Fascial Dysfunction

Manual Therapy Approaches

Leon Chaitow

• Publisher: Handspring Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781909141940
• eBook ISBN: 9781909141957
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

Fascial dysfunction is now recognised as one of the main underlying causes of musculoskeletal pain leading to impaired and reduced mobility. These are the symptoms which confront all practitioners of manual therapy in their everyday practice.In this second edition of his very successful book, Leon Chaitow brings together contributions from 20 leading practitioners and researchers from many different fields of manual therapy. Fascial Dysfunction – Manual Therapy Approaches, Second Edition aims to help those practitioners to assess more precisely the dysfunction of their clients and its cause and to increase practitioner awareness of the various techniques which may help them in their attempts to alleviate their clients' problems.

New features of the Second edition include:

• Descriptions of new research evidence and its implications for practice:
  • The dependence of collagen health on a mixture of balanced internal and external tension
  • The importance of adequate hydration
  • The possible role of the telocyte
  • The importance of 'dosage' of therapies in management of fascial dysfunction
• New chapters on:
  • Gua Sha and cupping
  • Global postural re-education
  • Scar remodelling

The book is in two sections. Section I, written by Chaitow with a contribution by Tom Myers, presents a review of the current understanding of the function of fascia in the human body and describes what can go wrong – the causes and effects of fascial dysfunction and disease, and how to assess the problem and remove obstacles to the success of treatment.

Section II contains chapters by experts in different types of manual therapy including three by Chaitow. Each practitioner describes their own approach to the problem of assessing and treating fascial dysfunction and explains their specialist therapeutic approach. These approaches include: • Bowen Therapy • Connective Tissue Manipulation and Skin Rolling • Fascia oriented training applications in sports and movement therapy • The Fascial Manipulation® method applied to low back pain • Fascial Unwinding • Balanced Ligamentous Tension Technique • Gua sha (press-stroking) and Ba guan (cupping): traditional East Asian instrument- assisted manual therapies • Muscle Energy Techniques (MET) • Myofascial Induction Therapy (MIT®) • Neuromuscular Technique and associated Soft Tissue Manipulation Modalities • Positional Release Techniques – (including counterstrain) • Global Postural Re-education: Souchard Method • Rolfing® Structural Integration • Management of Scars and Adhesions • Manual Matrix Remodeling in myofascial injuries: scar modeling technique • Massage Therapy and Fascia • Trigger Point release methods including dry needling

SECTION II

Selected Fascial Modalities

CHAPTER 6 Bowen therapy

Kelly Clancy

CHAPTER 7 Connective tissue manipulation and skin rolling

Elizabeth A. Holey, John Dixon

CHAPTER 8 Use it or lose it: recommendations for fascia-oriented training applications in sports and movement therapy

Robert Schleip, Divo Gitta Müller

CHAPTER 9 The Fascial Manipulation® method applied to low back pain

Antonio Stecco, Stefano Casadei, Alessandro Pedrelli, Julie Ann Day, Carla Stecco

CHAPTER 10 Functional fascial treatment: fascial unwinding and balanced ligamentous tension technique

Paolo Tozzi

CHAPTER 11 Gua sha (press-stroking) and Ba guan (cupping): traditional East Asian instrument-assisted manual therapies

Arya Nielsen

CHAPTER 12 Muscle energy techniques

Leon Chaitow

CHAPTER 13 Myofascial Induction Therapy (MIT®)

Andrzej Pilat

CHAPTER 14 Neuromuscular technique (NMT) and associated soft tissue manipulation (neuromuscular) modalities

Leon Chaitow

CHAPTER 15 Positional release techniques (including counterstrain)

Leon Chaitow

CHAPTER 16 Rolfing® structural integration

Jonathan Martine

CHAPTER 17 Global Postural Re-education®: Souchard method

Emiliano Grossi

CHAPTER 18 Management of scars and adhesions

Willem Fourie

CHAPTER 19 Manual matrix remodeling in myofascial injuries: scar modeling technique

Raúl Martínez Rodríguez, Fernando Galán del Río

CHAPTER 20 Massage therapy and fascia

Sandy Fritz

CHAPTER 21 Trigger point release methods including dry needling

César Fernández-de-las-Peñas

INDEX

Chapter 6

Bowen therapy

Kelly Clancy

What is Bowen therapy?

Bowen therapy is a neuromuscular technique comprised of a series of gentle ‘rolling moves’ applied to the soft tissues at specific anatomical locations. Following any move, or series of moves, Bowen requires a significant pause in treatment, suggested to allow adaptive integration of the stimulus via the nervous and fascial systems. Some interpretations of Bowen therapy utilize procedures, which are standardized sequences of therapeutic ‘moves’ performed in a precise location, direction, depth, and order, to elicit a therapeutic response. Other interpretations allow for customized application of moves based upon individualized assessment findings.

Bowen theory embraces a minimalist ‘less is best’ approach. Unlike many other manual approaches, which aim to directly alter tissue tension or postural alignment by means of massage strokes, manipulation, or stretching techniques, the Bowen practitioner aims to induce and facilitate a shift from tension patterns and neurologic dysregulation towards a state of relaxation and balance using the body’s own innate tendency toward homeostasis (see also Ch. 13 Myofascial induction therapy (MIT®)).

History of Tom Bowen

Tom Bowen (1916–1982), though never formally trained as a healthcare provider, was said to have been influenced by osteopathic and Japanese acupressure concepts via a local ‘physical manipulator’ named Ernie Saunders in the late 1940s. Bowen also had a strong interest in sports and in helping injured co-workers by using his hands-on technique at the factory where he was employed in Geelong, Australia. Bowen refined his methods with these groups and eventually opened a clinic as a ‘Natural Therapist’, practicing from 1959 until his death in 1982.

As his popularity in the Geelong community and outlying areas began to grow, other practitioners began inquiring about his techniques and methods. Bowen allowed six practitioners, whom he affectionately called his ‘boys’, to observe his work over a span of eight years. Keith Davis, Kevin Neave, Nigel Love, Oswald (Ossie) Rentsch, Romney Smeeton and Kevin Ryan came from a variety of backgrounds, including chiropractic, osteopathy, naturopathy and massage therapy. They spent considerable time in his clinic observing, each interpreting and transforming the methods applied. Bowen himself never published details of his technique, nor specified in written form the indications for particular treatment interventions.

Two of these practitioners, Kevin Ryan (an osteopath) and Kevin Neave (a chiropractor), taught their interpretation of Bowen’s work to osteopathic students and other practitioners in Australia. Another, massage therapist Oswald (Ossie) Rentsch, became the co-founder of Bowtech Pty Ltd and the Bowen Therapy Academy of Australia. Rentsch expanded the method internationally, reaching large audiences by developing a standardized format for the work. Rentsch described easy-to-follow procedures and indications for use which were put into manuals in modular formats, allowing for multiple instructors and worldwide reach.

Currently, a variety of Bowen schools and methods, all sharing the commonality of the use of the ‘move’, are practiced and taught. Differences are largely minor, relating to location, direction, pressure, sequencing, pauses and assessment methods (see notes on therapeutic dosage in Ch. 5). These organizations include Bowtech, College of Bowen Studies, The Bowen College, Smart Bowen, International School of Bowen Therapy, Fascial Kinetics, Fascia Bowen, Neurostructural Therapy and others. Many, though not all, are direct offshoots from Rentsch’s original interpretation published as ‘The Bowen Technique – an interpretation by Oswald Rentsch’ (Rentsch 2013). While there has been an attempt to bring these schools together in order to grow awareness of the power and effectiveness of Bowen therapy, the discipline remains fractured. Disagreements persist regarding how Tom Bowen practiced, how Rentsch came to know and claim the work, how Bowen therapy should be performed, ways of assessment, and the future direction of this dynamic modality. What does remain a commonality with all of the training programs and Bowen practices is the belief that with specific input utilizing cross-fiber moves, the body will integrate the input as a way to restore itself toward homeostasis.

Philosophy

The main premise behind Bowen therapy is that the body maintains an innate capacity to heal itself. The primary role the practitioner plays during a session is in facilitating, with minimal input, the body’s natural ability to repair and regulate itself (Rentsch 2013). Symptoms in the form of pain, pathology, systemic dysregulation, or postural asymmetries are all seen to represent expressions of failed or failing adaptation. Homeostasis is defined as the dynamic process by which an organism maintains and controls its internal environment despite perturbations from external forces (Clayman 1989). In line with osteopathic precepts, Bowen therapy aims to work with the underlying principle of ‘structure governing function’, suggesting that disturbances of structure, at any level, result in body-wide adaptive modific...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Foreword by Thomas W. Findley
• Foreword by John Sharkey
• Dedication
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Section I: Fascial foundations
• Section II: Selected fascial modalities
• Index