Glad it was helpful! Thank you for commenting.

Usually people starting with Bowen therapy should expect to have two sessions a week apart to kick things off. Going forward from there it can vary between practitioners and some encourage week, week, week. In our clinic we find a more personalised case-by-case approach serves our clients and indeed us better. There will be some who need a third session 2-3 weeks later and that then will be them finished, others who are good to go after just the two sessions, and also those - eg. who know their long and complex health history - who, having found Bowen therapy works for them on so many levels (due to its impact on the central nervous system), want to go on the “journey” to see where it leads and what they can recover from. They choose their spacings but they may change the gap length longer as they progress and improve, always knowing that if they feel it appropriate they can contract the gaps or further increase them at will. All our clients know that they can contact us anytime if they have an acute injury or need help rehabbing after surgery or an accident or they feel the time is right to peel off another layer of dysfunction. Some have monthly, some work out that 3 monthly serves them eg. if they have a job which causes them to ‘reinjure’ such as bricklayer, electrician, driving instructor, tree surgeon, athlete, frequent traveller and more. Some get better and may not need to contact us again for 3, 5 or even 10 years as generally they can manage themselves but then perhaps have a car accident or trip and fall. Bowen reconnects brain and body - a communication often broken over time by analgesics, society’s pressures to keep going and indeed training schedules often pushing the mantras ‘push through the pain’ and ‘no pain no gain’. We encourage all to increasingly be guided by what their body is telling them and to adopt more of an ‘ask the body to do x’ approach rather than ‘demand the body does y’.

@timeformeofkenilworth6762 call she said is l went to a chiropractor tge week before and she told me not to mix up treatments..my low back is causing some pain tgd last few weeks

@@timeformeofkenilworth6762 ..all not call

Ah. Because chiropractic, osteopathy, physiotherapy and massage are all aiming to address the same types of issues as Bowen therapy but tend to be more physically continuous, firmer treatment input they are sometimes thought to override the more subtle Bowen input. For this reason many Boweners will suggest staying a week apart from the above alternative inputs, another reason being that you won’t know what is working for you? Also, if a practitioner (of any type) takes professional notes of your presentation and the inputs they applied in the session, they are then monitoring in subsequent sessions how you are progressing as they determine what further inputs may be needed. We liken it to mixing a cake and whilst the practitioner/baker steps away to answer the door/phone someone else has leapt in and thrown in a couple of eggs to the mix that they know nothing about. It makes the result a little less certain. That said we in clinic do work alongside chiros and others but we all know about each other and try not to be overdoing things with appts too close together. To your own situation, if you have had several chiro sessions in a row and are seeing no progress, you can opt to clear some space in your diary eg. a month to enable a different practitioner eg. Bowen, a window in which you and they can both see whether the new work with the different therapist is what your body needs? That decision has to be yours. In our clinic if someone has had a few sessions of non-Bowen but are no better then we would be willing to see them even just a few days later provided(!) they have cleared us a window of at least two sessions and a week or two after that.

Does Bowen therapy work for bulging discs in lumbar spine?

Mental, emotional and physical health are closely related and indeed are inter-related even to the point of being one and the same eg. the amygdala is a physical structure in our brain within our Limbic system but responsible for storing and controlling emotional responses: www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01720-6 Healing any aspect of health may require action on the part of the sufferer, may require access to specialist support, may be more or less difficult depending on causative factors and also attitude. www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/lifes-challenges/health-issues/

Bowen therapy looks at the whole body and its alignment/tensional symmetry. A good practitioner will assess which work needs doing and where to optimise alignment and within that TMJ/TMD issues are key. Often issues which clients are suffering from are symptoms of a misalignment/excessive tensioning distorting other areas. Ear issues can be an example of this but also, have you seen a dentist or audiologist?

@@timeformeofkenilworth6762 thank you for tour response. Yes I have seem the dentist and ENTs but not an audiologist because of associated head pressure as a symptom.

@@timeformeofkenilworth6762 I have seen 2 different ENTs and dentist who can' t find anything but not an audiologist.

Where are you in the country/world? You may need a Bowen therapist with additional specialist skills and understanding of TMJ work - this can vary greatly amongst practitioners as it is relatively new work. You also mention head tensions and it may help to have a practitioner who has cranial knowledge too. What I am saying is that Bowen therapy can achieve fab things but you may need to change practitioner if you are not getting some positive change within 2-3 sessions. You may find (if you have instagram access) that @posturepro gives you some great insights and even some self-help. Understanding how connected your head is to your feet (even) shows you why Bowen therapy with its holistic (whole body) approach often gives such great results. Also @drjoedamiani

Thank tou for the informaiton. I appreciate it. I am in Cyprus and have had over a dozen sessions without change.

Not an expert in Rolfing per se but… Certainly Tom Bowen considered himself an osteopath but he also drew on Shiatsu/TCM principles. Ida Rolf’s thinking/principles align very well with the interpretations of Tom Bowen’s work including her views that ‘where the pain is the problem almost certainly isn’t’ and that bones will often keep going out of alignment until the soft tissue tensions are eased. Bowen therapy rarely needs 10 sessions (often 2-3 sessions entirely based on the individual and their specific presentations is sufficient) and unlike Rolfing, Bowen does not specifically involve “slow, sustained and focussed pressure in a specific direction” ( www.rolfinguk.co.uk/ ). Bowen therapy is typically a very pared back intervention where skin slack is taken back in one direction at a specific point of tension where the skeleton is being held out of alignment. That skin slack may be held for a short period of time or may be used almost immediately to effect a roll over a specific soft tissue (tendon, ligament, muscle or simply fascia) section. The pressure used will vary dependent on the response within the tissue and from the client as some areas of the body/ receptors (golgi, ruffini, etc) respond better to a lighter or heavier pressure but Bowen is still light touch / shortlived discomfort (if any) compared to therapies such as osteo, chiro, physio, sports massage as it aims simply to trigger the body to undergo change and readjustment itself. There are generally breaks to enable the brain to process the intervention sensations and take decisions according to the information provided (it is surmised) with the practitioner returning to an area to ensure that change has begun. This does not necessarily involve the practitioner leaving the room but it is known that Tom Bowen’s 6-10 minute sessions did often/usually involve a single break but he was working on more than one client at once as many Boweners do today. Speaking from our own experience the breaks can often be profound (the body on the couch entering very often into a deep parasympathetic state during which huge change occurs) but are not always necessary depending on the client and the issues being addressed.

Yes indeed. Thanks for contributing. This commentary is more about how global assessment appears to be done, how ‘the tight side’ is determined, rather than the mechanics of the intervention itself. It is intentionally very simplistic as a top level message but your input may help those watching it🙏🏻

If it helps anyone we are glad

Tom Bowen was observed by many people during his work, six were referred to by him as being ‘his boys’: Keith Davis (chiropractor), Nigel Love (chiropractor), Oswald Rentsch (massage therapist), Kevin Neave (chiropractor), Romney Smeeton (chiropractor), and Kevin Ryan (osteopath). Teaching in Mr Bowen’s lifetime took place, with his support and agreement, by Kevin Ryan but since his death all have trained others to a greater or lesser extent. Like other practices there are a range of interpretations of Tom Bowen’s work, none actually being ‘the original’ per se albeit that one claims to be such. SEE Setting-the-Record-Straight-12092016.pdf (americanbowen.academy) and also there is original video footage taken by Ron Phelan including interviews with Tom’s sister Agnes, his colleague Rene Horwood and others who worked with Tom Bowen or were worked on by Tom Bowen. There are detailed accounts collated by historical researcher and Bowen therapist Shirley Strachan and published in her book Healing Hands: Unsung Voices Anthology, Thomas Ambrose Bowen, Osteopath (1916-1982) (ISBN: 9781909465442). The range of interpretations have their own validities, and many of us as practitioners work across more than one interpretation as we try to work out for ourselves how best to produce the best result we can for our clients. Does that answer your question? NST is very much osteopathic in its interpretation of our soft tissue Bowen practice, Tom Bowen described himself as ‘Tom Bowen, Osteopath’, other interpretations are less so. Some are more aligned with meridian lines (Tom Myers Anatomy Trains supports the efficacy of this approach and Tom Bowen was known to refer to a Shiatsu book as being key to his work). Depending on background Bowen practitioners may feel they align more seamlessly with one interpretation or another. Clients likewise.

@@timeformeofkenilworth6762 thanks for your explanation. I understand no single way is original bowen. But at least BRM1,2,3 almost identical between bowen version. DBB1,2,3 is the different version or more faster version. It dont use pause very often. So, between BRM dan DBB. Which one best result from your experience.

DBB better in my view - however, pauses are optional in both modes, and indeed stoppers within that are deemed to be the single most important factor - to switch the body into parasympathetic mode. Experience allows for variations whilst retaining reliable results, allowing the session to focus on client need within available time.

@@timeformeofkenilworth6762 thank you. This answer im trying to ask. For me, BRM is more suitable. Maybe im not using DBB more in my practice

Absolutely. This brings me back entirely to my first reply. Practitioners of Bowen will have their own preference which suits them. Clients too will have their own preference. Many come to us because we work the way we do. No doubt the same for you. 👍🏻

Please do! It is an incredibly effective technique and can ease knee, lower leg and foot pain, by way of example. Build up gradually and ALWAYS do both sides equally.

Oh wow! 🥰 How great to hear from you and to know that you are familiar with the lovely town of Kenilworth here in the UK. We try so very hard to try and help people, and to help them help themselves. So glad our efforts are appreciated. Tennessee is not somewhere I have visited but hope you are very happy there. Maybe will add it to our next US itinerary but hey your home country now is sure one BIG country 🤗

I’ll be trying this as well - thank you!

Take it easy, build gradually and do feed back if you would like to. 😀

Fascia has become prominent in all bodywork modes over the past decade or two as essentially it runs throughout the body in a continuous web. No-one can touch a body anywhere without that touch impacting fascia as one of the networks through the body.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Bowen is the best 👌 treatment 😊

With Bowen therapy we are expecting the brain to remap the body. That is to say that time needs to be allowed between sessions for the brain to synthesis the messages it received from around the body and take appropriate decisions on returning the soft tissues to a better state of homeostasis. In this Bowen tends to work differently to some of the other therapies which rely more on the physical 'adjustments' conducted by the practitioner in the session - although in our clinic we expect a lot of the changes to take place in the clinic itself or at least to have definitively started the process of easing. In general we would say if your body has not had Bowen therapy previously that you avoid other types of therapies until you have had your second session (if you were not happy with your Bowen therapist yesterday then you can go to a different therapist for your second session but do tell that second therapist about having had the first session as it can be helpful for both you and them in taking things forward) and from then on by about a week either side. We have clients who we know are having (and may indeed have referred for) other therapy types alongside them receiving Bowen sessions but we all know about each other and tend to avoid each other by about a week. In short, try not to overload your body. More is not necessarily more. This goes for all holistic (whole body|) approaches which can be underestimated in their power to elicit changes in the body in terms of blood flow, lymphatic flow, release of uric acid, etc Having had Bowen therapy yesterday, give your body a few days to make the changes - it can be day 3 or 4 when the body decides to go through a set of readjustments all by itself in response to the work done a few days previously. If you are meaning that you want to see a different Bowen therapist in place of the one you saw yesterday then personally I would still give that a few days. Bowen is not 'massage' as the term massage is generally used. It is not sweeping moves, it is generally done through clothes and no oils are necessary because there is no 'sliding' over skin and many areas of the body remain untouched directly, rather it is targeted rolling moves of soft tissue usually with fingers and thumbs, initially on assessment areas but (depending on the practitioner) this can then be intensive in areas of dysfunction according to the client, their tissues' responses and the presentation.

@@timeformeofkenilworth6762 ok💟💜💌❣💝💋😙💗💙💛💚💖💔💔👒👠👗👡👍👍👍👍👍

Please do. Hope they are helpful

Bowen works to help your brain remap your body for want of a better description. That remapping enables your brain to focus on areas requiring its attention to create change in the body. Your therapist should be aiming to work in the necessary areas to help with the remapping and to help provoke the changes to take place. It can take 2-3 sessions for you to start to notice changes or, often, it is others who notice the changes first e.g. that you are complaining of pain less often or you are standing more upright or whatever. If no changes at all discernible in 3 sessions I would be inclined to suggest you change practitioner but that is NOT the same as saying Bowen will get people better in just 3 sessions, often it can (and in fewer than 3 even) but many have layered up issues in their body: accident on accident, surgery or surgery, injury or poor posture on top of previous poor posture as compensations creep in. It is worth adding here that often it is poor habits which will keep "reinjuring" a body, habits such as habitual stooping over a laptop or crossing legs or ankles. A bit like, "I keep bashing my head against a wall and I have a headache..." :D

It is great that you are researching out there for better understanding of your own and your dog's health. Tom Bowen actually referred to himself as an Osteopath which aligns with your own conclusions. There are different types of chiropractic - e.g. McTimoney chiropractic is probably nearer to the AT Still approach to osteopathy which in turn is closer to the bases of Tom Bowen's work. The crunch and crack approach is a long way from Tom Bowen's work certainly. In the same vein there are some approaches to Bowen therapy which do not align really with any understanding of osteo (bone) alignment/structure and follow a very superficial facia approach - this may be where you have found the 'secret' approach because there is much which Bowen therapy achieves which is hard to explain - how the brain and body connect and how the body with the right triggers can correct itself. Science has much catching up to do - one day it will be able to explain many things which currently it is very behind on. e.g. it is only relatively recently that it was proved that certain medications need to be taken at different times of the day for different individuals because not everyone is the same - traditional Chinese medicine has known this for thousands of years. One day science may well find that there is something smaller than a preon, when before that it was thought that quarks were the smallest, and before that the atom - such discovery of ever smaller elements could in time prove why homeopathy works rather than the current 'it can't actually do anything because it is the equivalent of one drop in a swimming pool of water'. Quantum physics and quantum mechanics may well get us to a better understanding in time.

Thank you. If they help I am glad. 🙏🏻

Thank you Emma for your input. Entirely agree with you that tight or weak muscles does not describe what is going on in any body. You will see from the write up on ALLof our videos that these are 'concept' videos aimed at describing tension lines through the body and when we mention the word 'muscle' or 'tendon' etc we do not refer specifically to a specific tissue type as such. We are aware there is currently research into fascia and interstitial fluids and more. We are aware of the work of Tom Myers and his Anatomy Trains and more. However when describing concepts we have to use language that everyone -not just those who are working with the newer phraseologies and latest research- will understand.

So sorry for late response. By all means share this link Megha yes, and thank you. There are new videos which we have added this week which may also be of interest.

Thank you Rick. It took time to storyboard it simply as the animators said I would only get a minute to convey the messages. Your kind comments are appreciated.