New research shows benefits of Bowen Therapy on Neck Pain

Research published in June 2023 investigated the effectiveness of Bowen therapy in managing myofascial pain syndrome with symptoms lasting for more than six weeks. The study also examined the long-term effect of Bowen Therapy on functional enhancement, quality of life, and physical and mental well-being.

The study was performed by Occupational Therapists at the Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care and the Department of Occupational Therapy, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong.

This study was the first Randomised Controlled Trial in the literature to confirm the efficacy of Bowen Therapy for patients with myofascial neck pain. Compared with conventional treatments, Bowen Therapy increased Pressure Pain Threshold (PPT), improved Cervical Range of Movement (CROM), reduced pain scores, improved occupational performance, improved mood, and improved quality of life. Many of these effects could last at least 12 weeks after completing the Bowen therapy course.

Few studies have investigated the effect of Bowen Therapy on PPT. It is a quick, objective measure to quantify pain intensity and deep muscular tissue sensitivity. This study showed that subjective pain scores were significantly reduced immediately after all of the Bowen Therapy sessions and 12 weeks after completing the therapy course. Bowen Therapy appears to elicit a fascial healing process and facilitates further rehabilitation of performance in daily activities in the post-therapy period. Improvement in the deep muscular tissue sensitivity may promote pain tolerance threshold, and other research is recommended. The results suggests that Bowen Therapy may be a superior option to dry needling and trigger-point injection, whose effects diminished after four weeks, according to meta-analysis.

The research concluded that Bowen Therapy is an effective treatment for chronic myofascial neck pain. It alleviates pain, improves functional outcomes, and enhances the quality of life. The reduced myofascial neck pain will assist patients’ occupational participation, with enhanced physical and mental well-being. Results of the study demonstrated the non-invasiveness of 12 weeks of Bowen Therapy provides a favourable option among other therapies in managing myofascial neck pain. It is expected that the successful model of care will be further promoted to all pain clinics in Hong Kong and internationally. Additional research should be considered to explore the medium and long-term Bowen Therapy intervention effect in managing myofascial pain at different body parts, compared with pharmacological and other active evidence-based controls.

Read the full article on the BTPA website at https://www.bowentherapy.org.uk/bowen-research.php

If music be the food of love, Bowen on!

Diamond Dac is an international recording and performing artist of the old American traditional black roots music. He has travelled all over America obsessed with mastering the fingerpicking skills and learned directly from the old masters. With 6 CD albums to his credit which are regularly airplayed all over the world, Diamond Dac has a desire to continue touring and performing in festivals and live music venues far and wide.

It was a serious threat to his career when in early 2017 he suffered severe torn rotator cuff injuries which limited his arm and shoulder movements.

Diamond Dac

“I could not raise my arms above waist high or reach around my back, so even simple tasks like putting a coat on or changing gear in my car were excruciatingly painful and made me feel sick with nausea, which was extremely debilitating and causing me terrific stress. 

So with restricted mobility in upper arm and shoulder muscles for over two months and no sign of improvement I went online and found one of the most experienced and qualified Bowen Practitioners in the North of England.

The whole experience was very relaxing and very pleasant, and within 48 hours I was feeling measurably better, each day with increasing mobility.

Before treatment I could not rehearse, perform guitar concerts, play golf, or even change gear in my car without excruciating pain. After just a few treatments I set off on a tour driving over 2000 miles on a 5-week road trip in Spain performing gigs and concerts at night and also playing golf most days — with absolutely no pain whatsoever!

I felt like I had been given my life back.

If you are considering the Bowen treatment, do not hesitate, you will not regret it.”

Diamond Dac (Solo acoustic bluesman / singer songwriter)

www.DiamondDac.com

Diamond Dac’s Bowen therapist is Camelia Pop

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The Bowen Therapy Professional Association (BTPA) represents professional Bowen Therapy practitioners in the UK and around the world. Read further testimonials on their website www.BowenTherapy.org.uk.

Bowen can help with bedwetting

Running a children’s clinic can bring its own challenges but also huge rewards. There’s nothing better than seeing a happy, relaxed child and an even happier parent. As with any first appointment, you never know what you’re going to discover when that little (or not so little) one walks, toddles or is carried through the door. The challenge might not be the condition that they present with – that’s par for the course. There’s the reluctant teenager, the little bundle of energy, the shy one, the noisy one ……. All make for interesting times!

One of my first clients was a young teenager with bedwetting problems who was brought in by mum. It was obviously not being made an issue at home, but social life was severely limited – school trips away and sleep-overs at friends’ were not an option.
After one session, there was slight improvement but not enough to last. Second session – no real change and the third, again some improvement. The fourth session was the last, no further appointments were made and I never heard from them again – until a few months later when I bumped into mum by chance and found out that the reason they hadn’t returned was that they hadn’t needed to! The teenager was able to go away with friends and apart from an occasional ‘accident’ all was well. Such a difference, and his friendships and confidence had blossomed.

Purely by coincidence, another client of the same age, same gender and same condition came in and I repeated everything I’d done before, with exactly the same results. Another teenager able to go on trips away, confident that there was no potential for embarrassment. There are so many reasons for bedwetting. We were fortunate in that they both responded well to Bowen, and the reason for their condition was not insurmountable.
For details of your nearest Chidren’s Clinic, visit http://www.bowentherapy.org.uk/childrens-clinics

Bowen – a value for money treatment for sportspeople

When three years ago Grand Master Roy Oldham IX, a senior instructor with Global Taekwon-Do UK, found himself aged 70 with considerable pain in his right hip and quads, walking with a pronounced limp and in considerable pain, he turned to the Bowen technique with BTPA member Kathryn Phillips following a recommendation from a friend of his.

Sharp pain of 8-9/10 at worst, and at best a dull ache of 4/10, he found that his right leg gave way around 20 times per day. He would have to stop at least once even if walking only 100m to the bank, whilst sitting in the office and lying down gave him maximum pain. He was also walking with a very pronounced limp swinging his right leg out to the side.

Rather sceptical that something as gentle as Bowen would work for him, he arrived for his third session with Kathryn after spending several very busy weekends judging, and hence on his feet 8am-6pm each day. As he got on the couch he was clear that sometimes he could now walk for an hour at a time but then he would seem to relapse. He had by this point however, on advice from Kathryn, changed his car from a Mercedes, which was pulling his legs round to the righthand side and also was drinking more water. On arising from the couch after receiving Bowen work, Roy felt different and a lot better and he could walk almost normally.

Over the next few months, seeing Kathryn once every 3-4 weeks around his busy schedule of training and of driving long distances to venues and spending many hours on his feet judging at tournaments, Roy’s leg had reduced to collapsing only 1-2 times per day and soon after that only once per week, compared to the initial 20 times per day.

He no longer walked with any sign of a limp and his pain levels were down to zero. By 8 months and 10 sessions in total he found his body was readjusting itself within 24 hours of any issue arising.

Roy says that ‘After trying many different types of treatment I was pleasantly surprised at the results of Bowen Technique. I really thought my career had come to an end. That recommendation from a friend was the best advice ever.’

Roy now has top-up sessions when he needs them as he continues to challenge his body (Just 26 sessions in total over 3 years makes Bowen a very good value therapy for an ongoing sportsman).

Part of the Unified International Taekwon-do Federation (UITF), GTUK’s national squads enjoy an abundance of International Championships at European and World level and as one of the largest Taekwon-Do Associations in the UK it has clubs located from Scotland to Cornwall.

The ramblings of a rambler – how to stay safe while walking

May is national walking month. Make the most of the good weather and the glorious British countryside; get your walking boots on and head on out to the great outdoors.

Rambling is an activity enjoyed by many across the country, keeping thousands of people active and healthy everyday.  However, it is important to take care of your body when you are a rambler. It’s common to suffer from ankle or foot problems due to the uneven terrain or poor walking boots that neglect to support your ankle adequately. Rambling also puts pressure on other parts of the body that are not used to such exertion; these could be your knees, leg muscles, even shoulders from carrying a rucksack for a prolonged amount of time.

As a rambler, you need to recognise and treat these problems in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle and positive well being. A number of clients who are regular walkers have looked to Bowen for treatment on sprained ankles, knee pain and stiffness, ligament aches and back pain.

One client sought Bowen Therapy after having tried a number of medical professions for assistance for their heel pain that had been tormenting for 6 months. After consulting a doctor, podiatrist and even trying acupuncture, the client was not getting any relief. After being successfully treated by Bowen Therapy the client is now pain free and has returned to their hobby, rambling. To find out more about how Bowen Therapy can help such injuries, visit the testimonials page here.

Of course not everybody suffers from injuries however, it is important to take precautions when hiking to maintain a healthy well being. Here are some tips to keep safe whilst walking:

• Invest in a good pair of walking boots. The boots should ideally support your whole foot including your ankle to prevent any injuries when walking.

• Stretch after you finish a long walk, this should prevent muscle aches.

• Wear thick walking socks to avoid blistering of the skin. Waterproof socks can also be bought for wet weather walking.

• Leg cramps are a common problem when rambling due to fatigue. To avoid suffering from leg cramps, keep hydrated and maintain your blood sugar levels with high sugar foods such as bananas or apples.

• Use an appropriate walking rucksack with shoulder and back support straps. This will prevent back ache and relieve your shoulders of the pressure of carrying extra weight when walking.

For more general information on walking, visit the Ramblers Association website, here.

 

 

Never heard of Bowen therapy? The word is getting out!

Never heard of Bowen therapy? The word is getting out!

Originating in Australia, Tom Bowen was seeing 13,000 people a year before the days of social media.  Just hearing that makes one realise immediately that this therapy is something different and indeed a major achievement for a boy born in Brunswick, Victoria of parents who moved to Australia from Wolverhampton in the UK.

Self-taught in bodywork and a manual worker himself, he worked mostly from the home of Stan and Rene Horwood who supported him in building his osteopathy practice.

Tom Bowen had come up with a different way of looking at the body and restoring alignment of its bones and thus function of its organs and glands, whereby rolling over soft tissue tensions enabled them to release and no longer hold the body out of alignment.

The proof that his technique works is in the results it obtains, often when a person has tried many different therapies previously without success. They are not responding because someone has told them ‘this will work’, they are responding because when Bowen-work is carried out in the correct places on the body: using the correct pressure for both that person and for the specific tissue-type being worked upon, the body and brain work together to restore balance.

This body work results in tissue tensions easing, with bones and other hard tissues becoming able to return to their correct positions resulting in a range of benefits such as relief from trapped nerves, improved blood circulation and lymphatic drainage, better posture, greater lung capacity and more.

This is not about treating specific conditions. It is about relieving symptoms of pain, restricted movement and poor organ and gland function to help the body to return to a state of balanced tensions and to a greater symmetry.

Bowen technique came to the UK in the mid-80s with people using it as an adjunct to massage but Tom Bowen considered himself an osteopath and his techniques have the ability to impact the body profoundly and often quickly on a physical level as well as frequently on an emotional one. Even longstanding misalignment and pain can often respond within just a few sessions.

Many people from a wide range of backgrounds have been very happy to go public about the relief they have felt following Bowen therapy and here are just some examples:

Sotherby’s former Europe Chief Executive Henry Wyndham and his BTPA therapist Ghislaine Vaughan.

Most recently, musician Diamond Dac has found relief with his BTPA practitioner Camelia Pop.   Read his story here.

If you are interested in finding out more or have stories you would like to share please get in touch with us.