Making Space for Change (in Art and in Bowen)

When I started practising meditation I had two questions for myself.

The first was why can’t I sit still?

And the second  was how can I make any decisions if I can’t sit still?

Michael Stone You Can’t Make a Person a Buddha ,Awake in the World Podcast, 11th October 2024

So people ask me all the time…why do Bowen therapists take breaks and leave the room during  treatments? What is this about and what difference does it make in terms of the therapeutic outcomes? Well…. as many of  know by now, I love a good analogy and here is another comparison of experiences that might make this aspect of Bowen Therapy easier to understand.

In August this year I was on holiday in my beloved Rhodes, and much to the skepticism, even concern, of many of my friends, I decided not to take any reading material. Well, I say no reading; I took a small yoga book by Michael Stone to support my morning meditation practise. I admit I was nervous about this lack of books; normally I spend my holidays gobbling up novels and enjoying the luxury of long reading stints on the sun lounger during the day. It makes such welcome change to the 5-10 pages I just about manage at home in the evenings before I start nodding off to sleep.

My reason for this break from written stimulation was that I feel as if I never have enough time or the space in my head to evaluate and more importantly re-evaluate where I am, where my values lie, what my priorities are, what is really important to me and if any of this aligns with what I’m actually doing day to day. I am always so busy trying to know more, read more, attend to my job, engage in further training, see to those never ending domestic tasks, fulfil my artwork ambitions, be available for family and friends, look after the dog, MOT the car…. that there is no room to consider and/or re-consider how I am positioning myself, to see if my perspective on things has altered and/or make even small readjustments or changes.  It follows that as I stuff my life with all this ‘important’ business l can continue to suppress and feed all those fears which say I am a fraud, not doing enough, not smart enough, not kind enough, not making enough of a difference, etc. etc.

We all know those feelings don’t we? I don’t think I am alone when I admit to these anxieties and fears of failure, worthlessness and incompetence?

Anyway….. back to my holiday. Billy and I were away for 2 weeks and it took quite a few days to settle out of Nervous Nelly mode. The heat and the sea swimming always do a great job of helping me unwind, but even still, it took to the end of the first week to really collect myself and drop into that space where I felt comfortable having nothing to do, nowhere else to be and, God forbid, felt languorous. (I mean, who wouldn’t want to feel languorous?). As the days went on I felt my head clear, like coming out of a sinus cold, until one afternoon I experienced this incredible sense of weightlessness across my forehead and in my thoughts, as if a door had opened up into an empty room. Back at home, if any sign of space opens up it’s got about 5 seconds before I fill it with a new project or idea, relationship, information, judgements and/or comparison of some sort. However, there, on Ellie Beach, I had the time, inclination and awareness  to resist this tendency, to allow myself to sit inside that empty room without any expectation and see what arose. Interestingly, what came to me was not some revelation or answer to my anxieties or frustrations but rather, a new series of questions and consequently the opportunity to change the goal posts/territory in which I see, feel, think, move and make decisions.*

So…back to Bowen and the reason why we insist on leaving our client in the room on their own.  How on earth does this relate to me zoning out on the beach in Greece? Well, one of the primary aims of Bowen Therapy is to help restore homeostasis and optimal function within all the various systems of the body. In order for this to happen we need to create the conditions and space for those changes to occur. Pat Carvill, a now retired GP and Bowen Therapist in Lancaster used to refer to the body as a musical instrument and a Bowen treatment as a re-tuning of it’s strings. Whilst the Bowen moves themselves quieten the nervous system, and release tension in various stress loaded areas of the body,  those moves also need time ‘play out’. I have clients experience sensations of heat, pulsing, fizzing, shuddering, tingling, swirling and unwinding (to name a few) during those breaks. And it’s better if all this gets to happen without any interference from us.  As  therapists it is our job is to get out of the way of this process and trust that our client’s bodies, with our assisted and skilled touch, is capable of discovering new avenues, currents, pathways and directions that will, in turn, enable it to heal itself.

When we leave the room there is an opportunity for the body to let its guard down, become curious and ask itself, what do I need, what can I  let go of, re-position, re-arrange to make things function more effectively? Is it a fuller breath, or a loosening of the left hamstring to release the sciatic nerve? Do my bowels need emptying or the hormones an opportunity to adjust  and re-balance the menstrual cycle?. Then again, is it a quietening of the adrenals or a re-alignment of the jaw that is required?

This is another reason why we like to take 5-10 days between treatments. Whilst many of the changes are set up and begin on the treatment couch they often need a little longer to get around and embed themselves through the whole body and effect really long term change. Look at me in Rhodes…it took a week for me to stop fidgeting and resisting deep relaxation! Imagine the time needed for a lifetime of postural habits!

So there we go. I hope this has helped you understand the importance of the breaks in Bowen treatments and the reason for them. I also hope it will add qualitatively to your next Bowen session, help you explain Bowen to your friends and family and encourage more people to try this wonderful therapy!

Thats all for now folks.

See you on the beach!!

*For those of you who are interested the questions that arose on my holiday they were as follows:

1. What are the activities and attitudes that provide me with a sense of connection, hope, love, happiness, inspiration, strength, support, stability, intimacy, confidence and purpose?

2. What have I done today that has fulfilled some aspect of the feelings listed in the question above?

3. In what ways can I leave things in a better place than when I arrived? If this is not possible in what way can I NOT leave them in a worse position.

4. What made me feel uncomfortable, insecure, hopeless, anxious today and how would I approach things differently the next time to create a more positive outcome for myself and those around me?