Heal Thyself With Bowen Technique

Five minutes before I had my Bowen technique session at The Hale Clinic, I got a text message from my son’s school saying he hadn’t turned up.

My son never misses school. I was colossally stressed. Although The Hale Clinic has a strict no-mobile-phones policy, Jo Lunn, the Bowen practitioner, kindly waived the rule for me.

Jo had just started explaining how Tom Bowen developed the healing technique, when my son’s school called to tell me that he was actually in school—the teacher had simply forgotten to register him. Usually, when I get anxious, it takes me a couple of hours to unwind. Fifteen minutes later, I was falling asleep on the treatment table.

Relaxation wasn’t the primary purpose of the session. It was more of a by-product. Jo was actually working on my hamstrings. In exercise classes, while the rest of the class are touching their toes during warm-down, I’m struggling to reach below my knees.

The Bowen technique is hard to describe. It’s not really a massage, but it’s the nearest thing to it. It’s a gentle rolling of the skin over the connective tissue. Jo said that the movements help reset the body so that it can heal itself. The technique is said to be very effective for healing frozen shoulder, but it’s also used to treat whiplash, tennis elbow, back pain, migraine, infant colic plus a bunch of other ailments.

The treatment lasts about an hour, with two to five minute breaks to allow the body to realign itself.

The last part of the session involved Jo manipulating my head and shoulder.

‘Do you grind your teeth at night?’ Jo asked.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘In fact, I have to wear a gum-shield to stop me grinding my teeth to dust.’

‘You’ve got a lot of tension in your neck and shoulders.’

But my neck and shoulders would have to wait for another session – I wanted to know if my hamstrings had improved.

At the start of the session, I felt a sharp pain when Jo lifted my leg to a 45 degree angle. Now, Jo was raising my leg past 45 degrees…50 degrees…60 degrees…70 degrees!

This morning, I thought, maybe the 70 degrees was just the result of being very relaxed, so I tried to see how far below my knees I could reach. I touched my toes. Thank you Jo!

The Hale Clinic
7 Park Crescent
Great Portland Street
W1B 1PF

Tel :020 7631 0156