 I was first introduced to the Bowen Healing System by a client, Raymond Augustyniak, a Bowen specialist and instructor for whom I was creating a new website in 2007.
Raymond invited me to "experience healing first hand" and come for a session. He felt that I would better understand what I was designing if I had an actual experience with Bowen. In our web meeting, he told me all kinds of things he had seen Bowen do for people over his years of practice. Frankly, at the time it sounded very suspicious to me and a bit hyped up.
I had experienced quite a few types of bodywork and had designed either logos or websites for just about every holistic practitioner one could imagine. Just name them! Chiropractors, massage therapists, Rolfers, acupuncturists, and herbalists. I am no neophyte to alternative care modalities. (I am, after all, a native Californian.) I was incredulous that any type of bodywork could do all the things Raymond described.
I did not have much going on in terms of pain or other symptoms, but I was amazed at how relaxed I became in my initial session. What was most surprising is that I was barely being touched, and yet I was getting more and more de-stressed.
It was a very interesting experience, but not really life-changing. (Or so I thought.)
 Several weeks later, I was in Yosemite with a group of girlfriends hiking to the top of Vernal Falls. The short version is that something happened that weekend that changed everything for me.
One of the women in our group hiked to the top of the falls and was completely "locked up" with her fibromyalgia— her muscles were in spasm, her medication miles away, and we had no idea how we would get her back down the falls. I felt a tug to help, and just seemed to "know" what to do. I experienced my own version of a "Tom Bowen moment". I worked on her intuitively (not having any Bowen classes at this point) and she got up just beaming. She walked fluidly down the mountain!
We were all in a state of wonder and amazement. Another woman in our group told me plainly, "You have a gift and you need to use it." Let's just say that God gave me an opportunity to open a gift I didn't believe I had.
Upon returning from the trip, I took Raymond to lunch. "What do I do now?" I asked. "The first class starts in 2 weeks." he replied.
I would spend the next year and half putting knowledge, training, and practice underneath my intuition. It is proving to be a wonderful combination.
Everything else I have done in my life has been goal oriented, or designed to make the most of my interests or artistic talents.
Bowen for me is a calling of sorts. It is something I can't help but do wherever I go. People in pain or just the terminally stressed-out seem to show up everywhere I travel. They seem compelled to share their pains with me, and I then feel the need to be of service.
Nothing brings me greater joy than seeing the surprised relief in someone's eyes when something they thought they would "just have to live with" is simply gone.
In my first year of doing Bowen sessions I discovered that everything Raymond told me was true. It wasn't hype. I've experienced it not only firsthand but through the lives of my Bowen clients. It's the real deal.
So... how may I be of service to you?
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