The Road to Damascus

Hi Folks, Nothing at all to do with Bowen Therapy, however I though I would just mention that I have just hit 40 years old! EEK!

To celebrate this rather surprising revalation I decided to go to Syria and visit Damascus and many of the other spectacular archeological sites that this rather fantastic and welcoming country has to offer. I cannot recommend this place more highly as a holiday destination.

Interesting that while other parts of the middle east and north Africa were going mad, this rather progressive moderate Arab country was carrying on business as usual offering first class customer service, great food and a truly wonderful experience.

Archaeologically it is easily equal to the valley of the Kings and the the Pyramids of Egypt, but with the added bonus of being relatively unknown by western tourists - hence not too busy or hectic.

I can thoroughly recommend Nawafir Travel who I used for the 7 day tour; one of the largest Syrian based tour operators that offer considerably better value for money than our English counterparts for identical packages. www.nawafir-tours.com

They also provided an excellent freelance tour guide for a little extra who was worth his weight in gold called Fahed Omki. It is such a rarity these days to find superb customer service coupled with phenomenal local and historical knowledge.

It won't be long I hope before I go back.

TTFN

Austin

Dissection at Imperial College

Greetings all and welcome to my first post of the year.

It has been 3 years since the first ground breaking layered dissection at St.Georges Hospital Medical School (see post Jan 2008).

This year, another first, once again held by Julian baker - Director of the European College of Bowen Studies, under the watchful eye of Professor Kerry Davis - Head of Human Anatomy Imperial College London.

Our purpose this time was extending the discovery of the upper body by doing another layered dissection, but this time including the head, neck and jaw.

Once again I found the traditional anatomical illustrative references somewhat misleading, as they discount so much of what is intrinsically connected i.e. fascial tissue. The shear diversity of fascial tissues and layers is a study in itself, particularly around the head,cheek and jaw areas.

Ultimately we could have spent days if not weeks on this one area of the body as it is so complex.

What I took away from this dissection was how important the Facial and Neck muscles are for our ability to breathe. How even something like jaw ache or an ear infection could quite easily interfere with our breathing pattern and posture at quite a significant level, and if left unchecked could create a vicious circle of problems.

I must point out as before that it is only due to the incredible generosity of the individuals, and their families, who have given their consent for their forms to be used in the furthering of medical science that such educative dissections are possible. It has been once again an honour to have taken part, at what I have learned will be applied over the coming months in my Bowen Therapy Practice.

Finally a big thank you to Amanda Hermitage who organised this event, and also to Julian Baker whose never ending commitment to the furthering of our understanding of just how and why Bowen Technique works on the Human Body.

TTFN

Austin