Welcome to 'North Yorkshire Bowen Therapy'

Remedial Muscle Treatment for Horses and People.

                                                              

                                                                                            

What is The Bowen Technique?

The Bowen Technique is a remedial therapy where the practitioner uses thumbs and fingers on precise points on the body making rolling type moves which gently stimulates the muscles, soft tissue, ligaments and tendons. These moves prompt the body to make adjustments which helps to re-balance, relieve tension and reduce pain.  

The treatment affects the body in ways which promotes healing, pain relief and recovery of energy, there is no manipulation or adjustments of hard tissue. The experience of the treatment is gentle, subtle and relaxing and it is these features which makes the Bowen Technique so unique. It is generally regarded as safe and effective for people of all ages and can be performed through light clothing.

The Treatment:

A treatment usually lasts between 40-60 minutes depending on the individual. Sets of moves are made over the body with a series of short breaks where the practitioner leaves the room. 

The Breaks:

The 'breaks' where the therapist leaves the room lets the body rest and absorb the gentle moves that have been performed. When small moves are made, signals are sent to the brain and the breaks allows the body time to process this information and make any subtle adjustments, which helps to re-balance, relieve tension and reduce pain.

Following the Treatment: 

- Drink plenty of water! The body will use water reserves to start the process of detox following the treatment.  

- Move Around! Try to move around at least each every half an hour for a few minutes, this keeps the body systems active whilst encouraging the body to detox.                                                                                           

- Time! Allow the body the time it takes to implement changes.

There is no:

- Manipulation or Force,                                                                                                                                       

- Adjustment,                                                                                                                                                        

- Massaging or use of oils,                                                                                                                                     

- Deep or prolonged pressure,                                                                                                                             

- Equipment required.

What we don't do:

- Diagose,                                                                                                                                                             

- Treat specific conditions,                                                                                                                                     

- Prescribe or alter medications,                                                                                                                           

- Make claims.

Reactions:

Reactions to the treatment are not uncommon and can include:

- Increase in original symptoms,                                                                                                                           

-Tiredness,                                                                                                                                                          

- Stiffness,                                                                                                                                                             

- Headaches. 

Next Treatment:

Each case is different therefore they will be treated individually but it is recommended that a minimum of 3 treatments, 5-10 days apart achieves lasting results. This can be sustained with maintenance treatments up to every 6 weeks.

History of the Bowen Technique:

The Bowen Technique was pioneered by Thomas Ambrose Bowen of Geelong, Australia. The story of Tom Bowen is a remarkable one, even more so for knowing that in spite of being one of the busiest and most effective therapists of his generation, he had no formal training or qualifications in any therapeutic background.

Coming from a working class family, Tom left school at the age of 14 he took various labouring jobs, including milk carter, and general hand at a woollen mill, before going in to the building trade where he took up his father's trade of carpenter, working as a general hand at Geelong Cement works. It was while he was working at the cement works that he started to treat people after work before he eventually started to work full time out of a rented house in Geelong.

Having no therapeutic background Bowen was under no restrictions about how he should run his clinic and as such, appointments were vague to the point of non-existent. Patients phoning for a time would be told to come either morning or afternoon, when they would arrive, take a number from a board and wait. As the clinic times were only two hours long, and Bowen worked at a rate of something like 14 patients per hour, the wait would rarely be a long one.

It was often said of Tom Bowen that he could take one look at an individual and 'see' what was wrong and where the problem stemmed from. He only needed to do a few simple moves, allowing the body to rest for certain periods, before 'seeing' that the body had started to change. Once he recognised this, his work was done and the patient discharged, maybe to be brought back next week or maybe for good.

It was common for the patient to walk out in the same pain as when they had walked in, a situation that many therapists would find uncomfortable and yet an excellent opportunity to see precisely what Bowen's unique approach was. Tom Bowen's work was not a systemised series of moves or techniques, but more a piece of music that would change according the mood of the orchestra and the temperament of the conductor.

What Bowen could 'see' was not something that could be verbalised or classified in the strictest sense as of diagnosis. He just knew where there was an imbalance and had the ability to know when that imbalance was changing. Once Bowen had got the process moving, that was enough for him and he then knew that through the week, the body would take over and do the rest. He was rarely wrong.

He ran a fortnightly clinic for years, treated disabled people free of charge and he would regularly pay house calls to people who were unable to attend his clinic, even if it were in the middle of the night. On Sundays he would visit Geelong Prison to treat prisoners and was many times called upon by the Geelong Police to assist them, even being awarded a medal from the Victorian Police Board.

Bowen found a starting point from which he could encourage the body's own power of healing to take hold. What he actually discovered has huge implications in both the world of modern medicine and the complementary field. To keep the focus on what Bowen did or did not do, is to live in the past and to condemn the infinite possibilities of Bowen's extraordinary discovery to the realms of argument and idle speculation.