The Body Clinic

Bowenwork™ strongly affects the autonomic nervous system, the system responsible for stress reactions such as the "fight or flight" reaction, as well as the recovery responses of the body.  When Bowenwork™ helps reduce the "stress-oriented" dominance of the sympathetic part of the system, muscle tension decreases, nerve hypersensitivity is reduced and the feedback loops that control acute pain in the body are interrupted.  At the same time that is happening, the parasympathetic portion is reciprocally restored, increasing blood and lymph flow, feeding starved tissue and reducing inflammation.  People can feel shifts in their bodies during and after Bowenwork™ sessions while the autonomic system comes back into balance.  As this happens, the healing process can accelerate.

Spasm and inflammation, normally healthy responses immediately after an injury, too often remain long after and become the problem. Bowenwork™ can directly relieve these symptoms through reducing sympathetically maintained muscle contraction and increased blood and lymph flow.  While there are often immediate positive results, they are just as likely to unfold over a longer period of a few days to a week. Patterns of dysfunction that have arisen over time may take time and repetition to be replaced with new, healthy patterns. Bowenwork™ can restore patterns of normal function within 3-4 sessions with 3-8 being an ordinary treatment protocol.

The client usually lies on a bed or bodywork table or, for comfort, in a chair. However, Bowenwork can be done anywhere - on the sports field, in a hospital room, at the site of an accident, on an airplane or train.

Most often, a surprisingly few sessions are needed to alleviate complaints, whether structural or functional, even if long-standing, and the results hold for a long time, generally until there is a re-injury.

Bowenwork™ is completely safe and appropriate for everyone from newborns to the very elderly and frail. Highly trained athletes and pregnant women benefit equally, each according to need. Although there are three circumstances in which a specific series of moves is contraindicated, there are no contraindications for a Bowenwork™ session, as other parts of the body and the body as a whole will still benefit.