Bowen Therapy was developed by the late Tom Bowen in Geelong, Australia. Sometimes called the homeopathy of bodywork, it utilizes subtle inputs to the body (known as moves), stimulating the body to heal itself, often profoundly.

Basically, Bowen Therapy works to reset your nervous system to allow the body to work as its supposed to and heal itself.

If you experience an injury or have a condition that causes pain, the body tries to guard against this pain through different means controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which has 2 branches: sympathetic and parasympathetic.

The sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system is stimulated to external stressors. It controls the “fight or flight” responses that protect us from harm, like if a bear is chasing us, the sympathetic branch will be highly active and prepare our bodies to fight or run from the bear (a better idea).

​Unfortunately, sometimes the nervous system can get stuck and even though the initial stressor or pain has been eliminated, the body stays in this stuck pattern, resulting in other problems.

For example, with back pain, the muscles can tighten up around a joint that has been irritated. But even though the irritation is gone, the muscles remain tight, causing other problems such as stiffness and fatigue, or even muscular damage from over contraction, creating a vicious cycle of pain.

Bowen Therapy resets the nervous system, ending the cycle of pain.

The gentle Bowen moves allow the body to tap into the parasympathetic nevous system, which is our rest, repair and digest system. Even though this is our natural state, most of us only rest enough to start the repair process during our sleep hours, and even then we are not getting enough sleep for the healing process to really take place.

The pauses unique to a Bowen session allow the brain to process and integrate the new signals and find balance within the body.

The brain then sends a message back to the affected areas telling them that “everything is OK”. The body will then return to normal functioning and healing capacity. The more time your body can spend in this restful state the more healing can happen.

The complex processes involved are why people often wonder how such a gentle treatment can have such immediate and profound long-lasting effects.