How the Bowen Technique Works
Your intelligence is always with you, overseeing your body,
even though you may not be aware of it's work...
Your intelligence is marvelously intimate.
It's not in front of you or behind, or to the left or the right
Jelaluddin Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
Bowen helps the Body's healing intelligence
The body has an innate self-healing intelligence. This innate intelligence communicates with the body through the vehicle of the nervous system. There are a number of theories as to how the technique works. It is thought that through the Bowen moves, messages are sent deep into the body via the nervous system retrieving cellular memory of a balanced and relaxed way of being. Muscles may relax almost immediately resulting in a reduction of pain.
Acupuncture and the meridians
Acupuncturists have noticed that some of the Bowen moves are made on some points that correspond to the chinese acupuncture meridian system and clearly effect energy flows in the body.
Another theory is the effects the Bowen moves have on fascia (the soft tissue component of connective tissue - this is the same stuff we call silverskin that surrounds a side of beef which is cut away before roasting). Fascia surrounds all of our muscles and organs from head to foot. If it is not fluid and pliable, problems will arise in the underlying muscles and organs and eventually disease states will set in. By re-establishing the flow this problem can be avoided.
Thixotropic Fascia
The ground substance in the matrix of the fascia is thixotropic, which means that it can change its state. It is a liquid crystal. When it is warm it is fluid but if it dehydrates it becomes hard and crystalline. We now know that crystals store memory. This is what is used in our watches and computers. Fascia remembers.
The memory of any accidents we may have had, poor postural habits and any physical and emotional trauma we have experienced can be stored and set in the connective tissue by means of these crystals. Gene Dobkin of Bowen Neural Touch writes "connective tissue does not contract and relax as does muscle, but under prolonged tension, it will dehydrate and shrink up to 15% - 20%...Tight fascia affects the whole organism."