|
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 |
JUST SKIN STRETCH? It is good to ask why things are done in a certain way. It’s good to know if a technique has an immediate functional purpose, rather than being mostly a tradition, habit or personal quirk. For example, why do we use a holding point while performing a diaphragm release? The most common answer is something about “blocking the energy.” If we were speaking of kinetic energy in a physics sense, I’d want to hear more. But usually what’s called “energy” is an ill-defined metaphysical concept. Everybody nods knowingly, but does this actually explain anything, or rather stop all meaningful investigation? The esteemed martial artist, Morihei Ueshiba’s explanations of his power leaned towards the mystical, including references to being filled with a purple mist. Those students who tried mightily to fill themselves with this mist didn’t learn nearly as well as those who stopped listening in favor of observing what the man was actually doing. I have no beef with the concept of energy — it’s just as real (or unreal) as matter, space and time. It’s just not very descriptive. Instead, I long for the physiological, or (in the case of Bowen) osteopathic foundation behind the moves. Dr. Kevin Ryan once referred to Mr. Bowen’s work as a “skin-stretch” technique. At the time that seemed a rather mundane summation of an elegant, inspired body of work. But it turns out, skin stretching has quite a history of use and usefulness. Of course this includes the superficial fascia along with the skin layers, and by extension, all of the deeper layers of fascia ‘underpinning’ the surface. A simple exemplar of skin stretch is the humble pressure point — acupoint, trigger point, almost any will do. Instead of needling, elbowing, or other approaches, try this: place a finger on either side of the point and gently traction apart. If your tug is appropriate, the skin will gradually stretch a bit, and the point will release; the telltale dimple acupuncturists reference will flatten out, the muscle spindle ‘kernel’ will stop firing, etc. One older osteopathic approach to visceral work involves a dynamic skin stretch. This technique was designed to release adhesions between organs and surrounding tissues. It is enthusiastically referred to as “bloodless surgery.” Hold a couple of fingers, with moderate pressure, over a suspected fixation point. Attach your other hand to the skin some several inches away. After a brief windup, the second hand snaps vigorously at a right angle to the line between the two points, detaching the adhesion or, we could say, abheringit. Seems a bit crude in application. But can you see a similar principle in the more subtle Bowen approach? The first hand ‘pins’ and stabilizes the diaphragmatic fascia at a very crucial junction, to provide strategic resistance, or drag, to the action of the infra-costal moves. Or looking in reverse, the stationary fingers divert the effect of the rib moves up into diaphragm tissues, which would not be directly accessible otherwise. After all, Bowen moves on the abdomen don’t have the backing of underlying bone as they do elsewhere on the body, unless you press deeply enough to feel the spine(!). That finger below the xyphoid is the fulcrum to your fascial leverage. Understand the physical, mechanical dynamics, however subtle, and the energy takes care of itself. |
|
U.S. Bowen |