Bowen Technique

Our intern Robyn Thwaites describes her experience of her first Bowen session at Trinity Laban Health.

My second taster treatment was of Bowen, again another therapy I knew little about.

The session started with a consent form asking about my injury history. Seamus, the Practitioner, asked for more details. I did not have any recurring injuries but have suffered with back pain on and off for a couple of years; sitting for long periods has not helped.

Seamus explained what would happen in the treatment; he would gently roll ‘over’ the muscles rather than push or massage the muscles. I laid on the treatment couch with a blanket over me. Seamus then administered a couple of gentle rolling movements on my back. He then left the room. I admit I felt a little weird and apprehensive, I expected the Practitioner to be in the room and continually apply pressure, not leave the treatment room.  The concept behind the therapy is that the cells in the body do not react to pressure applied for ninety seconds: the Practitioner leaves the room for the body to react.

The treatment continued in the same way, Seamus returned asked a couple of questions and administered some more movements before leaving the room. At the end of the session, Seamus handed me an after-treatment care sheet and warned me that I might feel achy and to keep moving, but nothing too strenuous. If I did start to ache, this would be normal and not to panic. Some of the do’s and don’ts include not to cross your legs but to drink plenty of water.

I left feeling relaxed but not much else. That evening I started to ache as if I had just completed a strenuous workout, the feeling lasted all evening – I even had to sit down while I was cooking dinner!

Over the next couple of days the achy feeling stopped, and I generally felt better: I had less stiffness in my back and generally did not have any pain while I was sitting for a good few weeks after. I think with a couple of recurring sessions this treatment can be very beneficial.