Bowen Technique – Azita Angadji

Fantastic fascia and why Bowen Therapists love it

Azita Angadji — Mon, 04 May 2020 08:36:00 +0000

This is a guest blog post by BTA Instructor, Kristin North.

“Fascia isn’t ‘main-stream’ yet, but it’s getting there. A new appreciation of fascia has begun throughout the health and wellbeing industries as a way of explaining and treating injuries, but fascia is something we Bowen therapists have been working with and on for years. You could say we’re fascinated with fascia.

Injuries and a wide range of health problems may be treated by working on the fascia, including babies with colic, adults with work related injuries, continual compromised posture, seniors with any of the problems that are common with old age and athletes with acute or chronic injuries.

If you haven’t already heard of fascia, it’s a connective tissue made mainly from tightly woven collagen fibres which surround every other tissue of the body including our nerves, bones, arteries, veins and muscles.

Every single part of your anatomy is encased in and connected by fascia. It wraps around your individual internal parts keeping them apart and lubricating them for easy movements. Fascia keeps your body taut, it’s your body’s first line defense against injury and it’s the first place health problems or injuries should be treated.

Despite that, fascia hasn’t been studied much because the medical world has struggled to understand what its real function is, but it’s certainly more than just packaging that holds our bones and muscles together under our skin. Fascia is vital for every movement you make and every injury you’ve ever had but, until a few years ago, nobody paid it much attention.

The first International Fascia Research Congress was held at Harvard Medical School in 2007 and since then medical professionals and body workers, including Bowen therapists, have been learning as much about fascia as they can.

You can find out more about fascia here but Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains, was one of the first medical professionals to study and understand fascia in the human body. He explains why fascia is so vital to our well-being:

”“While anatomy lists around 600 separate muscles, it is more accurate to say that there is one muscle poured into six hundred pockets of the fascial webbing. The ‘illusion’ of separate muscles is created by the anatomist’s scalpel, dividing tissues along the planes of fascia. This exploratory process should not blind us to the reality of the unifying whole.”

Here’s why Bowen therapists love facsia

1. Fascia holds human bodies together

Fascia organises muscles into functional units. Each muscle layer is surrounded by fascial sheaths. The outermost fascial sheath is the epimysium which organises muscle and keeps it separate from the surrounding tissue.

2. Fascia is essential for our physical well-being

Scar tissue is made of bunched up, disorientated and dehydrated fascia but it’s vital for injury repair too. Bowen therapy helps to reorientate these fibres so it helps with the rehabilitation process.

3. Fascia affects how our muscles work

Although scar tissue is useful, if muscle groups are underused and don’t work together, then fascial sheaths can start to stick together creating adhesions which can then cause the muscles to lose independent movement and cause pain. Lack of activity also causes once-supple fascia fibres to harden into place and restricts movement even further.

4. Fascia affects how our bodies move

Adhesions can also form within fascial layers as cross linkages which can pull bones out of alignment causing bad posture or restricted movement. Poor posture, lack of flexibility and repetitive movements can damage the fascia creating adhesions, which are difficult to break down.

5. Fascia is affected by and affects your mental and physical health

Fascia impacts the way you move physically but it’s also a sense organ which can contract independently of the muscles it surrounds and respond to stress without conscious command. Chronic stress causes the fascia fibres to thicken in an attempt to protect the underlying muscle.

The good news is that any damage you’ve caused your fascia is often resolved with between one and three Bowen treatments.

The term fascia isn’t main-stream yet but it should be, especially for those in the health and wellbeing industry and for all body workers, not just for Bowen therapists. Let’s all embrace this amazing communication network and take health care to a new level.”

Kristin North, Instructor

This post originally appeared on Kristin’s blog here. It is republished with permission.

Excessive pressure is not necessary

Azita Angadji — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 09:38:00 +0000

The science of why we are taught to work slowly and use light pressure when applying the Bowen technique

“I’m sure everyone, through the course of their Bowen studies has at one time or another been told to slow down and use less pressure when doing the Bowen move. Working lightly and slowly was a foreign concept to me when I was introduced to the Bowen technique. After 6 years of being a professional athlete, I was used to being forcefully manipulated or aggressively massaged when it came to injury rehabilitation and so when I started doing Bowen I could see by the looks on my client’s faces that I was using too much pressure.

It took me a long time to drop the habit of working too hard, and the reason why Bowen practitioners (myself included) claimed to get better results when working gently, was always something that perplexed me. Then in June I picked up my Psychology textbook and while studying impulse conduction in the nervous system I finally found out why using a softer Bowen approach got better results.

The Bowen move when performed on a bodily structure sends information via sensory nerves to the brain about that specific structure. When the info arrives at the brain it is pushed around between the different areas of the brain where a response is made according to the information received. The response is sent back to the structure via motor nerves and certain adjustments then made. (Hence the waiting period in Bowen after moves so as not to interfere with the body’s response.)

So now you might ask, how does working lightly fit into this complicated process of impulse conduction? The info sent from the bodily structures to the brain is done so via a special kind of electrical charge called an ‘action potential.’ Now importantly an action potential is an all or nothing event and what this means is that the energy of the action potential is derived from the nerve cell itself and not the stimulus. Therefore the strength of the stimulus does not change or alter the speed of impulse conduction along the nerve. It can be compared to firing a bullet from a gun. If you pull the trigger, the gun fires (the bullet does not travel faster if you pull harder on the trigger).

Applying this principle to the Bowen technique is simple. Fast, hard pressures while performing Bowen moves does not relay sensory info to the brain quicker and stimulate a faster, healing response in the body. If anything too much pressure sends the body into overstimulation mode and the response from that is probably not going to be a healing one, but rather a fight or flight response (the exact opposite you ware wanting as we are trying to take the body out of sympathetic stimulation into parasympathetic stimulation so as to restore and sustain normal functioning).

So try to remember that when we work slowly and lightly on a body, we are working with the body’s innate, natural healing impulses. We are in partnership with the body in its healing. Trying to force our will onto and aggressively treating our bodies, we arrogantly assume that we know better how to heal our bodies than the perfection of nature does.”

By Sean Johnson, Instructor, South Africa

Originally printed in Bowen Hands, March 2013

Photo Credit here: [1] practicalowl via [2] Compfight [3] cc

Links:
1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/55046645@N00/390316397
2. http://compfight.com
3. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0

Bowen and natural posture

Azita Angadji — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 09:28:00 +0000

“Good posture is important to good health. But what exactly is good posture? Most of us have learned to stand erect by tucking under our tail bones, lifting the chest, pulling back the shoulders, and drawing in the belly. Although that is normal posture today, Kathleen Porter, author of Ageless Spine, Lasting Health says that

Natural posture is the alignment that we instinctively use when we first learn to walk. As toddlers, we practised over and over again until we found the central axis that aligns our bones so we can support our head and walk upright. If you spend some time watching toddlers, you will see true, natural alignment. Notice how toddlers’ little bums jut out behind them, their round bellies relax naturally, and their spines remain long and extended. They walk with proud acceptance of who they are.

As toddlers discover the world around them, pay attention to how they bend and sit: their spines remain long and extended. (Studying toddlers is a fun way to practise your Bowen observational skills.) As we go through life, however, many of us lose this natural alignment. It can begin when babies are put into certain strollers, car seats and carriers that often place the pelvis in a backward tilt. Classroom desk chairs can contribute to the problem. In addition, many hours are spent in sedentary activities at the computer or watching television with little or no attention given to proper alignment.

Many of the models or actors on TV, in movies or in advertisements do not have natural alignment. In perfume and clothing ads, the slouch of models is meant to be sexy, but this slouch collapses the chest and spine. These postures are often adopted, whether consciously or subconsciously, by those wishing to emulate that supposed sexiness. Practise your Bowen observational skills again and study the youth around you. Undoubtedly, you will see the pervasiveness of the slouch posture.

In contrast to the slouch, we have the ‘fitness posture.’ In this case, the posture is based on society’s definition of good posture and fitness, usually with tight, flat abs and overly developed muscles throughout the body. When the body is not in natural alignment, stronger muscles become necessary to hold the body in its unnatural position.

As Porter explains, one can have strength from developed muscles, but there is also the power that comes from aligned bones.

It is this alignment of the spine along the central axis and the position of the bones in relationship to each other that determines whether one will experience back pain or not. Indeed, muscle development can interfere with a quality of relaxed strength that is essential for living in a comfortable, pain-free body. Standing straight, at least in the way most of us have been taught, actually causes the spine to be arched and compressed.

So, after years of ingrained physical habits, how does one return to natural alignment?

Practise, practise, practise! And I might add, complement this with Bowen! To re-discover your central axis or home base as Porter calls it, simply:

Stand with your heels about 6 inches (15cm) apart and toes 8 inches (20cm) apart
Bow at the hips slightly until you can see your ankles
Relax the belly
While maintaining the position of the hips, lift your face enough to see out in front of you
Relax

When you find your home base (try it now!) you will immediately see the similarity between home base and the starting position for Sacral Procedure. Is it coincidence that the pelvis is put into natural alignment before we do the moves of the Sacral Procedure? The first words clients usually say after receiving this procedure are, ‘I feel taller,’ then we see that they are walking straighter with head and spine more erect.

Both Bowenwork and finding this home base provide symmetry of alignment that ‘is important for unimpeded transmission of messages and electrical impulses through neural pathways throughout the body.’

Porter states that no muscles are more important to this natural posture than the diaphragm, rectus abdominis, transversus abdominis and the psoas muscles. It is the alignment of our bones, she says, that determines whether these muscles are free to relax or not. In other words, muscles relax when bones are aligned. Through Bowen, we also know the reverse – when muscles relax, bones align! Think of the moves that affect these particular muscles: moves 3 to 5 of Respiratory and Gallbladder Procedures; move 2 of Coccyx Procedure; and move 4 of Pelvic Procedure.

True abdominal core strength, says Porter, is a result of living in an aligned way. Transversus abdominis is designed to stabilize our structure, but it is unable to provide this support when rectus abdominis is contracted too tightly.

‘Tightening of the rectus abdominis muscle draws the pubis symphysis upward, causing the pelvis to tuck under. This results in shortened hamstring muscles which contribute to a backward tilt of the pelvis, interfering with the necessary angle of the sacral platform to support the spine. This is often counteracted by collapsing the spine, lifting the chest, tensing the torso and neck and stressing the nervous system.”

This artificial strengthening of abdominal muscles occurs when we try to achieve tight, flat abs – one of the modem symbols of fitness. Achieving those six-pack abs is the modem equivalent of wearing a tight corset or girdle that restricts the diaphragm. This ultimately affects our overall health, as well as how we age. Understanding natural alignment and the implications for health has changed my beliefs about what a fit body should look like. Now when I see muscular figures, such as body builders with broad shoulders and narrow pelvis, I wonder how that is affecting digestion and respiration, and I wonder if they will have back pain in later years.

Like rectus abdominus, the psoas also becomes tight and shortened from exercises that are meant to flatten the belly. A relaxed psoas is vital to free movement of pelvis and diaphragm, for soft natural breathing, an extended spine and an engaged parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation response). Moves of Pelvic and Coccyx procedures, as well as Special Procedures, relax the psoas.

Another important muscle is gluteus maximus which works as the primary hip extensor, moving us forward when we walk in natural alignment. Buttocks that have a flattened look indicate retroversion of the pelvis. Tom Bowen must have agreed with the importance of this muscle since the moves over the glutes are repeated in BRMI. A better understanding of the relationship between gluteus maximus and natural alignment has helped motivate me to master the technique of BRMI moves 3 & 4 and 9 & 10.

‘The more we understand how our bodies are designed to work, the more tools we have to work with in implementing changes in the way we exercise and move in general.’ And the more we understand how our bodies are designed to work, the better we understand Bowen and the better we become at selecting the correct Bowen moves.

Table 1:

Characteristics that naturally aligned people share when standing:

Leg bones form vertical columns of support
Central axis evenly divides the entire body almost in half
Weight-bearing joints – ankle, knee, hip, shoulder – line up along the central axis
Pelvis and rib cage are in a natural, neutral position
Spine is optimally elongated
Muscles throughout the body are evenly balanced and elastic naturally and are not compressed
There is an indication toward freedom from pain and tension

Understanding natural posture has increased my patient awareness. During move 4 of Pelvic Procedure, I asked a client to take a deep breath. While I was surprised at the shallowness of her breath, in reviewing this session later in my mind, I remembered that a ‘relaxed psoas is vital to free movement of pelvis and diaphragm, for soft natural breathing.’ And I had been working precisely at move 4 which affects the psoas muscle! (Note: It can also be helpful to change the language with the client to ‘breathe deeply into your belly and let the breath out slowly.’ While anatomically incorrect, this language often helps a client do deep abdominal breathing, instead of shallow chest breathing.)

On completing the Pelvic Procedure, the client’s legs are parallel to each other and in line with the shoulder joint, forming what Porter calls ‘vertical columns of support.’ As I was marvelling at the client’s legs two parallel columns of alignment the client crossed her legs at the ankle! Aghast, I simply placed the client’s feet back in a parallel position and asked her to let them rest there for the duration of the pause.

Natural posture helps the practitioner as well so we can protect our spines for many years of Bowen practise. When working with a client and while waiting to align your move with the breath, take stock of your own posture. It only takes a second to make adjustments so that your hips are at ‘home base’ and your belly is soft and relaxed. When you are aligned and relaxed, this energy is communicated into your moves.

In Ageless Spine, Lasting Health, Porter details how to move in natural alignment while sitting, standing, walking, bending, sleeping, rising from a chair or meditating. It is relatively easy to find home base. We must reconnect with our bodies until natural alignment becomes unconscious habit. In the process, we also require a willingness to release deep-seated beliefs, such as what is health versus what is fitness, and sometimes changing the mind is the most difficult task of all. But when we release our minds, the tensions of our bodies also release, our bones realign, and we are rewarded with strength, flexibility, balance, health, and true fitness.”

Donna Costa
London, Ontario, Canada

Originally printed in Bowen Hands, December 2011

Neurosurgeon amazed by Bowen Therapy

Azita Angadji — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 08:37:00 +0000

This blog post is written by Catalina Acsinte, MD:

“My name is Catalina Acsinte. I am a MD neurosurgeon with 18 years of experience in traditional medicine and a student of Bowen therapy (Bowtech).

I would like to share with you the case of a patient of mine, both from my point of view as a doctor, as well as considering my knowledge about Bowen Therapy.

Patient TC, 29 years old, professional driver, is brought by an ambulance on the 20th September 2010. After the first tests were conducted, he is diagnosed with severe diffuse cerebral contusion, acute subdural hematoma in the right hemisphere, left rib fractures, left upper lobe pulmonary contusion, pneumothorax left, left temporal linear fracture. He undergoes an emergency surgical procedure, which consisted of the evacuation of the subdural hematoma by undergoing left-side frontal temporal parietal decompressive craniotomy (the surgical removal of the frontal temporal parietal bones on the left side, on an areas of about 7-10cm, and discharging the blood that compresses the brain).

The general state of the patient improved; he was conscious, but unable to move voluntarily, eat on his own or have control of his sphincter. At a later date, he underwent another surgery, for hydrocephalus, which consisted of ventriculoperitoneal shunting. When discharged from our service, the patient was conscious, but collaboration proved to be difficult; he was able to answer only by movements of the eyeballs; sometimes he would slightly move his right arm. He had trouble swallowing (he was fed through a nasogastric tube), had no control of the sphincter (he needed a urinary catheter) and was completely unable to walk.

Later on, the patient was hospitalised in the Medical Rehabilitation Clinic, where he started physical therapy and speech therapy. His movement ability improved slightly. After trying to remove the nasogastric tube, the patient suffered bronchopneumonia due to his swallowing difficulty. Endoscopic gastronomy is performed on the 24th of June 2011. All this time, the patient had also undergone physical therapy at home, but without any significant results.

In September 2011, the patient’s family finds out about Bowen therapy and decides to try it, as a last resort, in weekly sessions, with therapist Niculina Gheorghita. After the first sessions, remarkable results appeared; he started talking and swallowing in November and later on he was able to sit and take a few steps. In a few months after starting the Bowen therapy, the patient regained his sphincter control as well.

In February 2012, the patient showed up at our clinic in order to undergo cranioplasty (correction of the bone defect with an acrylic plate). Everything went fine, with good evolution of the patient: he was able to talk, walk and eat by himself by the beginning of the month.

In September 2012, the patient presented a left front suppurated wound. After trying to solve this with antibiotics, according to the antibiogram, it is decided to remove the acrylic plate, considered to be the foreign body maintaining the infection. This decision was also influenced by the existence of a post-surgical dehiscence (separation of the layers of a surgical wound).

At first, I did not have an explanation for this dehiscence. I was able to find an explanation during surgery, when, after removing the acrylic plate, I observed a fibrous structure at that level (a reaction of the body), which looked like onion layers.

Conclusions

The vegetative state of the patient was constant for one year after the accident, despite the medical treatment (physical therapy, speech therapy). One year after beginning Bowen therapy, the patient looked and acted like a healthy person: he thought, spoke, ate, and walked all by himself. The fact the infection was not followed by meningitis, considering that the head plate was a foreign object for the body, can only be explained by the ‘inner doctor’ work – activated by the Bowen technique.

Finally, the fibrous structure I found after removing the acrylic plate seems to be another consequence of the self-healing. Seeing bone regenerate itself has left me amazed. During my time as a doctor, I have had the chance to see the body react after

I have to admit I wouldn’t believe such a story if I didn’t see it happening with my own eyes. I was so impressed about this case, that I decided to register for Bowen courses and since I started practicing this technique myself, I encounter many other amazing recoveries.

Happy Bowening!”

Dr. Catalina Acsinte

Iasi, Romania

Originally printed in Bowen Hands, September 2013