Howard Plummer’s Fascial Bowen Technique

I recently undertook training with Howard Plummer and Helen Watson learning Howard’s Facial Bowen Technique. To say this was a transformational experience with regards to my Bowen practice would be an understatement.

Howard and Helen’s work is proving to be remarkable on it’s effects with children with cerebral palsy, Asperger’s Syndrome, ADHD and autistic difficulties. Having treated hundreds of children at their clinic in Cardiff there is well-documented evidence of Bowen’s positive effects for these conditions. Please refer to the testimonial at the bottom of this post. Howard and Helen have taught this technique to many Bowen practitioners who have gone on to run their own clinics for these children with special needs. It was whilst working with Rita Eccles in Lewes, East Sussex, that I was inspired to persue Howard’s work.

Although most of their research is with children, the technique is also beneficial to adults.

Note:- Touch (a separate post to follow on this subject) is often important to Autistic/Aspergers children. They often find it soothing and want to sit near/against you, or lean against you which gives us, as Bowen practitioners, the chance to work on their back or neck or whatever areas present themselves when they have difficulty keeping still.

Benefits noted by parents at the Cardiff clinic

• Clumsiness – improved balance/co-ordination
• Spine straightening, often dramatic
• Improved motor control e.g. holding up head more; starting to roll over; grasping things
• Constipation/nutritional body development
• Vocalization/verbalization
• Limb aches and pains reduced
• Concentration/attention improves at home and school. Greater comprehension
• Behavioural improvements – Timidity and aversion to school/shops etc. lessened. Can make friends easier
• Less frustrated, calmer, quieter – happier child
• Sleep patterns improved
• Chewing/sucking stronger
• Plus the usual benefits of Bowen
• Aversity to lying on back or front quickly reversed

Benefits of Bowen Technique observed at the Cardiff clinic

• Quieter, happier children
• Better concentration
• Some play engendered/and with pets
• Loss of some obsessive/repetitive behaviour
• Sleep patterns greatly improved
• Rage episodes lessened
• Abusive behaviour much reduced on self/property
• More instances of language use
• More eye contact – coming out into the world
• Parents’ load relieved – family togetherness enhanced

How is the Fascial Bowen Technique achieving these results?

The theory is that the sensory stimulation may be helping and accelerating the  ‘re-wiring’  in the brain to compensate for damaged areas.

The Fascial Bowen moves are very light superficial moves over the areas of the skin along what are known as the dermatomes. Simply put, a dermatome is an area of skin supplied by nerve fibers from a single dorsal root and its ganglion i.e. from the area of dermatome C4 ( the area at the base of the neck) the nerve fibers spread out across the shoulders to the upper arm. An example would be shingles (herpes zoster), which lodges in a spinal or cranial root, radiating out along the area of the skin (dermatome)  innervated by those nerve fibers.

Beneath our skin is what is known as the superficial fascia, a layer of connective tissue not unlike the silverskin on a piece of chicken or a side of beef, to give, hopefully, a simple analogy. This connective tissue is a fluid system. It is vital that it is kept hydrated and therefore oxygentated,  otherwise it can become dry and constricting to the underlying muscles and organs it envelopes. There is much recent research into the importance of fascia and connective tissue. We are finding that it is a fascinating intelligent communictaion system. “This points to the intimate relationship between the superficial sensory function and the deep tissues and organs of the body. I (Howard Plummer) believe this is the most important factor, which gives fascia Bowen it’s potency. To touch the surface is to stir the depths.”

There are two papers that point to why Bowen seems to be beneficial:-

(Nelson and Ellenborg 1982)
“A diagnosis of cerebral palsy was made for 229 one-year-old children enrolled in a large longitudinal study. Of these children, 118 were free of motor handicap at the age of 7 years. Mild early cerebral palsy, and the monoparetic, ataxic/dyskinetic, and diplegic forms of the disorder, resolved with high frequency.”

(Eyre 2004)
“Can the brain be ‘re-wired‘ to help children overcome disability?”
This was a two year research programme funded by the charity Action Medical Research. It’s findings show that the infant brain has a natural capacity to transfer vital functions away from the damaged area when there has been brain damage either before birth or at birth. Researchers were convinced that it is critical to act as early as possible, before the brains plasticity diminishes and to discover how this ‘re-wiring’ process can be encouraged in order to give damaged or cerebral palsy children the chance to recover from lost movement control as soon as possible.

Prevalance of cerebral palsy

2 in 1000 live births – cerebral palsy. But many mild cases are undiagnosed
5 in 1000 live births – dyspraxia. Co-ordination of movement

Conclusion

It would therefore seem vital that children with cerebral palsy and other delayed developmental conditions receive treatment as soon as possible. In fact, should all children receive this beneficial modality after the trauma of birth?

Testimonial from Howard’s Cardiff clinic

Ben is 15 months old.
He has had 10 sessions of Bowen so far.
His first couple of sessions were weekly, then he progressed to the fortnightly clinic.

He suffered oxygen depravation at birth and was diagnosed at 9 months with Cerebral Palsy.

Ben’s body was very stiff.
He locked his legs whenever he tried to do anything with his head, arms or torso.
His body was almost always tensed up and his hands were clenched into fists most of the time.
He would strongly object whenever we tried to turn him onto his front or encouage him to try any unfamiliar movements.

We took Ben for his first Bowen session when he was just under a year old.
He relaxed almost immediatley and tolerated being on his front for much longer than he had before.
He even managed to last for almost a whole hour on his front during only his third session – before Bowen he would last a maximum of 30 seconds before crying.

On the way home in the car after the first session he opened his arms wide and grasped the handle of his maxi-cosy with each hand – this was the first time he had ever done this.

The improvements we have seen since he has been attending have included:

• Better control of his arms and legs
• The opening up of his hands and improved dexterity
• A reduction in his overall stiffness
• Reduction in the ‘locking’ of his body
• Improved tolerance of different positions and movements
• Improvements in his chewing and eating
• Better head control
• He no longer coughs during and after food or drink

We can attribute the above improvements to Bowen because each occured after the relevant session, i.e. if an area was concentrated on during a session, then that area would noticeably improve either immediately or in the following days.

To conclude, overall Bowen has helped Ben’s body to relax and his movements to become more fluid. He has better control over his body and his balance has improved significantly. On the rare occasions that Ben becomes distressed, he no longer tenses up in the way that he used to.

Ben really seems to relax and enjoy each session.

We are very happy with the way he has responded to Bowen and would strongly recommend it to others.

As far as we are concerned, Ben will continue to attend the clinic for as long as it remains beneficial to him.

With thanks to you all,

Christine & Andrew                                                       25:10:200

For further information:

Cardiff Bowen Clinic,
Howard Plummer: 02920 485 939
Helen Watson: 02920 637 779

Special thanks to Janie Godfrey, Bowen practitioner, for her permission to use her own writings as a guide to writing this post.
Janie runs a clinic in Frome, Somerset and can be reached at Tel: 01373 451 558

Rita Eccles Tel: 01273 488 009         Rita runs a clinic by donation in Lewes, East Sussex every other Saturday.

www.bowensussex.com

www.bowen4children.org

You can contact me, Jackie O’Neal BTAA at Tel: 0750 302 7773
I am available in Brighton, London and the Southampton/New Forest areas.

I am currently available in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida area. (954) 202 3471 for a while from January 2010