A Tale of Two Bowen Techniques

In our little corner of the world, two very different Bowen Techniques arose in two different industries. One changed an industry, its inventor celebrated internationally, the other was widely debunked. Yet they had a surprising amount in common…

If you’ve ever suffered from recurrent back or neck pain, perhaps one of the therapies you’ve sought out is the Bowen Technique, usually practiced by osteopaths. Invented in Australia by the Australian, Thomas Bowen (1916–1982), it involves periods of gentle rolling and stretching massage, followed by rest periods intended to allow the musculoskeletal system to ‘reset’ itself.

Bowen made it hard for his own technique to become popular by never actually documenting it in writing and failing to formally train anyone else. Instead, a few other osteopaths who had watched him working adapted his technique for their own purposes and variations on the technique are now practised worldwide.

Tom Bowen died largely unrecognised for his work — he was even unsuccessful when he applied to be included on the Australian register of osteopaths.

But you’d be wrong to think it was the only Bowen Technique from this corner of the world.

While Tom Bowen‘s Bowen Technique never really took off’, around the same time and just over the ditch in NZ, young Godfrey Bowen (1922–1994) was making a sensation of himself in the international sheep farming community.