Autism

What complaint or symptoms brought you for a Bowen treatment?

Autism

What did your symptoms prevent you from doing?

Have you been able to resume doing them partially / fully since having Bowen treatment?

Testimonial of my Bowen Therapy experience. (How have you benefited from your Bowen treatment?)

My son Charlie has Regressive Atypical Autism and other complex needs. He find it hard to stay calm and has poor sleep patterns. Charlie is now 7 years old and his sleep has been improved dramatically since he began Bowen.

Client: KM
Therapist: Kim Holmes
Ref: 01128-05-11

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Background
Ben has autism. He is 11 years old. He is good at Maths but not so good at English. His co-ordination for football is good but he cannot tie his shoelaces or ride a bike, and is poor using a knife and fork. He can get aggravated with his mum and sisters. This happens everyday. He likes his dad more. His sisters are 14 and 4. Ben gets bossed about by them. He is OK at school. He thinks he is fairly confident.

June 2009
Ben has just been for his 6th Bowen treatment and by the end of the session which I finish by holding his head after Howard Plummer’s face and head moves, he is fast asleep and snoring.

Ben’s mother writes…

"Since Ben has been having the Bowen treatments, he has learned to relax more. He has a more relaxed approach to his day to day activities. He is more loving towards myself, and he starts conversations with me, (usually about school) whereas before he was unwilling to communicate with me. I have definitely noticed an improvement regarding his communication and interactivity.

"His relationship with his older sister has become more bearable. He will talk to her now about his homework and computer stuff, etc. At school he has had the confidence to join the form football team and enter the football competition. Ben said "he enjoyed it when he closed his eyes and relaxed"! (Sorry, but unless it involves football, he is a man of few words)!!”

Client: Ben
Therapist – Marie Hurst
Ref: T2, April 2009

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Testimonial, April 2009

Background
Christopher is 9 years old and has Autism. He can get stressed at times, sometimes he can’t cope with people, finds them tricky. He likes classical music. He has no problem sleeping.

He has a support worker at school. If he can’t get things right straight away he gives up, which leads to stress and outbursts of crawling round the room. He has a little outburst most days. He has very poor finer motor skills – for a 9 year old he is 4-5 years behind. Also immature gross motor skills. Swimming and riding a bike are very difficult. Reading – is in year 4 but is really year 6. His best progress is Maths. Handwriting is very poor. He goes trampolining once a week and swimming twice a week. During the Bowen treatment he can range from being fidgety to very fidgety.

After 3 Bowen treatments his mother writes…

"Christopher started to attend the Bowen Technique after Marie came to give us a talk at Bolton Kidz2gether. She talked about the research into Bowen technique with autistic children. Christopher was diagnosed with autism aged 6 and displays a number of difficulties associated with the disability.

"Initially Christopher was anxious about receiving the technique and did not want to attend. After the first session Christopher left stating “It was nice” and that he would go back again.

"Since then Christopher has attended several more times. Below are the benefits we have noticed as a family.

Christopher leaves the session feeling relaxed.
He is notably calmer – managing his emotions better.
He is managing change a little better – being able to talk through reasons why rather than just reacting.
He is more loving – he is cuddling and kissing us more."

Christopher comes usually every week (for the last 3 months) and he is a joy to work with. His mum feels he is doing really well and lots of people have commented to her how he has improved. He used to go from 0-10 when reacting to something but is now a lot calmer and doesn’t react as much or as quick.

Therapist – Marie Hurst

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Testimonial, March 2009

Background
David has autism and is 7 years old. He likes school and is good playing with his little sister. He is better than average at Maths and is good at English. Top marks in spelling. He is not so good at football and can ride a bike with stabilizers. He sleeps OK sometimes. Sometimes he wakes his parents and then he sleeps with them. (Has nightmares sometimes due to things on TV. His mum cannot think what.) She tries to keep him off a lot of things so he is a fussy eater and only eats limited things. He struggles on sequencing and imagination.

He can get tearful over things he can do – his mum calls him a stress head. He is better with adults. He had to move schools due to issues with friends. He has sensory issues – he can get over excited in a swarm of midges. He hates bright lights in supermarkets and can get anxious if starting something new. Has good eye contact. He has asthma – from summer to autumn he will get a cough. If he gets a cough the rest of the year it will go to his chest. Feels it’s linked to his asthma and stress. He uses a preventative and has been in hospital with his asthma. He has a nut allergy – throat goes tight and asthma kicks in. He can get very emotional.

David’s mum writes after 3 Bowen treatments:

"My son found the Bowen technique to be very gentle and relaxing. My son was fidgety throughout. However he did become more relaxed and settled during the sessions. When the technique was used on my sons head/scalp, this calmed him the most. The Bowen helped my son to focus on the lovely meditation CD that Marie Hurst played. The CD was age appropriate and my son’s imagination was aided. He even said he felt like he was flying like the birds, after one session.

"Overall the effects of the Bowen technique were that my son seemed to be more emotional/sensitive following such relaxation. It seemed to make him more aware of his feelings. He was very loving and sensory immediately after, possibly even more unsettled for a while. Longer term I think my son would benefit from a release in some of his stress and anxiety. My son has learned a lot of coping mechanisms to enable him to attend mainstream school but relaxation is needed to balance all this effort.

"Normally during a cold my son would require the use of his asthma inhaler. However Marie Hurst applied the asthma based moves to my son and during the following week no inhaler was required. When no work was done for asthma we had to use my son’s inhaler three times, despite the cold getting better. My son and I found Marie Hurst to be a very good therapist to visit.

"My son does not generally like clinical environments or places that make him feel overly pressured. My son enjoyed the comfortable environment of Marie Hurst’s home and loved the calm attention he received there."

Therapist – Marie Hurst

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