HISTORY OF THE BOWEN TECHNIQUE

The Bowen Technique is an original system of gentle but powerful soft tissue mobilization that affects the body both structurally and energetically to restore its self healing mechanisms. It is painless, non invasive and safe to use on anyone from the newborn to the elderly and provides lasting relief from a wide variety of acute or chronic conditions .

Developed in Australia by the late Tom  Bowen (1916-1982), a very intuitive, gifted and self taught healer, who devoted a lifetime to develop his original technique independently from any medical or bodywork background. In 1958 he was working at the Geelong cement factory when an accidental encounter started his reputation as a healer, which quickly outgrew his immediate work environment, to the point that in 1959 at the age of 43, he began a full time practice in "remedial therapy", practicing what he called "soft tissue manipulation". He ran an extremely busy clinic in Geelong, Victoria. In 1973 he was interviewed by the Osteopathic, Chiropractic and Naturopathic Committee (Victorian Parliament), where he stated under oath that he treated about 280 patients per week with the help of a receptionist and an assistant. Reporting that he never advertised but just relying on word of mouth, he estimated modestly his own success rate to be about 88 %,  and claimed that he could sense minute vibrations in the soft tissues and that the tension in the muscles helped him find the precise places to mobilize. By 197, he was seeing 13.000 patients a year!!! (documented by the Victorian Government Webb report over a 27 weeks period ). Considering that treatments were usually 7 days apart and that most people only needed 2 to 3 visits, that was a amazing number of clients per year for a one man clinic. Tom Bowen allowed only a few therapists to come learn from him. In 1974  he met one of them, Oswald Rentsch , a natural therapist practicing massage and osteopathy. Over the next two and a half years he became one of Tom Bowen's apprentice and scribe, documenting his treatment protocols, as Bowen had never recorded his work. He started using Bowen's original technique in Hamilton where he and his wife Elaine ran their own clinic. Tom Bowen in his later years lost his legs to diabetes, but kept on treating his patients from his wheelchair and continued to refine his technique. It was not until Bowen's death that the Rentsches started teaching what was going to be known as the Bowen Technique. By 1990 they were teaching full time, and introduced the Bowen technique throughout Australia and New Zealand, then North America and the United Kindom. Their goal has been to pass on to students the original techniques used by Tom Bowen at his clinic.

Because the technique is so effective, it has been embraced by a broad spectrum of health practitioners and patients and its reputation has spread pretty much world wide.