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Bowen History

Tom Bowen

Tom Bowen 1916-1982

The Bowen technique is named after Tom Ambrose Bowen (1916 – 1982), who opened his first clinic in the 1960’s after doing bodywork for some time on friends and local people in Geelong, Australia. Although Tom Bowen didn’t have formal medical training and didn’t qualify for the Australian register of osteopaths, he gradually developed the bodywork technique which later became known as Bowen Therapy or the Bowen technique. According to a 1975 Australian government report, Bowen treated 1000’s of patients a year, with an 80 percent success rate in symptoms that were associated with a wide range of conditions.

Several osteopaths studied with Tom Bowen and continued his work, including the famous osteopath, Oswald Rentsch, who was given permission to teach Tom’s work after his death. Because Bowen did not document his technique, there are now several different interpretations of his work being practiced by those who studied with him and their students. Over the last few decades, Bowen Therapy has become very well known in Australia and its popularity is spreading at an astonishing speed throughout the world, with over 25 000 practitioners worldwide. It is used by osteopaths, sports therapists, physiotherapists and natural healing therapists and is now taught on university courses in Australia.