Samantha AshleyBeing a relatively unknown natural therapy compared to other physical therapies like massage, chiropractic or acupuncture, Bowen Therapy is fast becoming the ‘go to’ therapy for people looking for a holistic and effective alternative to other remedial therapies in the marketplace.
So, what is Bowen Therapy?
Bowen Therapy is an Australian developed soft tissue healing technique, created by the late Tom Bowen from Geelong, Victoria over 70 years ago.
Bowen Therapy is a safe, non-invasive, holistic form of physical therapy that targets specific muscle groups and connective tissue. Gentle moves are performed over the muscles, with a series of short waits in between moves to allow the body to respond and engage its own self-healing processes. It helps to balance, cleanse, and heal the body, without the use of pins, oil, or forceful manipulation. Circulation and lymphatic activity are also stimulated, and the central nervous system placed into a state of calm. It can assist in recovery from many conditions and is safe for infants, the elderly, the frail and pregnant women.
So why did I become a Bowen Therapist and Instructor?
I have been committed to exploring, researching, and studying physical health, nutrition, and holistic lifestyle choices for over 30 years. With a background in remedial massage, naturopathy and nutrition, I felt as though I had covered all bases with a well-rounded education in different body systems and treatment protocols. Then in my early thirties, I sustained some severe physical, mental and emotional injuries from a very toxic, dysfunctional, and abusive relationship. I left that relationship with nothing but my children and the clothes on my back, moved states back to my home state of Queensland and tried to rebuild my life again. Unfortunately, though, my injuries had left me with a left shoulder that constantly hurt and being a physical therapist at the time, this was less than ideal. Time went by, I met a wonderful man (who is now my amazing husband) and my life was great, but my body was failing me more and more each day, and I began to lose the full use of my left arm and hand, was in constant pain and had a headache which would not go away. I tried everything. Every therapy. Every exercise. Physically and mentally, I was exhausted and emotionally I was not coping either. I was facing the loss of my business as I could not continue to work with the pain I was in. At this stage, my headache had been with me, without abating for over 4 months.
Then it was suggested I try ‘this other therapy’. Someone I knew was seeing a physiotherapist and was chatting to him about me and he said he did another form of treatment that was not physio that he thought may be able to help me. He had a spot available in 15 minutes. I jumped in my car, eager to try whatever he had on offer. I was desperate. I walked in, told him my issues and he asked me to lie on the table, face down, and proceeded to make a series of four small moves on my lower back and hips and then left the room. I was confused. What was he doing? I had a shoulder and arm issue, not a back and hip issue. He then returned and made some more small, gentle moves, and left the room again, and so this continued while he systematically worked his way through my entire body, finishing up with, you guessed it, my shoulder. To my absolute amazement, by the end of the 50-minute treatment, I had some feeling back in my arm and my headache of over four months was now gone. He asked me to come back again in a week, and I gladly returned. I came back four times in total, with each treatment spaced a week apart and by the end of the last treatment I was completely pain free and feeling on top of the world.
I needed to find a new direction to move forward in, as being a remedial massage therapist is physically very demanding, and I still wanted to incorporate a physical therapy into my career, so I investigated becoming a Bowen therapist as I had seen the results firsthand of how effective the treatment was, when nothing else was successful in treating my injuries, and how gentle it was on both the client and the practitioner. The more I learned, the more it all ‘made sense’ and the more I fell in love with this amazing, gentle, yet powerfully effective therapy. My passion led me to learn as much as I could, and my successes in my clinic fuelled my passion even further, so I decided I wanted to share the knowledge of Bowen Therapy with others and began my journey to also become a Bowen Therapy instructor. By my mid-forties I had completely reinvented myself and had a successful new career, owning and operating my own business as a therapist and instructor, sharing the knowledge and techniques of the therapy that literally changed and saved my life.
Phone for an appointment: 0475 840 541
Jacq Koloski
Gerard Bini
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