Bowen Mythology

Many famous people find themselves surrounded by speculation and fanciful stories. This is in fact the stuff that notariety is made of. Add to this the fact that Tom Bowen was a very private man (and, some say, a bit of a rascal), and that he died before most of us got to meet him, and there's plenty of room for his personal "mythology" to sprout wings.

Even as seemingly innocent and straightforward data as his age and background were misrepresented, undoubtedly innocently, for many years. Early students of Bowen Technique were confidently told that Mr. Bowen was born in 1904, that he served in the military, returned to school for a science degree, and was working as an industrial chemist at the time of an encounter that showed his healing powers. Actually, born in 1916, Tom saw no military service, had no higher education and was working as a carpenter in the Geelong Cement Works when he began his therapeutic career.

There are other persistent myths. We don't have written proof of all of these corrections. But since the orthodox stance is so widespread they do deserve to be aired. It is up to the reader to decide which is a more reasonable version of the story of this remarkable man:

• He had set ideas on how to treat specific ailments with corresponding specific procedures. The reason Tom Bowen was denied grandfathering into the osteopathic profession was precisely that he refused to even pretend to operate this way for the benefit of the examiners. As his true osteopathic forebearers, he depended on diagonsis of each individual case.

• He regularly used the stock therapeutic procedures attributed to him. Simple arithmetic belies this notion. In testimony before the same examining board he explained that he saw as many as 100 patients per day, by himself, using one to two treatment rooms. This leaves, generously, three to five minutes per patient, including "cooking" time. Just performing the commonly taught basic three or four procedures, with mandatory waits, takes at least twenty to twenty-five minutes. And this is before addressing specific complaints. Those close to Mr. Bowen have admitted, at least privately, that he did only five to ten moves on a large percentage of patients.

• His work was purely from inspiration, uniquely apart from other therapeutic traditions. Mr. Bowen worked with Ernie Saunders, a fellow sports coaching enthusiast. He admitted to studying osteopathic texts. He leaned from his students, who were also students of chiropractic, osteopathy, and massage. He learned the famous "frozen shoulder" routine from Rene Horwood (according to Mrs. Horwood herself).

• He was adamently against the mixing of modalities. According to Rene Horwood, when Tom was presented with particularly athletic or muscular patients he would have her massage them for ten to fifteen minutes to soften them up before he went to work.

• He refused to let his work be taught before his death. According to Romney Smeeton, there was a chiropractor who after a short time observing Mr. Bowen's work, proceeded to teach elements of it to other chiropractors, with Tom's knowledge and approval.

• He had a favored successor. At best, deathbed scenes are problematic. Regardless, there is nothing that indicates he wanted only one student to represent him. At least a few of his students took copious notes and interpreted the work according to their practical and educational experience.

• He insisted on the use of beds instead of tables, because this doubled the therapeutic result. Tom Bowen began his practice in Rene Horwood's bedroom where there was, not surprisingly a bed. Over the course of thousands of sessions, one could imagine how this could have contributed, along with the progress of his diabetes, to the damage to his legs. Somewhere around 1980 he visited Romney Smeeton's office and saw the hi-low hydraulic tables Romney was using. He thought they were the best thing he'd seen and asked Romney to get a couple for him. This is what he used for the rest of his therapeutic career. If any patients complained about his treatments now being half as effective as before, it has not been recorded anywhere.

• Modern students of the art cannot be expected to understand assessment, therefore only they should only be taught to correctly repeat procedures. It may well be that only the rare individual could duplicate Tom Bowen's facility with reading the body. But he shouldn't be elevated to godlike status, and students needn't be intimidated by comparison. Rather than no way to evaluate clients and know what to do next, there are actually too many ways. The main hurdle involved is learning which ways are most compatible with each indidvidual practitioner. It can be scary stepping outside of safe, programmed behaviour, but the rewards a too great not to risk it.