Training to be a Bowen Therapist.

There are two organisations that carry out training in the UK, the European Centre for Bowen Studies, (ECBS), and the Bowen Association of Australia, (ECBS being a spin-off from the latter.)

Each follows the same principles of training.

Both organisations have qualified and approved tutors in the UK.

Tutors advertise courses at various locations in the UK, the full course consists of an initial 3 day workshop, and four or five other workshops building up to a five day final assessment by the Principle of the organisation after about a year. This assessment checks individual techniques, has a written test, and a critique of the case studies.

The ECBS, course took about a year, cost about £1200.00, including meals and mileage of about a thousand miles.

There were seven of us on the course, all, bar myself, were associated one way or another with medical matters. I found the group very supportive, non-competitive and highly tolerant of my initial fumblings. My biggest asset was in being able to sketch the moves shortly after they had been demonstrated. A great aid to memory, and in demand by other practitioners ever since. (Published as “A Therapists Notebook”.)

After the introductory four-day course we were able to treat friends and relatives who had muscle/skeletal problems, and these formed the first ten of our twenty case studies. (These are the ones with the ‘19’ prefix in my case notes.)

The near incredible thing was the way that the Bowen Therapy relieved problems in the training sessions, and mind boggling in its simplicity. For example, I was unable to fully raise my left arm, the Tutor did six simple moves in about 15 seconds, and voila! I was able to lift my arm to its full extent without any pain.

It was standard practice to demonstrate the moves on one of the trainees having the problem that the moves were designed to help, invariably with immediate results. (I often treat people in my local pub by just doing the specific moves for their problem as against whole body balancing as a precursor.)

There is very little medical expertise required, though it is an advantage to know the names and whereabouts of the main bones and muscles, also the description of the view of the parts of the body, anterior, superior, medial, lateral etc.. There is an illustrated manual provided by the Tutors.

My journey into Bowen Therapy started when the Guardian Newspaper carried a survey on various alternative therapies. I sent off for information to the head offices of each organisation, and out of all of them the Bowen Therapy appealed most to my engineering, and necessarily logical mind, and with my wife’s encouragement enrolled with ECBS. (I did not know of the existence of the Bowen Association of Australia at the time.)Training as a Bowen Therapist was one of the best things that I have done. It has transformed my attitude to life, it has made me feel confident in self-healing and in helping others. It is empowering and life changing, factors often apparent in other people when they have been treated with Bowen Therapy.

Roy Wilson Cert. ECBS.