|
Are You a Natural Healer? What is Neural Touch? How does it work? Elements of Neural Touch Martial Arts? Can Neural Touch help me? How did it begin? About Gene Dobkin Seminars Student Comments For Clients For Students For Coordinators Bowen Books Bowen Bridge™ Articles Links Contact Us Home |
“Geno’s Law” This is not a new Bowen technique. Geno’s Law is a principle I recognized early in my massage training, many years before learning Bowen. I harped on this principle so often to massage students that they began to jokingly call it my “Law”. Of course, this is not a law in the sense of a procedural rule. It’s more akin to a law of neurology, like the stretch reflex, etc. This is a cause-and-effect relationship, which when invoked will make your work more effective. Geno’s law reads as follows: Why is this so? Let’s say you’ve snuggled down in your sleeping bag while camping. It’s late, you’re drowsy, and yet there’s this pesky, one-inch, round-ish pebble poking you from underneath. Too tired to get up, you adapt your position, relax ‘around’ the darn thing and decide to make the best of it. Your tissues are still sustaining a passive pressure of, say, one kilo. My contention is that if somebody else actively inflicted a pressure of one kilo into a one-inch spot of your back you would seriously tense up, and insist they stop. It’s about control, and about perception of harm. An application example for Bowen — Many therapists find it tricky to get a good, resonant plop on the mid-neck Trapesius muscle. You don’t want to force it, repeat endlessly, or just hope or imagine that the muscle has moved. Here’s how to use Geno’s Law: 1. [for the left side of the neck] – Using your left hand, gently roll her head to the left. Keep that hand resting gently on or above the forehead. 2. With your right hand reach under her neck from the right side. Your right wrist and forearm should lay straight out to the right, not nestled against her head. 3. Orient your fingertips by the spinous processes, and then reach that little bit further to the crest of the left Trapesius muscle. 4. Push the skin slack laterally, gently pull a challenge into the muscle medially, and then stop. The back of your wrist can now rest comfortably on the table. 5. After a pause, use your left hand to roll her head back to neutral, or even facing a little to the right. Your right hand might not remain totally passive during this, but it needn’t do much; mostly just hold in position and keep a constant skin contact while the muscle plops itself across your fingers. Reverse this whole procedure for the right side of the neck. Want an even better result? Make the movement active. Instruct her when to turn her head left and then right. She will instinctively calibrate the moves to exactly the pressure and speed her nervous system desires — better than the most talented therapist could calculate. There are many potential applications for this in a Bowen session. These are often requested and played with in the Bowen Bridge™ class. But just by knowing the principle you can surely work some out for yourself. As part of the “art” portion of the Art and Science of Bowen, there has to be some room for playfulness. Wait, is that another law? Gene Dobkin This article is reprinted with permission from In Touch, Journal of the Bowen Therapists’ European Registry. |
|
U.S. Bowen |