Feeling my Body Again

​If you've heard of Bowen Therapy, but aren't sure what it involves, this blog (written by one of my clients) provides a great introduction. Whether you are a practitioner or recipient of Bowen, or new to the whole thing - Polly's story proves that Bowen is for everyone. 
Read on for her unique insight as an active woman in a sedentary job and how working with me helped her to achieve her wellness goals.


Feeling my body again


I first started my five session-package with Barbara at Barbara Swiatkiwsky Bowen and Massage in West Preston when I’d just started working two desk jobs and was working long hours with little movement.


My body tends to be OK at healing and loosening itself if I’m moving a little every day - even if it’s just a walk to the tram or a short morning yoga session at home. But put me at a desk for 1-2 hours at a time, and boy, do I cramp up. It’s been bad enough at times that I’ve suffered neuralgia and been woken with shooting pains through my neck, arms and legs. Not very fun.


The difference Barbara made to my body was both immediate - freeing up movement, breathing and posture within hours of treatment - and long-lasting.


For me at least, Bowen therapy has been a pretty magical discovery


With a long-term history of muscle-cramping and tightness, plus life-long asthma - which has been tested by specialists I must add, and no underlying structural cause has been found - I’ve seen a whole range of therapists over the years.


For me it’s partly about Barbara’s gentle and thoughtful style, making sure the environment is comfortable for you from the moment you walk in the door. But more than that, Barbara is a really skilled therapist in Bowen. And Bowen seems to be able to get at muscles and tissue that have been hurting me for years, in a way that other therapies have not, and in a way that also - very importantly - does not do other damage.

Session 1

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In the first session we worked on my upper body, which was tense and becoming painful again. I walked out of the 2nd session elated: I could breath, the pain was gone. I wrote: 


My whole neck and shoulders feel completely freed up. I've never felt anything like it. From uncomfortably and mildly painful and incredibly tight and on the verge of a bad headache, to just free. I can breath easily. Blood is flowing to my head. And I can move so well. Thank you.


This began a journey: to paying more attention to my body again.


More than freeing me up from pain and immobility, I found I wanted to keep this up. I returned to morning yoga - which, let’s be real, wasn’t everyday, but was at least a few days a week again. I began to stretch regularly at work.


One of my jobs is at a call centre. At first people stared. Now people around me smile and join me in stretching. Some even take calls standing up. I no longer leave work feeling like I’ve been chained to a desk. My posture is also more natural - and I notice when I don’t correct it.


The thing I’ve loved most about Bowen has been the total experience.


Bowen works with the body and not against it.


Some of the sessions have been painful, but only briefly, only when I’m prepared for it, only when I choose to go there, and only under the constant guidance and advice of Barbara. I never feel like I don’t know what’s happening to me.


Mostly my sessions have felt like gentle tweaks, and I’m left for a few minutes on the table wondering if anything has actually changed. Until it does. And it’s beautiful.


I love the description Barbara gives, because it’s how it feels: ‘it’s about remind the body of how it should be aligned. Because it already knows, it’s just forgotten’.


Our bodies are not designed to be immobile for hours. 


Yet our work and all the other socially imposed constraints on us, often require this of us.


Bowen certainly can’t cure this. But what it has done for me is help me reconnect with this, to listen to my body, and make sure I find ways to move it, everyday, even while sitting at a desk with a headset on. And for this, I’m really grateful.

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