Bowen Therapy

Bowen Therapy? Tell me more........ I am often asked about Bowen Therapy and it recently occurred to me that it could be beneficial to those who may also have the same questions to post this information and a little of my story to my page. So here goes! My Bowen journey began in 2008, through seeking the treatment for a young horse of mine, for whom I had exhausted (what felt like) all of the therapy options available in the equine world today with little lasting success. In short, my youngster started to present really early with right canter lead difficulty, followed by back soreness. We had been through all the checks, vets, saddlers, therapists and other supporting professionals. I had started him slowly, following natural approaches and had invested a lot of time to establish the ground work. He had very little mileage under saddle. On my mission to get to the bottom of the issue I exhausted every avenue known to man and woman, mostly coming out none the wiser. It was a friend of mine, who recommended trying Bowen Therapy, as she had also experienced problems with her horse, whom after numerous treatments of different kinds and all the associated expected checks, was experiencing back soreness and a significant diminish in his dressage performance. This said horse, had also been through more than one manipulation under anaesthetic, with no success. After a long road, they were introduced to Bowen Therapy and it was 3 regular sessions, which saw this horse return to ridden work and go on to achieve his peak performances with lasting change. I asked at the time, what many people often ask me, what is Bowen Therapy and how can it help me or my horse? What I learnt then is, Bowen is a gentle holistic, hands-on technique which is applied in a specific way to address balance of the whole person or horse. I had to see it for myself, so I went about organising treatment for my young horse. In the first session I began to see my horse respond to this treatment in a different way to any other treatments I had ever experienced with horses. It was within a few short minutes that he lowered his head carriage, became sleepy eyed, started licking and chewing before entering a rhythm of taking deeper, fuller breaths. It was in this moment that the wheels started turning and I was starting to view my horse as a whole, moving away from just localising the obvious symptoms, which was something ingrained in me from my sports background. What also struck me was that throughout his whole training, having started him in natural approaches, I had trained my eye for responses from him during training but hadn't realised I was missing this from his treatment and healing process. I started to learn more about the nervous system of a horse and to understand that the Bowen work was encouraging my horse to switch off, going into a parasympathetic state, the state in which the horse rest, digests and repairs from the inside. Many horses these days are suffering with stress, largely due to management such as being kept alone, stable confinement, training demands, poor feeding regimes to name a few and the impact of this on well-being both physically and emotionally can be huge. I could write another, probably longer story on this subject alone, but my point in mentioning it is that lots of horses just cannot switch off to get the rest that they require to repair and function well. Going back to my horse I noticed how he became more responsive to treatment each time, as if tuning in faster and switching off to refuel each session, with the tension in his back quickly resolving after just two sessions. The subsequent sessions unravelled, like a story, a trail of imbalances, which led me to explore an injury he had sustained before I owned him, in his near hind limb. Suddenly the whole picture made sense and what I had long been searching for in terms of an answer presented itself to me in the form of responses and information. I still love watching this occur with many of the horses I treat now and is partly why I love to monitor responses and behavioural changes throughout treatment programmes, together with the physical changes. As an Equine Bowen Therapist I have witnessed so many different responses within a treatment and whilst each case is unique and individual to each horse, there are some very common responses to observe. These include, licking and chewing, sighing, yawning, entering a sleepy state, lowering of head carriage, muscle twitching, deep/full breathing, raised veins, lymph stripes, gut noises (gurgling and rumbling), discharge from the nose, thirst, frequent urination and fascial unwinds. These responses signify the occurance of changes within the body systems, such as increased circulation, increased oxygen intake, stimulation of the lymph system, release and removal of toxins & pathogens, stimulating digestive function and initiating a parasympathetic state to tune in and process nerve signals to and from the body. What is a fascial unwind? It is not every day I get to witness these, but I have seen many and when I have, often both myself and the owner are usually stood there jaws wide open, motionless. When a horse has suffered a past or recent trauma, the body can hold on to the memory of this. The Bowen treatment can unlock this and the horse can appear to be going through a series of muscular contractions and movements, which often unwind through the fascia and connective tissues. Following this response, the horse will usually go very sleepy and need time to take on board what has happened, by shutting down the external stimulus and entering a period of intense reaction. I have seen one horse replica the pattern of a rotational fall he had previously experienced (not actually falling again) with his owner stood there (jaw wide open, stuttering). - "errrrmm that's errrr how he fell over last week". Sometimes I don't think we even need to over analyse but trust that our bodies and our horses bodies are fascinating, extremely clever systems which are capable of repair in remarkable ways. I'm guessing by now, you know I went on to study & qualify in Bowen Therapy and Equine Bowen Therapy, but I will quickly fill in some of the gaps. My background is in Sports; I studied many areas including Personal Training, Sports Therapy and Sports Coaching. I always knew that I would like to work in a healing capacity and with horses and people. I was accepted on an Equine Physiotherapy course in my early twenties but at that stage I was unable to follow this path. Bowen was a fantastic route for me, as it allows me to bring in my skills and interests from others areas such as natural horsemanship, rehabilitation, core stability training and natural health remedies. I have a busy business now and I work covering lots of areas of Devon and Cornwall.

Equine Bowen Therapy firstly gives us an opportunity to connect with the horse physically through the connection of our hands on their bodies, allowing us to monitor their responses to touch and assess the integrity of the different structures of the body to identify problem areas. Through Bowen therapy we can communicate with the horse, via muscle receptors which send messages through the nervous system. Horses are highly sensitive animals with heightened senses, so they can respond well to the technique and its gentle connective touch. The hands on approach of the treatment can also give added security to the horse, who knows where you are at all times during treatment with no sudden or unexpected moves. This physical connection allows the therapist to tune into the emotional state of the horse, by assessing not only their body language, but also by having an awareness of the horses nervous, respiratory, circulatory and muscular systems. This is monitored through their reactions and responses, such as changes to heart rate, respiration rate, temperature, sweating as well as visual assessments of body language at all times. So how does this therapy have the ability to influence so much within a horse or person? This is where the introduction of fascia comes in and those who know a little, or a lot about Bowen will have undoubtedly heard of fascia. If you haven't read it yet, there is a fabulous article about Fascia written by Anatomy in Motion. As written by Anatomy in Motion, "Fascia is a tough connective tissue that creates a 3-dimensional web extending without interruption from head to toe. Fascia surrounds and infuses every muscle, bone, nerve, blood vessel, and organ, all the way down to the cellular level. The fascial system affects every system and function in your body- musculoskeletal, neurological, metabolic, etc. The white, glistening fibers you see when you pull a piece of meat apart or when you pull chicken skin away from the bone. The fascial system generally supports, stabilizes, and cushions. Fascia creates separation between vessels, organs, bones, and muscles. It creates space through which delicate nerves, blood vessels, and fluids can pass. A restriction in one area of the body creates tension throughout this web pulling on other distant structures. This explains why some people may have pain that appears unrelated to their original injury. Furthermore, myofascial restrictions do not show up on common standardized tests such as x-rays, MRI, CAT scans, etc. Fascial restrictions can pull the body out of its normal alignment, compressing joint surfaces and bulging disks, resulting in pain, loss of motion, and weakness." Bowen is a fascial release technique, a system of body work which is performed at specific points of the body, over fascia, muscles, tendons and ligaments. The rolling type moves bring about a disturbance in the fascia which initiates changes in the fascia and interconnecting structures. As a result of this, it initiates healing, helping to reduce tension, realign posture, balance the body systems and alleviate pain. Bowen Therapy is employed by people from all walks of life, including both riders and horses to encourage balance of all body systems. This is not only for musculoskeletal issues but for pain management, prevention of injury, lameness, dysfunction and also in cases of disease.

In summary, “Bowen is a profound homeostatic regulator that gently restores function at multiple levels using the innate healing ability of the animal itself” (By Dr Saranyu Pearson BVSc(Hons) LFHom(Vet), Integrative Veterinarian). I hope this gives an informative introduction to Bowen and my work.