How do Bowen therapists look at a body versus Osteopaths, Chiropractics and Physiotherapists?
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- This is one of a set of videos (the majority of which look at bone alignments, how certain muscle and other soft tensions cause certain issues to arise, how our behaviours and posture could give us pain, poor organ and gland function and more).
This specific video, however, gives an overview of Physiotherapy, Chiropractic, Osteopathy and Bowen therapy and in essence their different approaches.
Each video is deliberately simplistic and aims to use simple language to help convey concepts and aid understanding at a basic and whole (holistic) body level.
We are all different in our approach but there is strength in having us all available to you to help keep you fit, healthy and functioning as well as possible.
No single therapy has all the answers and many of our clients see a number of different therapists according to their presenting issues. However, more is not better. Always tell a therapist what other inputs you have “in the mix”.
Any one of us may say, with very good reason, “please can you hold on x or y” or “sorry we would not be able to see you until you have finished your course of z because the two sets of input may clash/impact/cancel each other out”. Think here of making a cake where you keep being called to the door, the phone, the kids in the garden whilst other people keep popping into your kitchen to lob random ingredients into the mix
When we say 'muscle' we are using this as a collective term for tendons, ligaments and any other soft tissue fibres or fascia.
That knee issue could be your neck, or your shoulder… That neck issue could be your foot…
Your body in normal use is designed to bend and flex and twist and turn.
It is when that flexibility is compromised, for example by an acute injury or by long-held tensions caused by habitual postures or historic injury which may date back many decades, that we may get presentations in clinic of pain, misalignment and restricted range of movement which can impact nerves, blood, lymphatic and other fluid flow, restricted mobility and more.
These issues may have been layering up over a very long period: with each issue leading on to adaptation, which in turn leads to further adaptation with the passage of time.
None of our videos constitutes medical advice in any way.
Anyone making use of our videos does so entirely at their own risk as no advice is being given herein.
When we see clients in clinic we provide them with customised advice based on actually having assessed them and that advice given is specific to them at that time.
We work entirely within the bounds of our training and qualifications. That training is an ongoing process with formal training courses, conferences, hands-on dissection, research and more and, whilst it may overlap with other therapies it makes no claim to be any of those other therapies.
This is fantastic, thank you for sharing! Love your energy.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Bowen is the best 👌 treatment 😊
I find Bowen Therapy Student for superior then chiropractic, physiotherapist and osteopath. I have been to the mall and I find that chiropractor may hurt. Lots of popping grate for half an hour and then the alignment is back off again due to detention of the muscles. Theotherapy takes too much time weeks before you get any results. We’re bowling therapy is instantaneous and the body is back to normal and feeling sensational, relaxed and aligned. You can feel the lymphatic system working in the drainage out from the cranium, releasing any tension, like headaches for instance.
Thank you. My 8 month old Rottweiler dog has L hind issues. He is seeing both a physio and a Chiro. I massage him and practice what I've gleaned from RUclips on Bowen - nothing much, as if it should be kept secret. This video of yours clarified some concerns & thoughts of mine. I've found a wonderful Osteopath for myself. It's my experience that she is dealing with fascia and all soft tissue. It's better than massage. I've been to several Chiropractors over the years but have not been for 10 years and won't go back. I really dislike the jerking. It creates tension and I never had relief for back issues I had while working. Physio is good but the pain needs to be relieved a bit first or the tension remains. It was Osteo that helped me with that. I've not experienced Bowen but from my research and Osteopathic experience I'd say they work on a similar premise. Far closer to each other than Chiro & Osteo.
It is great that you are researching out there for better understanding of your own and your dog's health. Tom Bowen actually referred to himself as an Osteopath which aligns with your own conclusions. There are different types of chiropractic - e.g. McTimoney chiropractic is probably nearer to the AT Still approach to osteopathy which in turn is closer to the bases of Tom Bowen's work. The crunch and crack approach is a long way from Tom Bowen's work certainly.
In the same vein there are some approaches to Bowen therapy which do not align really with any understanding of osteo (bone) alignment/structure and follow a very superficial facia approach - this may be where you have found the 'secret' approach because there is much which Bowen therapy achieves which is hard to explain - how the brain and body connect and how the body with the right triggers can correct itself.
Science has much catching up to do - one day it will be able to explain many things which currently it is very behind on. e.g. it is only relatively recently that it was proved that certain medications need to be taken at different times of the day for different individuals because not everyone is the same - traditional Chinese medicine has known this for thousands of years. One day science may well find that there is something smaller than a preon, when before that it was thought that quarks were the smallest, and before that the atom - such discovery of ever smaller elements could in time prove why homeopathy works rather than the current 'it can't actually do anything because it is the equivalent of one drop in a swimming pool of water'. Quantum physics and quantum mechanics may well get us to a better understanding in time.
Like your comparison but it is very simplistic. Just to clarify a very big part physio is looking at the bones, doing joint mobilizations and some physiotherapists also do manipulations.
Yes indeed. Thanks for contributing. This commentary is more about how global assessment appears to be done, how ‘the tight side’ is determined, rather than the mechanics of the intervention itself. It is intentionally very simplistic as a top level message but your input may help those watching it🙏🏻
Excellent video!
Glad you liked it!
Really clear and interesting, thank you!
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for commenting.
May I ask how does Bowen different from Rolfing?
Not an expert in Rolfing per se but…
Certainly Tom Bowen considered himself an osteopath but he also drew on Shiatsu/TCM principles.
Ida Rolf’s thinking/principles align very well with the interpretations of Tom Bowen’s work including her views that ‘where the pain is the problem almost certainly isn’t’ and that bones will often keep going out of alignment until the soft tissue tensions are eased.
Bowen therapy rarely needs 10 sessions (often 2-3 sessions entirely based on the individual and their specific presentations is sufficient) and unlike Rolfing, Bowen does not specifically involve “slow, sustained and focussed pressure in a specific direction” ( www.rolfinguk.co.uk/ ).
Bowen therapy is typically a very pared back intervention where skin slack is taken back in one direction at a specific point of tension where the skeleton is being held out of alignment. That skin slack may be held for a short period of time or may be used almost immediately to effect a roll over a specific soft tissue (tendon, ligament, muscle or simply fascia) section. The pressure used will vary dependent on the response within the tissue and from the client as some areas of the body/ receptors (golgi, ruffini, etc) respond better to a lighter or heavier pressure but Bowen is still light touch / shortlived discomfort (if any) compared to therapies such as osteo, chiro, physio, sports massage as it aims simply to trigger the body to undergo change and readjustment itself.
There are generally breaks to enable the brain to process the intervention sensations and take decisions according to the information provided (it is surmised) with the practitioner returning to an area to ensure that change has begun. This does not necessarily involve the practitioner leaving the room but it is known that Tom Bowen’s 6-10 minute sessions did often/usually involve a single break but he was working on more than one client at once as many Boweners do today.
Speaking from our own experience the breaks can often be profound (the body on the couch entering very often into a deep parasympathetic state during which huge change occurs) but are not always necessary depending on the client and the issues being addressed.
My osteopath mainly works with the fascia.
Fascia has become prominent in all bodywork modes over the past decade or two as essentially it runs throughout the body in a continuous web.
No-one can touch a body anywhere without that touch impacting fascia as one of the networks through the body.
How long should a person wait between bowen sessions ?
Usually people starting with Bowen therapy should expect to have two sessions a week apart to kick things off.
Going forward from there it can vary between practitioners and some encourage week, week, week.
In our clinic we find a more personalised case-by-case approach serves our clients and indeed us better. There will be some who need a third session 2-3 weeks later and that then will be them finished, others who are good to go after just the two sessions, and also those - eg. who know their long and complex health history - who, having found Bowen therapy works for them on so many levels (due to its impact on the central nervous system), want to go on the “journey” to see where it leads and what they can recover from. They choose their spacings but they may change the gap length longer as they progress and improve, always knowing that if they feel it appropriate they can contract the gaps or further increase them at will.
All our clients know that they can contact us anytime if they have an acute injury or need help rehabbing after surgery or an accident or they feel the time is right to peel off another layer of dysfunction.
Some have monthly, some work out that 3 monthly serves them eg. if they have a job which causes them to ‘reinjure’ such as bricklayer, electrician, driving instructor, tree surgeon, athlete, frequent traveller and more.
Some get better and may not need to contact us again for 3, 5 or even 10 years as generally they can manage themselves but then perhaps have a car accident or trip and fall.
Bowen reconnects brain and body - a communication often broken over time by analgesics, society’s pressures to keep going and indeed training schedules often pushing the mantras ‘push through the pain’ and ‘no pain no gain’. We encourage all to increasingly be guided by what their body is telling them and to adopt more of an ‘ask the body to do x’ approach rather than ‘demand the body does y’.
@timeformeofkenilworth6762 call she said is l went to a chiropractor tge week before and she told me not to mix up treatments..my low back is causing some pain tgd last few weeks
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Ah. Because chiropractic, osteopathy, physiotherapy and massage are all aiming to address the same types of issues as Bowen therapy but tend to be more physically continuous, firmer treatment input they are sometimes thought to override the more subtle Bowen input.
For this reason many Boweners will suggest staying a week apart from the above alternative inputs, another reason being that you won’t know what is working for you?
Also, if a practitioner (of any type) takes professional notes of your presentation and the inputs they applied in the session, they are then monitoring in subsequent sessions how you are progressing as they determine what further inputs may be needed. We liken it to mixing a cake and whilst the practitioner/baker steps away to answer the door/phone someone else has leapt in and thrown in a couple of eggs to the mix that they know nothing about. It makes the result a little less certain.
That said we in clinic do work alongside chiros and others but we all know about each other and try not to be overdoing things with appts too close together.
To your own situation, if you have had several chiro sessions in a row and are seeing no progress, you can opt to clear some space in your diary eg. a month to enable a different practitioner eg. Bowen, a window in which you and they can both see whether the new work with the different therapist is what your body needs? That decision has to be yours.
In our clinic if someone has had a few sessions of non-Bowen but are no better then we would be willing to see them even just a few days later provided(!) they have cleared us a window of at least two sessions and a week or two after that.
Does Bowen therapy work for bulging discs in lumbar spine?
This is amazing! I just had my first Bowen massage treatment yesterday from what seems like 7 years ago from a previous practitioner.
I reside in Australia. I would like to go to a different practitioner from the one I just saw yesterday so is it an issue seeing someone different as they may mess up what the other person did and confuse my body???
With Bowen therapy we are expecting the brain to remap the body. That is to say that time needs to be allowed between sessions for the brain to synthesis the messages it received from around the body and take appropriate decisions on returning the soft tissues to a better state of homeostasis. In this Bowen tends to work differently to some of the other therapies which rely more on the physical 'adjustments' conducted by the practitioner in the session - although in our clinic we expect a lot of the changes to take place in the clinic itself or at least to have definitively started the process of easing.
In general we would say if your body has not had Bowen therapy previously that you avoid other types of therapies until you have had your second session (if you were not happy with your Bowen therapist yesterday then you can go to a different therapist for your second session but do tell that second therapist about having had the first session as it can be helpful for both you and them in taking things forward) and from then on by about a week either side. We have clients who we know are having (and may indeed have referred for) other therapy types alongside them receiving Bowen sessions but we all know about each other and tend to avoid each other by about a week.
In short, try not to overload your body. More is not necessarily more. This goes for all holistic (whole body|) approaches which can be underestimated in their power to elicit changes in the body in terms of blood flow, lymphatic flow, release of uric acid, etc
Having had Bowen therapy yesterday, give your body a few days to make the changes - it can be day 3 or 4 when the body decides to go through a set of readjustments all by itself in response to the work done a few days previously.
If you are meaning that you want to see a different Bowen therapist in place of the one you saw yesterday then personally I would still give that a few days.
Bowen is not 'massage' as the term massage is generally used. It is not sweeping moves, it is generally done through clothes and no oils are necessary because there is no 'sliding' over skin and many areas of the body remain untouched directly, rather it is targeted rolling moves of soft tissue usually with fingers and thumbs, initially on assessment areas but (depending on the practitioner) this can then be intensive in areas of dysfunction according to the client, their tissues' responses and the presentation.
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