Why leaving the room is important.
Fundamental to the Bowen Technique are the breaks and for me there is no Bowen without the breaks; they are the thing that makes the difference to the client, the therapist and the therapy. But why?
First and foremost the breaks provide an opportunity to make a decision. If I said to you, “Go and run around the block, sign up now for this timeshare, and tell me in 500 words how you feel about poverty in the UK”, then the pressure is on you to do several things at once – and the chances are that you might take short cuts, not do them properly, or make choices or decisions that might be different if you had more time to consider all the options.
However if you had more time between each task, with a chance to think them over and to make decisions about how and in what order you would complete them, then it’s probable that outcomes would be more favourable. You would have a chance to see how each of the issues might relate to each other and how completing each might affect your overall view.
The breaks in Bowen provide exactly the same function. By inserting breaks I am allowing the brain a chance to shut out other noise and focus on what has just happened. “What was that? Was it a sliding move? Was it a massage move? Was it a pokey move? Did it hurt? Did it tickle? And most importantly, what is the appropriate response to it?” The breaks therefore provide the nervous system with the space and the opportunity to potentially make a decision about how to respond appropriately.
This thinking doesn’t just apply the Bowen ‘moves’ themselves, but about the environment where the treatment is taking place. If the therapist stays in the room after the move has been made, the client is conscious that they are not alone and a subconscious narrative around “Someone else is present in the room while I’m lying down,” comes in to play.
“What’s the therapist doing?” There is a whole raft of sensory information and warning signals that have to be considered when someone else is in the room and these may well affect the progression or direction of the treatment.
As Bowen therapists, as therapists, what we really want is for our client to be able to be at ease in their surroundings and reduce internal chatter so that the body and brain can focus on what exactly is going on: this is what it seems the breaks do. By leaving the room we are creating the client’s own space for the internal dialogue to be able to happen uninterrupted.
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