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There is more than one teaching organisation,
why is that?
Before 1992 there were only two people in the
UK who practiced The Bowen Technique and no-one teaching it. In
1994 Julian Baker and The Bowen Technique were featured in an article
in the Daily Mail, which effectively launched Bowen in the UK. Julian
and his wife Louise Atwill responded to the five thousand letters
that flooded in over the next six weeks. As a result of their efforts
and in partnership with Ossie and Elaine Rentsch, the technique
became hugely successful in a very short space of time.
In 1998 Julian and Louise were keen to increase
the standards and re-organise the training of the technique in the
UK. Ossie and Elaine were seemingly unhappy with these changes,
but were apparently unable to offer any alternatives or suggestions.
Instead they broke away and formed another organisation, something
which Julian and Louise had worked hard to prevent and had dearly
hoped would not happen. After legal action from the Rentsches, Julian
and Louise changed the name of their organisation to the European
College of Bowen Studies (ECBS). They also set up and handed over
BTER, an entirely separate therapists organisation from ECBS which
today represents over four hundred Bowen therapists and students.
Ossie and Elaine Rentsch make many emotional claims
to the originality of their work, calling it the original Bowen
technique. This is of course no more possible than one can have
original water. The Bowen Technique is not a series of procedures,
but a system of bodywork. Tom Bowen told the six men he taught that
this was only 10% of what was possible, the rest was up to them
to find. Tom's students spent one morning a week with him and rarely
if ever met each other. Each saw a snap-shot of Tom's work, and
adapted it to their own training and experience.
The work taught by Bowtech and indeed ECBS is
this snap-shot but is by no means the entire technique or even close
to it. The possibilities for experimentation within Bowen are endless
and aren't limited to a set of original procedures or even advanced
procedures as in reality there is no such thing as either of these.
Ossie and Elaine have been big personalities for many years and
there can be little doubt as to the debt that is owed them for bringing
the work to the attention of the public, but sad that there has
been so much dissent around such an amazing set of principles.
As a set of three words, The Bowen Technique has
no title and can be taught by anyone who decides overnight to become
a teacher, which indeed some people teaching in the UK have done
in the past. It is for this reason that the ECBS teacher training
programme was established. The programme takes trainee teachers
through several hundred hours of training and supervised teaching,
to create a consistency, standard and level of teacher and student
support that is unequaled in the world of Bowen.
There are several people who having trained in
the technique, have set themselves up as teachers with several of
them changing the name of their techniques, but referring to it
as advanced Bowen. Again there is nothing to stop people from doing
this and we wish them luck, our major concern being maintaining
and improving the standards that we have set.
So do you teach something different?
Not at all. Most of the teachers in other Bowen
organisations (including Jock Ruddock, John Wilks, Michael Burgess,
Kenny Kilmurray, Jill Norfolk, Jocelin Tennent, Alastair McLoughlin
and Rick Minnery,) were all originally taught by Julian Baker after
1994. The work up up to advanced level is virtually identical in
every way and very little has been changed, except the method of
training and notes. The philosophy however is somewhat different
and the major way in which ECBS differs from other schools is the
method of the training modular training and the flexibility we provide,
enabling a choice of teachers.
That said we do offer much more in the way of
detailed explanation and understanding than many other organisations,
mainly due to our extensive work with primary health care professionals
and researchers
TOP
So why should I train with ECBS?
ECBS is Europe's most established and structured
Bowen training school, providing constant support and ongoing post
graduate training to the highest standard. Our teachers will all
be using the most up to date software and state of the are presentation
materials as part of their training. 3d graphics and clear anatomical
displays will illustrate all the procedures and make the understanding
of the technique easier.
In other methods of training, a large amount of
work is covered in four days, with subsequent individual days to
catch up. Julian Baker is Europe's most experienced Bowen teacher
and as such has devised a more user friendly method of training.
The first four days cover much less work and the subsequent two
day review then covers the initial four day work. The next level
adds on the more energetic procedures and another two day review
revises all the work covered in the previous modules. The final
practical and written examination brings together all the work and
set the student up for success as a qualified practitioner. We believe
that this design gives an exceptionally high standard of learning
without pressure.
ECBS trains all its teachers thoroughly before
allowing them to teach, believing that simply being a passable practitioner
does not make one qualified to teach. This teacher training approach
is unique to ECBS and takes several hundred hours of very comprehensive
course work. All teachers are fully insured and ECBS carries a cancellation
insurance scheme, ensuring that if you have to cancel at the last
minute due to an emergency, your full fees will be redeemable from
the insurance company.
In addition the notes used are very user friendly.
At the secondary level the student is given a unique step by step
photographic guide. With over 100 colour photographs, the procedures
taught are all featured, showing the position of the therapist,
the direction of the moves and the placement of the therapist's
hands. For a preview of the photo guide, (minus directional arrows)
click here
The ECBS office is staffed five days per week
to answer your calls and for technical questions all ECBS teachers
are available either on the phone or by e-mail. Support for students
is a key element of the ECBS programme and is one that draws a lot
of comments from students. ECBS is THE Bowen training organisation
in Europe and continues to lead the way in Bowen training.
TOP
Do you teach advanced work?
Yes we do, and this is where the work gets very
exciting. We teach what we consider to be the most complete approach
to Bowen and soft tissue therapy anywhere in the world. It has been
claimed in the past that Tom Bowen's work is complete and needs
no adding to. This to some people is sadly true, but at ECBS we
believe this is a very limiting approach as Tom Bowen had only really
just started to explore the principles of what he had discovered.
Julian Baker believes that there is much more
to advanced work than just more procedures and although dozens of
new procedures are covered, sets out to develop the practitioner
within the principles of the technique to discover how these procedures
are reached. Tom Bowen himself said that he was demonstrating only
10% of what he knew and clearly the work had only just begun when
Tom Bowen died, with the potential for growth and understanding
huge. The principles of The Bowen Technique allow for literally
millions of approaches. Bowen himself did not use a systematic approach,
but was able to 'see' what moves he needed to make and where. ECBS
introduces these elements of 'body reading' and an approach using
anatomical deduction and intuitive responses into the advanced work.
In addition over one hundred pages of further
procedures are now available, which highlight examples of this approach.
TOP
Are there other workshops that I can do
with ECBS
ECBS teachers themselves are a very talented bunch
with many skills in the field of therapy and these are extended
into further workshops available to all ECBS trained therapists.
These include
* Back Pain Aeteology and Management
* Bowen in Sports Injuries
* Shoulder Anatomy, Injury and Treatment
* The Structure of the Pelvis and Treatment
* Bowen in Pregnancy and Parenthood
* Bowen and Respiration, the Role of the Diaphragm
* Combining Homeopathy and Bowen
* Specialist Anatomy Cadaver Days
* Unlocking the Emotions; The Use of Bowen in Trauma, Stress and
Addiction
* Cranial and Facial Bowen
* Bowen and Core Stability
* Theory Plus Day
* Practice Management and Client Care
* The Role of the Intuitive in Bowen
ECBS are constantly looking to extend and build
on the range of courses available and look to constantly widen the
view of what The Bowen Technique can address.
TOP
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