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Holistic Living
Tissue Memory and Bowenwork
by Karin Twohig
The concept of tissue memory says that the body’s cells have the ability to retain memories of trauma. These memories include the emotional environment at the time of the trauma and are explicitly stored in the tissue, not the central nervous system.
Imagine a person who, in the moment preceding an auto collision, becomes fearful in anticipation of the imminent impact. It would not be unusual for this person to re-experience that fear when being “treated” in the area that was physically hurt in the accident—even years later. This may explain why people receiving organ transplants can have vivid dreams about events that happened to the donor.
When a person is injured physically or emotionally, there is a force that enters the body. If the body is not able to dissipate the energy of the physical injury or the emotional impact, it will consequently retain it. In an effort to minimize the disruption to the body, the foreign energy is walled off, creating an “energy cyst,” a term coined by Dr. Elmer Green, Director of the Karl Menninger Institute of Psychiatry.
Chaos does not blend well with the body’s energy system and additional energy input is required to contain the energy cyst. Energetic disturbances can lead to compensations that inhibit normal bodily functions, even causing acute or chronic pain.
There is now indisputable evidence that an electro-magnetic field exists within and around the body. Scientists who study biophysics and cell biology recognize a highly sophisticated and interconnected energetic continuum, called a cellular matrix or living matrix. Dr. James L. Oschman, author of Energy Medicine: The Scientific Basis, has been researching the human body as an energetic system for more than 15 years. He acknowledges that the living matrix not only communicates within and outside the system, but stores information known as tissue memory.
The living matrix gives the body its overall shape and features, defining the form of each organ, tissue, and cell and extending into every part of the organism. In terms of bodywork and biomedicine, the most exciting property of the living matrix is the ability of the entire network to generate and conduct vibrations. The totality of these vibrations is what we refer to as “consciousness.” The living matrix retains a record or memory of the influences that have been exerted upon it. When vibrations pass through the tissue, they are altered by the stored information. In this way, our consciousness and our choices are influenced by memories accumulated in soft tissue.
The living matrix has the ability to regenerate or restore itself through the same system and Bowenwork, among other forms of bodywork, facilitates this process. The Bowenwork practitioner’s precise, systematic and intentional application of gentle pressure to tissue has structural and emotional consequences through the release of both stored memories and toxic substances. The Bowen move, genius in its simplicity, causes a buildup of piezoelectric charge, with a subsequent discharge into the tissues being manipulated, thus setting the process in motion. These gentle moves tend to be very powerful when performed on areas where there is an overlap of layers of fascia. What is needed is just enough pressure so that the body does not resist and therefore inhibit the response.
The release created by a Bowen move produces a type of wave that travels through the body, known as a soliton. The most well known soliton is a tsunami. What makes these waves unique is that they carry large amounts of energy through the medium of water over long distances without the loss of energy. The fact that our bodies are at least 75 percent fluid indicates the high potential for the effectiveness of Bowenwork. Bowen moves seem to soften scar tissue and unfreeze stagnant areas of tissue, a likely result of the strong energetic effect of the waves traveling through the body.
Our goal as Bowen therapists is to restore structural integrity in the body in order to reestablish its optimum function, which can be achieved by helping the body to release the energetic disturbance so that it can restore the energy field and heal itself. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, “life energy” or “chi” must flow freely throughout the body in order to assure a state of maximum health.
Tom Bowen, who developed Bowenwork in Australia about 40 years ago, discovered a system of mobilization to rebalance the natural flow of energy. He acknowledged this as a “gift from God.”
With 26 years of experience in the healing arts, Karin Twohig is a Bowen Practitioner and Instructor and owner of the Bowenwork School & Center in Carmel, CA. Learn this unique Australian Healing System by visiting www.bowenworkschool.com or calling 831.238.2228. Classes are approved for 14 National Certification Credit hours per module. Visit the international website at www.bowtech.com.