minutes, usually costs less than $50 and you don't even have to take off your clothes.

Its popularity is growing fast in Canada and the U.S., and now Bowen is nudging its way in the U.K.  It's really going to take off in this country, predicts Julian Baker, one of (as yet) three qualified practitioners in the country.

Smartly dressed in a neat suit and tie, Baker doesn't look like a typical therapist.  But then, he promises, Bowen isn't a typical therapy.  There isn't any great chanting or any tradition going back 5,000 years.  He says it is "very straightforward, very simple and most importantly, it's painless.

As luck would have it, a weekend's hard gardening and an uncompromising tree stump had contrived to leave me feeling decidedly woeful - with a considerable pain in my lower back.  Julian Baker tried to look sympathetic but there was no disguising the glee on his face.  "Perfect!  That's something Bowen can really help", he promised confidently.  I edged gingerly onto the massage table and lay face down.  Baker explained that he was going to work on the fascia (the connective tissue that covers the muscle), taking the slack across the muscle and moving over it.

The touch is firm but not painful - no more than the pressure you could take on your eyeballs.  As he moved across my neck and back, I could feel first a subtle resistance and then a giving way as he "rolled over" each muscle.

Bowen practitioners describe the movement as similar to "rolling a ball up a hill and then popping it over the top."  When he reached my tortured lower back, there was a wonderful sense of "hitting the spot."  But it's nothing like the continued pressure of massage, nothing like the deep probing of Rolfing and Hellerwork, and nowhere near the short, sharp shocks of acupressure or shiatsu.

More to the point, there is none of the impending sense of terror you get with an osteopath, wondering just when you're going to have you back or neck "cracker."  In fact, Bowen seems so gentle, so negligible in its outward manifestation, that you wonder whether it is really doing any good.

Numerous clinical trials are being carried out to try to pin down the secret of Bowen; the results and answers are some years away.  In the meantime, suffice to say it seems to work. Baker has seen impressive results with frozen shoulder, tennis elbow and other sports injuries.  

Although Baker explained that it's not uncommon to feel initially worse after the first treatment, I have to say I felt better the moment I stepped off the couch.  My back was simply easier, more fluid.  I could bend down without wincing.  The next day only the faintest memory of the stiffness remained, and my whole body felt lighter and more flexible.  In short, it worked!

Jane Alexander is a writer specializing in natural health and holistic living.  She has written 16 books on the subject including Mind Body Spirit (Carlton), Live Well (Element), The Five Minute Healer (Gaia) and The Energy Secret (Element).  Jane is well-known for her features in national British newspapers which cover all aspects of alternative and complementary healthcare, self-help and psychology.  The Daily Mail called her "Britain's top writer on alternative therapies."  She often appears on television and radio to discuss complementary health and related issues.  You can see more of her work on her website at www.smudging.com