BOWEN THERAPY by Sanja Tamburic, ND
Mind-Body Connection and Pain
Most patients and doctors look at the body as a sum of parts, where they aim to fix a particular part, just like a car engine. This mechanistic view that body and mind are separate currently permeates our medical system. Nowadays, pain is the common denominator, and living pain-free is the ultimate goal.
When we are in pain on the mental, emotional, or energetic level, it tends to show itself as physical pain. An ancient proverb states: “the body tears what eyes refuse to shed.” No doubt, there is purely physical pain, eg, from an injured ankle while playing sports, a broken bone, cuts, etc, but most of the pain these days is chronic pain. What causes chronic pain? Our emotional response to pain may be the most important determinant. Learned patters of thinking and movement often contribute to chronic pain, especially pain that is not a result of an injury or condition such as fibromyalgia.
This is why all those treatments that focus solely on the body do not work. We also know that muscles hold memory of how the body is in a healthy state, and the brain has the blueprint for a return to health.
Bowen therapy helps erase bad memories and reset the brain, giving it a subtle stimulus that then has a domino effect on many systems via the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS controls over 80% of bodily functions. There are 2 parts to the ANS: sympathetic and parasympathetic. Most of us spend 80% of the time in the sympathetic mode from overstimulation, and only 20% in the parasympathetic, relaxing mode, mainly when we sleep (assuming restful sleep). No wonder there is so much chronic pain and so many digestive issues. Healing and repair can only occur in the parasympathetic mode. Bowen technique enables that process. Shortly after the start of treatment, one will feel a patient’s muscles letting go and hear gurgling in the stomach as digestive juices are released and prepare to digest – both are signs of parasympathetic activation.
MECHANISM/PHYSIOLOGY OF BOWEN THERAPY
The postulated theory of the mechanism of Bowen work is that via a simple Bowen move, golgi and spindle cells in the belly of a muscle are stimulated, along with the surrounding tissue, fascia, and fluid, both intra- and extracellular.2 The move initiates a cascade of reactions, including stimulation of the ANS throughout the body and the central nervous system to the brain.1,3 These moves produce a domino effect in other areas of the body distant from the affected area (in physiology we call it segmental viscera-somatic spinal reflexes), comparable to the effect of acupuncture on moving energy along the meridians.
The postulated theory suggests that the energetic impulses stimulate healing pathways to restore the body to original state of health prior to an insult or trauma, and reduce the stimulation of pain receptors.4 The treatment reboots the body, reorganizes false patterns, and establishes new ones.
LESS IS MORE
Breaks between the moves are a difficult concept to grasp for many practitioners, let alone patients experiencing the treatment. However, these breaks are a fundamental part of Bowen therapy success. In my practice, I have commonly failed to achieve results when breaks were skipped or when there was a verbal interaction between patient and a doctor during the treatment. It is during this time that the body is processing the information and doing the work, as it shifts from a beta-wave to an alpha-wave state.
If you think of a body as a “bio-computer” and Bowen as a system-check that turns on the program repair, the program will run through a set of precise moves/steps and take breaks at times, before finishing. You know to not touch the mouse or the button on the keyboard before it finishes with scanning and resetting of the “bio-computer.” Doing so will interrupt the process by introducing too much additional information, and confuse the bio-computer. As a defense mechanism, the “bio-computer” will lock up. Once you reset your “bio-computer” with new patterns, it will typically run for 5-10 days unless interrupted.
Factors that can interrupt this reset include: adding more information too soon; trying to speed up the process; hot water; magnets or other energetic therapies used to treat the same kind of pain (ie, acupuncture, osteopathy, chiropractic); or resuming the activity that led to an injury in the first place.
When we play by these rules, the results are stunning.
