Gentle Therapies to help your body and mind |
BOWEN TECHNIQUE
Your body-mind is a great resource. Treat it with respect and it will serve you well. It prefers to be treated gently when it has problems – the Bowen Technique will subtly remind it how to fix itself.
Where does the Bowen Technique come from?
This technique was developed by Tom Bowen, an Australian who lived and worked in Geelong. He had no medical training, but over his working life, from just after World War Two until his death in the 1980s, he gradually developed his own treatment for the thousands of people who came to see him. It is not certain where his ideas came from. They are not aboriginal, or linked to any other known treatment. It is likely that Tom Bowen had ‘sensitive hands’ and could in some way feel the effects he was having, keeping the moves that were effective, and discarding the others. What is certain is that he had dramatic effects. A study into complementary therapies in Australia included his practice, and showed that he was having a 90% success rate with one or two sessions!
Tom Bowen taught four different therapists his method, and each one learnt at a slightly different stage of Bowen’s development of his technique. Some of those people taught what they had learnt to others, and the result is that there are at present three different versions of work being taught, all recognisably Bowen. I have studied two of them, and use a mixture of the best of each.
The Bowen technique is a gentle and subtle form of treatment using touch, which depends on the body’s own ability to heal for its success.
The ‘moves’ are a gentle rolling with the fingers of a muscle or tendon, creating an effect a bit like barely plucking a guitar string. With some moves a limb is also gently moved to a different position, and then returned to its former place. In between sets of moves the client is left to relax for a few minutes, while I go out of the room. This enhances the healing effect, as the body can respond to the ‘information’ it has just been given. The treatment is very relaxing, some clients even fall asleep!
‘Bowen’ is not at all like other treatments, it is not massage, or manipulation.
How does it work?
The ‘moves’ create changes both in the fluid content of the body, and in the ‘fascia’. Fascia is the very thin membrane that covers all muscles and organs, and all the fascia in the body is connected, so a move in one place can be picked up in any other. Recent research suggests that fascia is capable of carrying messages a little as nerves do, but in a more general, less specific way.
A Bowen treatment acts on the body a little like a homeopathic remedy does – by giving it a ‘wake up’ call.
It is possible that acupuncture works similarly, passing messages or stimulation up what Chinese medicine calls ‘meridians’. However, Bowen does not use acupuncture points, but its own ‘message release centres’, only one or two of which are the same as acupuncture points.
Do not assume that because acupuncture, or any other ‘alternative’ modality has not worked for you, that Bowen will not. It is as though each of these types of treatments address the body in a different language, so if your body ‘understands Bowen’ you will get results, even if it did not ‘understand shiatsu’, or any other treatment.
The Bowen technique is most commonly used for mechanical, musculo-skeletal, problems.
Bad backs, stiff or sore necks, frozen shoulder, carpal tunnel, sciatica, knee or ankle problems commonly respond well. More serious complaints such as scoliosis, symphysis pubis problems in pregnancy, and difficulties caused by uneven leg length can often be helped.
Sports injuries are usually quick to respond, particularly if the patient is seen fairly soon, not only after a long course of physiotherapy has been tried.
Internal problems can also be addressed by Bowen, and some respond very well.
Migraine, sinusitis, hayfever, irritable bowel, asthma, period and menopausal problems are examples of conditions which usually respond well.
Because the treatment is very relaxing, most people will get a general sense of well-being, sleep patterns may improve, and in some cases post-viral fatigue syndrome and similar complaints will dramatically improve. Some patients have reported having more energy, losing food cravings, or in the words of one delighted woman: “I think I've been healed!”
Anybody! 85% of people will respond to Bowen.
Bowen works well on all ages, and also on animals (though I do not offer an animal service).
Babies can be treated in their mother’s arms, and small children can receive treatment ‘on the move’ as they play with the toys. Older children and adults will be asked to lie down, at first on their stomach (not as uncomfortable as some people imagine, and pressure can be taken off the neck or breast by careful placing of pillows,) and then on the back. If the client is unable to get into the optimum position, the treatment can still be given in a chair or another comfortable position. Pregnant women can be treated up to term.
The Bowen technique was developed in the warmth of Australia, and ideally clients should strip to underwear. But in our colder climate I find it fine to work with the client in a loose tee-shirt, although it is usually best to remove the trousers – even if you have come with a neck problem, your lower body will be included in the treatment.
Some clothes must come off – corsets and roll-ons, tights, jeans, trousers of slippy materials, and ties. Please do not use oily or slippery moisturisers just before your session – these prevent me getting a good move on the skin, if it just slides away! This therapy uses no oils or lotions for this reason.
Your treatment will last between 40 and 55 minutes. You will lie on a couch, covered by light blankets. In between the moves you will be on your own in the room for a few minutes. This gives a sense of deep relaxation.
You may notice effects and benefits immediately, or soon after your first treatment, but many people who go on to have very good response to the therapy do not notice any benefit until after the third or fourth treatment. For this reason, you should not ‘give up’ on the treatment until you have had at least three sessions.
Most of the action of a Bowen treatment is over the twelve days following it, so it is good to have your repeat treatment within that time. Most people opt to come weekly at first.
Once you know the therapy works for you, any spacing of treatments is fine. Some people have a course of three or more, and then never need to return. Others need some on-going help, and may choose to attend intermittently, as their symptoms occur, others opt to attend every month or six weeks to keep ‘topped up’.After your treatment.Your body begins to respond to the treatment straight away. You can help it by:Drinking extra water. You should try to drink about 6-8 glasses of still water, depending on your size, in addition to your tea and coffee, particularly for the first 3 days after the treatment.
Being careful not to stay in the same position for longer than 30 minutes: if you are at a desk, on the couch, or in the car, be conscious of making an opportunity to walk around a little. Do not book cinema or theatre tickets for the three days after your treatment!
Avoiding hot baths or showers, and the use of heat or ice packs on painful areas.
Having no other physical treatments until more than 12 days after your last ‘Bowen’. This means no massage, facials, acupuncture, reflexology, shiatsu, reiki, physiotherapy, chiropractic, osteopathy etc. These other treatments, while fine in themselves, will interfere with your body’s ability to respond to your Bowen treatment.
Conventional or homeopathic medicines should be continued as prescribed and as necessary.
VHT- Vibromuscular Harmonisation Technique
This is a variant of the Bowen Technique, in which all the possible moves are given to the body, and there are no breaks between each move, just one in the middle of the session and one at the end. This is the way Bowen practised later in his career, and is suitable for those with good overall stamina, who want a dynamic body-balancing.
Generally I start clients with the original ‘gentle touch’ therapy as described above, but some clients are suitable for the more dynamic version, and we may use it at a subsequent session.
Appointments are available Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons.
The latest appointment on a Tuesday is at 7pm, on Thursday is at 5.30pm, and on Friday at 4.30pm.
Earliest morning appointment is 10 a.m.
Because of the gaps in the treatment, I can treat two people at the same time, so it is often possible for two friends or relatives to share the journey.
The price per session of Bowen Technique for all ages is €50.
VHT sessions (for adults only) are €80
I accept cash or cheque, and can give receipts for tax or insurance.
The Accredited Bowen Therapists of Ireland is on www.bowenireland.com
Bowen Therapy Academy of Australia: www.bowtech.com
European College of Bowen Studies: www.thebowentechnique.com
Hypnosis is a very useful tool to help the mind deal with many problems.
It has been used as a treatment for millennia. The Ancient Greeks chanted rhythmically around an injured person, who would relax deeply as result – allowing painful wounds to be dealt with without discomfort.
Hypnosis is simply a state of ‘focussed concentration’ and is comfortable and pleasant. The client remains aware at all times, and is fully in control. No hypnotherapist can make anyone do anything against their will, nor would they ever wish to do so!
How does it feel?
Everyone has already experienced being in a state of hypnosis, even though they were not aware of it at the time:
If you have been at a film, or play, when you forgot about your surroundings to the extent that you were speaking (silently) to the actors – ‘don’t go in there!’ ‘oh, please hurry’, or were crying as though the sad or happy event was happening to you, then you were hypnotised- ie, concentrating so hard on what you were seeing that you let your own reality slip aside.
Or, if you travel the same route regularly, you may have had the experience of suddenly realising that you have passed a particular place without noticing it. When you were going through that place, you were in a state of hypnosis, concentrating on something else such that you were not consciously aware of your surroundings. Of course, if a crisis had arisen, you would have reacted appropriately, you were not in any sort of coma!
It is the same with hypnosis for therapy purposes. It can feel so normal that clients often tell me after the session that they were not really hypnotised –‘I could have stood up at any moment’. This is true, they could, but because they actually were hypnotised, they did not choose to stand up, because they were enjoying the deep relaxation that is part of the experience of hypnosis.
More about what it is
Our minds have two parts, the conscious mind, which deals with all the day to day stuff, and the subconscious mind which is in the background holding most of our beliefs, attitudes and fears.
For example, a person will use their conscious mind to plan a trip and book their flight. Then the subconscious (or unconscious) mind may kick in, saying “I’m scared to fly, I don’t want to go.” It is very hard to convince your subconscious mind to change its opinion, and although that person may talk themselves onto their flight, using their conscious and logical mind, the subconscious may go on complaining all the way there, making for a very unpleasant trip!
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With hypnosis, we can talk directly to the subconscious mind, and convince it that it does not mind flying. This is done by bringing about a state of very deep relaxation. In this state the conscious mind ‘slips to one side’, a bit like an iceberg turning in the water, so that the small bit that used to be visible is now hidden. The subconscious mind comes to the surface, and can be talked to and encouraged. It will usually agree to change its opinion to the one the therapist suggests, in this case, that flying is no trouble at all.
How is it done?
There are many ways of inducing a deep relaxation.
The client will be invited to lie back in a comfortable chair, and concentrate on either my voice, or sometimes to look intently at something.
I will choose a method most suited to the individual.
Usually I just talk, and as one of my tutors described it, ‘bore the client into relaxation’!
Dramatic methods, such as staring at the cliché swinging watch, are rarely used.
The client is the person actually in control, and it is up to her to ‘agree to go along’ with what is suggested, just as a child will go along with another child’s suggestion that they play house, or cops and robbers: ‘You be the robber’ – ‘ Okay’ !
Who can have hypnosis?
Anybody over 7 years old.
95% of people can allow themselves go into a deep state of relaxation that is sufficient for therapeutic work to be carried out.
People with learning difficulties may not be able to concentrate adequately.
What is it useful for?
Hypnosis can be helpful in any situation which has a psychological component. Commonly treated issues are;
Fears and phobias
Anxiety states and panic
Undesirable habits: smoking, bed-wetting, nail-biting
Lack of confidence
Problems losing weight
Long term pain
Stage fright
Morning sickness
Shyness, social phobia, blushing
Grief
Children’s problems: shyness, clumsiness, lack of confidence, bullying
These will generally be treated with what is called ‘suggestion therapy’ (see separate section)
Other problems may originate from events in the past – see ‘hypnoanalysis’. These can include fears, sexual problems, confidence problems, obesity of more than 3 stone overweight, or any problem that does not respond adequately to suggestion therapy.
General dissatisfaction with life, uncertainty about a path to take, unresolved grief, can be helped by ‘regression therapies’.
Suggestion therapy”
This is the commonest form of hypnotherapy, and will clear many problems. It involves giving ‘suggestions’ to the subconscious mind, for example that it will not be afraid of flying, that it will perform well in a given situation, that it will not feel bullied by a particular person. There are many ways of dressing up these suggestions so that they become acceptable to the subconscious, which then agrees to change. Often I will teach the client how to hypnotise herself at home, so that these suggestions may be repeated, thus strengthening their effect.
“Hypnoanalysis”
This is a powerful therapeutic tool with which the subconscious can be helped to explore the reasons behind a condition.
Many illnesses or states of unease originate from a situation in the near or distant past, during which the mind learned to think or behave in a way which is no longer appropriate. By ‘going back’ under careful guidance, and looking at such a situation, the emotions which were appropriate to it can be left with it in the past. This is not frightening, and most people find reliving past events to be fascinating. For many people, the past may also show up positive and loving experiences that had been forgotten, and which can boost self-confidence and a feeling of well-being.
Unresolved grief can be helped this way, often by revisiting times with the deceased person, and ‘talking with them’ again.
Hypnotic regression is simply an exercise in remembering. The subject can ‘stand back’ from the scene and view it as an observer. If an unpleasant event occurs during the memory, it is not necessary to suffer through it, the subject feels only as upset as when watching a film. The therapeutic effects of the session are not reduced, and the emotions relating to the uncomfortable experience can be left in the past, and forgotten.
The Past has Power” : a poem. (why hypnotherapy can help!)
The Past has Power.
The past has power
He is a slumbering demon
Who pulls our strings from a distance
And makes us dance to an old forgotten tune.
He cannot be tamed by neglect.
You can throw sand in his eyes
From the new dance floor’s rhythm,
But he will rise up again and shape the future
By controlling the present.
To tame him he must be revisited
And studied, and acknowledged.
Only by close attention will we see
The way he is formed, and how our future is made
By the habits he created.
And we must be aware of how he did it then
-If not, his paws will reach out to our present
And push the pieces into old shapes
And our future will be like our past.
To start afresh today
We must know our past
And make the newly forming parts of him
Be the future we desire.
©Madeline Ann Stringer 1998
Past-life Regression
The existence of past lives has been discovered accidentally by many hypnotherapists, during routine sessions, when the patient’s subconscious mind is invited to ‘go to the time from which your problem stems’. Many patients spontaneously find themselves in another life, often with resonances with their present problems. Today’s problem can then be let go because the subject realises it is only relevant to a time now well over. In about half the cases of problems caused by a reaction to a past event, that event will have been in a previous life, not the current one.
It is not necessary to believe in the literal truth of ‘past lives’ to gain benefit from a past-life session. The situations experienced during the session can be accepted as a metaphor, or as a fairy- tale that your subconscious mind has created to explain your problem to your conscious mind. It is possible in this way to learn a great deal about yourself.
People who are sceptical about past lives often mock the idea by saying ‘everyone is always royalty’. Nothing could be further from the truth, the vast majority of clients find themselves in very ordinary lives, as slaves, servants, peasants, or foot soldiers. It is rare to find someone in the life of a rich person, never mind royalty, for the simple reason that through history there have been proportionally very few rich people – just like today!
Every ‘past life’ can teach you something about yourself, and how you are living your life today. Some people will recognise characters in the past life who are in their present life, and that can be enlightening.
Hypnotic regression is simply an exercise in remembering. The subject can ‘stand back’ from the scene and view it as an observer. If an unpleasant event occurs during the memory, it is not necessary to suffer through it, the subject feels only as upset as when watching a film. The therapeutic effects of the session are not reduced, and the emotions relating to the uncomfortable experience can be left in the past, and forgotten.
Appointment details
A past-life session takes up to two hours. Sessions are available on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and Thursday and Friday afternoons.
I do not do hypnosis appointments late, as being hypnotised is not a sleep, but can be like work for the client, and it is not useful if they are tired. If a client nods off, I have to wake her and start from scratch!
The fee for past-life is €190.
Please phone 01 2986365 for an appointment.
Life between Life Regression
If you do accept the idea that you have lived before, there next comes the question – where was I in between my lives?
Dr Michael Newton, a hypnotherapist in California, now retired, stumbled upon the life - between - life when he was facilitating a past-life regression session for his client. She stated that she was lonely because none of her ‘group’ was here with her. On further questioning, she described her group of soul friends (no one has only one soul mate!) with whom she played and studied in the spirit world.
Dr Newton subsequently regressed up to 8,000 clients to their in-between, and found that all his clients described much the same experiences, suggesting that the ‘spirit world’ does exist, and is like they said.
Visiting one’s life in between lives can be fascinating, teaching a lot about why things have turned out as they have, with whom you have deep connections, what your abilities are, and how you occupy yourself, what work you do, while waiting to re-incarnate. Most comforting of all for many people, clients will meet their ‘spirit guide’, a higher soul, (not an angel,) who oversees your progress on this earth, and helps you through some of the difficulties. It has been suggested that the small ‘voice’ you may hear, often called intuition, may be this entity’s efforts to help you.
More about LBL (another sub-section)
Dr Michael Newton has written books about his findings, called ‘Journey of Souls’ and ‘Destiny of Souls’. If you are interested in having an ‘LBL’ session, but have not yet read these books, my advice is not to read them until after your session, as it is far easier to relax into and believe your own session if you are not comparing your performance or findings with what you have read.
Another book, “Memories of the Afterlife” is being published in October, overseen by Dr Newton, but written by therapists he has taught. I have contributed a chapter.
You can also go onto the Newton Institute website: www.spiritualregression.org for fuller details.
What about the session?
An ‘LBL’ session takes up to 4 hours. During that time you will first go into a deep relaxation, and then go back to the womb just before your birth into this life. Then you go further back to a past life, and by going through the death, find yourself entering the spirit world. It can be slow at first to see the information, but with time and practice it comes clear.
Not everyone sees all the details of their between-life time. But most people feel they have seen what they needed, what will help them at this stage of their life.