Less is more

Gentle, non-invasive yet incredibly effective, the Bowen Technique is one of the newest complementary therapies. Elinor Malcolm gets on the couch…

Above: Less is more

Never let it be said I don’t give myself a challenge. I was the one who, having experienced the healing effects of the Bowen Technique, suggested that it would make an interesting health article. Well, I got the go-ahead – and am now left with the task of explaining a therapy that in many ways defies description!

I’ll start with the easy bit: the history. The technique was evolved by the Australian Tom Bowen who, after serving in WWII, became interested in ways of alleviating suffering. He wasn’t a medic, but he was an intuitive and observant ‘bodyworker’; experimenting with and developing a variety of gently rolling connective tissue moves, he began to achieve an impressive range of therapeutic effects. By 1975, an Australian government inquiry into complementary health professionals documented 13,000 patients attending Bowen’s clinic: whatever he was doing, it was working.

The massage therapist Oswald Rentsch trained with Bowen and, over the last 20 years, he has spread the practice worldwide, running teacher training programmes. Proof of the pudding: this non-invasive yet dynamic body therapy has now clocked up positive results with conditions as varied as RSI, musculo-skeletal problems, stress disorders, chronic fatigue and respiratory complaints, not only in relation to adult humans but also with babies, horses and pets – hardly the most likely candidates to be swayed by the latest fad in complementary therapy! So: what does it actually do? I picked the brains of local practitioner Emma Buckley, who endeavoured to satisfy my journalistic nosiness at the same time as sorting out a case of tennis elbow (which she correctly diagnosed as something different, stemming from a shoulder problem).

According to Emma, Bowen works at a cellular level and, very simply, allows the body to access its remarkable powers of self-healing. A key element of the practitioner’s skill is ‘tissue tension sense’; being able to discern stress build-ups in muscle groups and release them. Through a series of gentle moves, Bowen kick-starts the body into resetting itself into a state of optimum balance. The changes work holistically, affecting the muscles, circulation, lymphatic drainage, nutrient assimilation and toxin elimination. Interestingly, new research suggests that the precise location of Bowen moves correlates to the meridian energy system upon which treatments such as acupuncture and trigger point therapy are based.

I approached my first session with equal interest and perplexity. As someone who has been regularly prodded, clicked and crunched by chiropractors, physiotherapists and osteopaths, I couldn’t believe such a gentle-sounding treatment could be effective. And gentle it was – Emma applied a series of almost indefinable, fluttering touches, leaving the room between times to allow my body to absorb the ‘messages’ she’d given it. Wonderfully relaxing, certainly, though after the treatment I was hard-pressed to describe what, if anything, I’d felt. Not so later that evening. Emma had warned me I might feel a bit rough as the body adjusted itself – bloomin’ awful was more like it! I planned an aggrieved phone call for the next day, fell into bed, had the best night’s sleep in ages and woke feeling so energised I had to phone – just to thank her for whatever it was she had done. A week later I was back on court wielding a racquet

The Bowen Technique is at the stage reflexology and aromatherapy were 25 years ago – increasing in popularity but still seen as slightly wacky by those for whom the word ‘meridian’ means something to do with Greenwich. As a journalist, I’ll be following the latest scientific research into how it works with interest; as a happy example of the simple fact that it does, I’ll be back on Emma’s couch whenever my service action needs a gentle helping hand.

Emma Buckley practises in Hammersmith and Claygate, Surrey: for details, call 01372 469 730/07841 190 963 or email bowtech@hotmail.com. Further contacts: www.bowen-technique.co.uk, www.bowenworks.org, www.thebowentechnique.com