Technique may hit recovery bullseye

IT'S THE gentlest of treatments – a series of light moves, applied to specific points on the body with occasional rests when the practitioner withdraws from the room to leave you in peace.

Hardly dramatic, in your face, back-crunching stuff, yet converts to the Bowen Technique – people who couldn't walk without pain, or who had babies screaming with colic – are jumping up and down with enthusiasm over the effects of the treatment.

"This isn't tie-dye and chanting. It's a practical approach to complementary therapy and that's why it works," says therapist Caroline Madden, who came across the technique after she had digestive issues and back and neck problems in her 20s. A few Bowen sessions sorted her out and, fired with enthusiasm, she trained as a therapist herself.

Hide Ad

Only the lightest of touches is used, with the therapist employing their fingers and thumbs to move over muscles, ligaments, tendons, fascia and joints, to trigger the body into healing itself.

It's used to treat specific skeletal conditions such as back pain, spinal problems and sports injuries, but also to deal with the emotional knocks life throws at us, and helps mental conditions such as anxiety and stress-related disorders.

"Crunching and force is not necessary. It can be counter-productive," says Madden. "Increasingly research is showing that to trigger communication networks in the body you don't need heavy-handedness. We are trying to get the body to heal itself. We don't do diagnoses, but assessments, and work out which of some 30 different procedures will work best."

Developed in Australia by Tom Bowen in the 1950s, one of its key ideas is that the structure of the body is maintained through the inter-relationship of bands of muscle via fascia, or sheets of connective tissue that cover every muscle. These allow flexibility and movement, maintain posture and affect how we hold our spine.

Classic Bowen moves consist of the therapist's fingers making gentle pushes on the muscle or tendon, stimulating the body's self-corrective mechanism. Therapists report a response through their hands as they work, as if an electrical impulse is created as the result of a move. Studies have shown that the creation of a stretch in the fascia does initiate a small electrical charge and passing a low-level current over broken bones or damaged muscles has a powerful healing effect.

"At times I can feel this impulse, especially in the hamstrings or, if you're working on one side of the jaw, you can feel the impulse on the other in your fingers," says Madden. "It has a profound effect. People come for treatment and, even though the moves are gentle, come back amazed. And you can treat everyone from tiny babies to 96-year-olds, pregnant women, those who can't lie on a table..."

Hide Ad

Madden qualified in Bowen Technique in 2005 and also has an ITEC Diploma in anatomy and physiology with distinction. Why does she think Bowen is better than other techniques? "Because it's holistic. It tests the fact that the body has an innate ability to heal itself and, because of the pace of life, we don't have time to do that. Bowen reminds the body what it's capable of and prompts the healing instinct to take place. We lack respect for our bodies. We know that the body has the ability to regenerate but are so consumed with modern medicine that we forget how clever it is," says Madden.

Some of her more high-profile clients include former Scotland rugby player Scott Hastings and his wife. Jenny, a swimmer and runner, was the first to come to Madden for treatment to alleviate hayfever. She has since used Bowen for pelvic/groin pain, sore knee and calf muscles and tight hamstrings and extreme back pain. She also encouraged her husband to try it out on calf muscles that were painful when he was running.

Hide Ad

"His condition had started six weeks prior to the appointment and he rated the discomfort as seven out of ten when running the day before. I performed overall body balancing then included specific work on the knee, lower leg and ankle."

A week later, Hastings said, after some initial stiffness following the Bowen work, he had two 30-minute runs without pain. "More specific lower body Bowen work was done for balancing the pelvis along with an advanced move to target any pain originating from the tibial nerve in the lower leg and, a week later, Scott said he felt 'back on form'," says Madden.

If it can restore Scott Hastings's searing pace, we reckon it can give the rest of us a shove in the right direction.

Caroline Madden works from home (07816 888 847, www.naturallybalanced.co.uk), out of Napiers (www.napiers.net), and at Room4Health at Tiso (0131-553 2646, www.room4health.co.uk). Sessions are 40 for 45 minutes

• This article was first published in The Scotland on Sunday, June 13, 2010

Related topics: