THE LIFE OF TOM BOWEN
by Deni Larimore Albrecht and Heather Edmonds

Bowen Therapy is a non-invasive therapeutic bodywork system which employs cross-fiber muscle movements throughout the body. Clients lie on a treatment table and remain clothed as these "moves" are carried out over a period of about 45-60 minutes. Short waiting periods are incorporated into the session, allowing the brain time to assimilate, correlate and create a positive response, which is sent back to the area being treated. When these "moves" are placed in a precise manner across muscle and connective tissue, they create a deep sense of relaxation, relieving the pain and stress from a multitude of physical ailments. This response of the autonomic nervous system has been verified as extremely effective in a high percentage of clients in clinical testing.

We were very fortunate to establish contact with Pam Trigg and Heather Edmonds, daughters of Tom and Jessie Bowen. Both women live in Australia with their families and also have a brother, Barry, who currently lives in the US. I wish to thank both for their kind words and generosity, and I sympathize with them regarding the outpouring of incorrect information about their father.

What follows is a brief history derived from the knowledge I have gained over the past 15 years, as well as daughter Heather's recollections of her father's life.

Tom Bowen was born April 18, 1916, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Finishing school at approximately age 15, he later married Jessie MacLean in 1941, and the couple had three children. As was common in Australia during that period of time, Tom was employed in a series of laboring jobs, eventually settling in at the Geelong Cement Works .

Early on, Tom developed an interest in massage and bodywork, observing football trainers, and volunteering his service with the local clubs (Australian football is similar to soccer, only using a football and very little padding).

The following is from Heather's writing:

"When I was growing up we didn't really get involved with what dad did. As far as I was concerned, as a child of about 5 or 6, he worked as a general hand at the Geelong Cement Works. But he also did something else because he used to come home and have tea (or dinner as we call it) and then dress up in good pants, and shirt and tie, and he would disappear at about 6:30 - 7pm; I would not see him again until next morning. As you can imagine, as a small child what he did was a mystery, and I didn't really understand until I was much older. (This would have been in the late 1950's.) Dad had a friend at the cement works, named Stan Horwood, who knew somehow that dad had a special gift, as he used to help the men at the cement works if they got hurt. Also, at this time, dad used to meet with a group of men in an outer Melbourne suburb, called Footscray, and they used to talk about muscular problems of the body. It appears that dad knew far more than this group of 3 men, and stopped visiting them, and just developed things on his own. It was Stan who convinced dad he should do something with this gift and offered him the use of a front room at his house in which he could treat people away from the work site. After Stan died, this practice continued until it became so big that he had to move, and so the decision was made that he do this work full time. Our mother was never one to take risks and she was a bit apprehensive, but as they say, the rest is history. This is my understanding of how it all got started."

The wife of Stan Horwood, Rene, had secretarial skills, and while he worked in their house, helped Tom with the administration of the business. When he moved into a larger facility, she came along to continue in the same capacity. Rene assisted Tom with patients from time to time, when a client had a particular problem which needed more than two hands.

Tom Bowen began a full-time practice in the late 1950's. He called himself an osteopath (an unregulated profession at the time) and practiced what he called "soft tissue manipulation". In 1973, in an interview by the Osteopathy, Chiropractic and Naturopathic committee of the Victorian Parliament, Tom stated under oath that he had treated about 280 patients per week, with an assistant and a receptionist.

Tom was a very generous man with his time. He often treated people for ‘no charge'. If people were in dire financial trouble, there would be ‘no charge' and he would often say ‘pay when you can'. Tom ran a free Saturday evening clinic for people who had injured themselves playing sports during the day, and this applied in particular to those who played football and cricket. Establishing a special clinic every Saturday morning for physically disabled children, Tom was known to these children as ‘Uncle Tom'. On Christmas Day, he would also visit them before spending the day with his own children.

Probably because he was so busy, Tom didn't write down any of his technique or philosophy. From time to time, he would take on an associate, working as an unpaid assistant one day of the week, to follow him and watch as he worked. By all accounts, there were six men who were called "his boys", and all had different backgrounds; osteopathic, massage therapist, chiropractor, etc.. There were several other practitioners who came and went over time, but if Tom did not think that they had the understanding for his work, he would advise them to leave. Tom left it to each of these men to take their own notes, and formulate their own ideas about what he was doing. Partly because of this, there are varying ideas regarding Tom Bowen's work. However, there is no question that the philosophy and procedures which have been handed down affect the body in miraculous ways.

Because Bowen had strong convictions regarding quality control, he noticed there seemed to be a large number of improperly trained practitioners calling themselves everything from chiropractors to osteopaths. He felt these credentials were too easy to get, and volunteered to go through relevant examinations, so as to get registered. However, Tom never received registration as an osteopath, as the Board felt his methods were too radical, and yet today, his methods are taught in Australia at University level to final year Osteopathic students.
Bowen possessed a gift for healing. His quest for knowledge about how the human body works never ceased, and he continued to improve his knowledge on textual matter from shiatsu to osteopathy, until shortly before his death. Tom realized that the key lie in opening up the body's energy pathways to allow it to begin the process of healing. In other words, the body is it's own best physician.

Tom Bowen died in 1982. Although I never met him, I want to personally thank this man for developing a healing modality that has given me a much greater quality of life than what was originally forecast. I am also grateful for one of his students, Ossie Rentsch, for teaching this school of thought to Milton Albrecht. Milton was my husband, and acquiring these skills gave him an occupation which changed our lives in a way neither of us ever dreamed possible. Tom and Milton are gone now, but both gave extremely significant and meaningful contributions to our knowledge regarding helping to heal the human body, and I am extremely grateful.

BOWEN THERAPY COMES
TO THE U.S.

Milton J. Albrecht was the first Bowen therapist certified outside of Australia, sponsoring the first Bowen seminar held in the U.S., in September, 1989. Becoming internationally well-known for his progressive interpretation of Tom Bowen's Australian modality, Albrecht filled the need for a U.S.-based Bowen therapy organization by founding Bowen Therapy International in 1997.

Up until his death on Jan. 14, 2003, Albrecht practiced exclusively Bowen therapy on over 75,000 individuals, treating all age groups, from newborns to the advanced frail and elderly. During this time, Albrecht observed how the body responds to Bowen therapy, and authored beginning through advanced instruction manuals which are currently in use by all Bowen Therapy International classes.

The goals of Bowen Therapy International are:

• To develop and promote the practice of a proper interpretation of Tom Bowen's original theories of body mechanics and energy flow.
• To establish and sustain an instruction program for practitioners and instructors of Bowen Therapy.
• To create an enforceable system of quality control for providers and instructors of Bowen Therapy through certification and registration.
• To organize and implement continuous research and development of Bowen Therapy.

I was first introduced to the Bowen Technique in January, 1989, while visiting Australia for my sisters wedding. As part of a sightseeing trip to the state of Victoria, my parents introduced me to their close friends Ossie and Elaine Rentsch, who owned a large sheep station outside of Hamilton. Ossie had previously trained with Tom Bowen in Geelong and gave me a treatment the first night we arrived. Since we had driven all day, the relaxation effects of the technique were readily evident. I had another treatment one week later (the day we left) and experienced zero jet lag a few weeks later after the 17-hour trip back to California. Ossie and I really hit it off and I offered my help in his upcoming endeavors to introduce Bowen instruction in the U.S.

Four months later, Ossie came to North America and my husband, Milton, and I did our best to introduce him around town (Auburn, CA). He only stayed with us overnight and then embarked across the continent to see if there was enough interest in coming back for seminars. Interestingly enough, I remember quite well a few hours before we left to take Ossie to meet his plane, he explained briefly, a Bowen treatment procedure to Milton while I was the guinea pig. Milt took rudimentary notes and made stick figure diagrams so he could try to alleviate some of my pain and disability. Over the next few months, he practiced on me weekly and I experienced amazing improvement in pain reduction, spasticity and other symptoms. (I have suffered from multiple sclerosis and Lyme disease since 1973) All this, and Milton was only working off of rough diagrams and memory!

In September, Ossie returned with his wife, Elaine, and we held the first Bowen Technique Seminar on the continent for five very interested but somewhat skeptical body workers.

Milt and I both attended the seminar and he took to it with amazing ability. After this three-day course, Milton J. Albrecht received the first certificate outside of Australia/New Zealand. He went to work practicing on anyone who would let him, and in December, quickly got his massage therapy license. Milt was a natural and he made believers of nearly everyone he worked on. (Fortunately, he has a big family with which to practice .)

Ossie and Elaine returned to give more seminars about twice a year, but it was pretty slow in the beginning. Milt and I tried to spread the word as best we could and largely as a result of Milt's treatments, interest in the seminars grew. Milt attended every seminar held here in Auburn and his ability to understand Tom Bowen's philosophy improved accordingly. Within about four years, Milt had a full practice and we both helped coordinate Bowtech (as Ossie now called it) seminars throughout the U.S. and Canada. When successive magazine articles ran in Massage and then Natural Health, we were inundated with mail from people inquiring where they could experience this impressive treatment. I formulated a list of Ossie's students throughout the country, and we used this as a referral list.

In 1994, Ossie asked Milton to serve as the first American instructor for Bowtech. Because Milton's practice was so busy and his success so impressive, he was becoming quite well-known around the country. For this reason, it was not difficult for Milt to fill up a seminar in any part of the country. He taught beginning classes in cities such as Detroit, Phoenix and Tampa. The Rentschs' then gave intermediate training several months later in each city. On a few occasions, Milton traveled with the Rentsch's and he and Ossie greatly enjoyed solving client problems together. There were other instructors also, but because of his thriving practice, and his excitement about the therapeutic value, Milton infected everyone he met with his evangelistic enthusiasm.

As 1997 began however, Bowtech began to experience growing pains and the issue of quality control became an obstacle to the organization's development. Mr. Bowen was a genius and even the most unskilled students realized good results. But if they did not understand the Bowen philosophy and have a good sense of the procedures, success was limited. I had spent several months in Australia two years before and (with Bowtech's permission) set up a well attended seminar taught by Milton. Specifically because he was treating so many people, Milt's name was becoming quite well-known and his treatments and seminars highly sought after. Like Tom Bowen before him, Milton J. Albrecht did no advertising and his name wasn't even listed in the local phone book. But word-of-mouth really is the best tool for promotion and there was no doubt about it, Milt got outstanding results with every person he treated. We dissolved our professional relationship with Bowtech in the summer and departed for Australia a few months later in an attempt to glean more background on the man who had given Milt and I so much.

According to our research in Australia, Tom Bowen never stopped developing procedures and examining his philosophy of how the body works. Maybe he realized others would learn his technique and through client contact, continue its maturation process. But whatever he had in mind, his philosophy speaks for itself. The first moves, which are done on the back, allow the body to relax and improve oxygen flow and circulation. Taken at it's most simplistic benefit, this is the platform from which healing can begin.

We created Bowen Therapy International to further the Milton J. Albrecht interpretation of Tom Bowen's work. Since its inception in late 1997, we have developed an executive summary which outlines how we hope to achieve our goals of making Bowen Therapy accessable to clients and instructors alike. We are embarking upon a seminar schedule aimed at healing -- professionals, but also open to those wishing to learn a modality which may give them new direction. In the fall of 1999, Milton filmed a segment on Bowen Therapy International for the Age of e television series on the Wisdom Channel. (Watch our Web page for more details.)

In short, this modality helps people feel better. Whether they are infants, aged, disabled or fantastically fit, this amazing healing treatment re-educates the body to function more efficiently, creating healing and well-being. This is the reason Bowen Therapy International exists today!