The History of the Bowen Technique

Where did Bowen Technique Begin?

Who was Tom Bowen?

Born in 1916, Tom Bowen was the youngest child of William and Norah Bowen, who moved from Wolverhampton in the UK to Australia in 1910.

After serving in World War II, Tom Bowen became interested in finding out ways to relieve pain in the human body. He noticed that when he made certain movements on the body it responded in a positive way.

Tom Bowen spent years refining and developing the effectiveness of his newfound treatment through observation without any formal training from any medical field. Mr Bowen felt strongly that his treatment was a “gift from god”.

In 1957 Tom was working full time at a cement works and practicing his treatment by night. He would often work into the early hours, usually treating clients for free. Mr Bowen would often travel and make house calls to treat sick children and elderly people who could not travel to him.

Tom Bowen worked for many years in his evenings for free before he started accepting donations for his treatment.

As the popularity of the treatment grew, Tom Bowen was able to set up a full-time clinic in a retired medical practice.

It was not uncommon for Tom to treat 60-100 people per day at the clinic, always maintaining that children would receive free treatment.

During Tom’s career his care for children and attempts to improve the quality of life for people suffering from disabilities were always his number one priority.

How did the Bowen Technique grow?

As more people found out about the Bowen Technique, many people wanted to learn from Tom directly.

Tom officially recognised six men to have an active understanding of his work and enough knowledge to pass it on. Tom affectionally referred to these practitioners as his “boys”.

Keith Davis, Kevin Neave, Nigel Love, Oswald Rentsch, Romney Smeeton and Kevin Ryan would continue the growth of the Bowen Technique long after Tom Bowen passed away in 1982.

The College of Bowen Studies

In 1993, Julian Baker brought the Bowen Technique from Australia, and with the help of Isy Gabriel (Saunders) they set up the first Bowen training sessions in the UK.

Initially the training sessions were not universally popular, but after an article in the Daily Mail in 1994, Bowen was spectacularly launched on to the British psyche and the phenomenon that was Bowen in the UK was born.

Since then thousands of people have discovered the power of Bowen and have had their lives transformed by treatment and training.

The Bowen Technique’s understanding of what we do with a light touch and why breaks are so important have grown, and the nature of the connective tissue known as fascia has become much more widely understood.

Colin Murray and Jo Wortley joined CBS as Directors and Shareholders in 2019.  Julian Baker resigned from CBS in 2023, leaving Colin and Jo to continue with the running of the college.

The College has undergone many changes over the years, but the underlying belief that Bowen is a powerful and transformational tool, easy to learn, and simple to apply has been at the core of its being.