Bowen or physiotherapy ?

When many people hear about Bowen Therapy for the first time, they often try to understand what it’s like in comparison to other therapies.  In this article, I’ll explain a little about the similarities and differences between Bowen Therapy versus physiotherapy.  This can help to understand which may be more suitable to your circumstance.

In simplistic terms, a physiotherapist assesses, diagnoses and treats injuries through massage/manipulation and exercise.  

When a client presents with an injury, the physiotherapist will usually be able to provide a diagnosis and the specific muscle(s) injured.  The muscle(s) implicated will likely receive some form of massage or treatment in-session to help.

After the session, people will often have a range of stretches or release techniques (such as rolling) to do.  Additionally, exercises are given to strengthen particular muscles or muscle groups.

For many people, physiotherapy works well (especially if they do the exercises !).

At Simply Bowen Therapy, the whole body is assessed to look for patterns, not only where it hurts – often the source of the problem and site of pain are different.

The Bowen Therapist does assessments and moves, then lets your body do the work to realign while you lie there. While some moves can be quite firm or feel tender, most are on the gentle side. It’s also worth noting that your body will continue to change and adjust for a few days after treatment.

Bowen Therapists won’t diagnose your injury or pain. If you want to know, we can tell you the patterns we’re seeing in your body, which areas seem firm, which areas we need to release (sometimes to expressions of surprise).

If you want to do something between treatments to help, I can give some simple stretches or exercises based on the patterns I see, but it’s not essential.

At Simply Bowen Therapy, I treat in an assessment-led way. My assessments determine where restrictions are in the body to target work in those locations, rather than treating areas of the body that hurt.

It may seem odd to release a neck or jaw for a client with lower back pain, or work on balancing the pelvis for neck restrictions or shoulder pain, but almost certainly the source of tension is not where pain is felt.

If you know that you’re not going to do your physio exercises, or you’ve been doing your exercises and not improving, then it’s time to try Bowen Therapy.