Bowen Therapy, also known as the Bowen Technique or Bowenwork, is a form of hands-on bodywork that involves gentle, rolling movements over the muscles, tendons, and other soft tissues of the body. It was developed in the 1950s by Australian Tom Bowen, the technique can alleviate pain, improve posture, and enhance overall health and well-being.

During a Bowen Therapy session, the practitioner will typically perform a series of small, precise movements on specific areas of the body, such as the back, neck, shoulders, or legs. These movements are designed to stimulate the body's natural healing mechanisms and create a release, this helps restore balance and harmony within the body.

Bowen Therapy is used to treat a large variety of conditions, including back pain, neck pain, headaches, sports injuries, and stress-related disorders just to mention a few.

As we go about our day, muscles will shorten or lengthen continuously to support the activity we’re doing.

Bad habits, or the strain of the activities we’re undertaking, repetitive or otherwise, may result in unbalanced levels of tension in our muscles, and this is when we can suffer from pain and fatigue and often injury that can be mild, like a strain or muscle tear, to a major injury like a prolapsed disc in the spine or it maybe an impingement within the nervous system.

Impacts & Patterns

Impacts to your body through playing sports or from accidents can cause micro-tears and scars in muscle fibres, as, for example, with whiplash.

Regular, or irregular, patterns of movement may cause your body to compensate, resulting in rotation or compression of your posture:

• One-sided sports, such as tennis or golf, may create muscular imbalance.
• Jobs which involve repeated rotation, flexing or squeezing of the hand, (plumbing, decorating and hairdressing for instance), create tension through the wrist, arm and shoulder.
• Regular screen use may result in sore, aching muscles in the upper back, neck and shoulders, hands and arms.
• Issues giving birth may affect you not just at the time of the birth but in later life.

Your body continually adjusts and compensates in order to keep functioning, which, over time, may lead to pain and reduced movement.

Many people use the Bowen Technique to help address these compensations, restoring balance and ease of movement and increased sport performance!, and also decreased recovery times.

The Importance of Fascia

In Bowen Therapy, as well as the muscles and tendons, we work on the fascia. Fascia is an important, highly mobile, connective tissue, which runs throughout your body. It is via the fascia that we often address levels of tension and discomfort.

We purposefully move the fascia in a particular way to stimulate or relax muscle fibres in order to achieve:

• Improved posture and flexibility
• Pain relief
• Improved mobility

Clients also tell us that they feel less stressed following a treatment, this is due to the body moving the nervous system from sympathetic (fight or flight mode) to parasympathetic mode (rest and repair) which is why it is also amazing with emotional issues like anxiety and depression.  

Having taken time out of busy schedules to address their imbalance’s and injuries we find that Bowen becomes their “go to” therapy because of the speed of recovery!

If you have never tried Bowen then give me a call or text on 07921952725 or email bowenwb@yahoo.com