Thomas Ambrose Bowen was born in 1916 in Brunswick, Australia, a suburb of Melbourne. From the 1950s until his death in 1982, he worked tirelessly to develop his namesake soft-tissue therapeutic method, The Bowen Technique.

A dynamic system of muscle and connective tissue movements that effectively and gently re-align the body while balancing and stimulating the body's energy flow, The Bowen technique is a holistic and non-invasive therapy. Having gained a reputation for being as easy to learn as it is to practice, it is the most important advance in soft tissue work to come out of Australia in modern times.

Bowen developed his technique by discovering relationships within the body that help it heal itself. His natural ability to recognize and remedy minute muscle tensions enabled him to develop a system of movements designed to counteract specific ailments.

Because his technique is intuitive, there is not a condition, system or organ that the Bowen Technique cannot help. It can be safely used on anyone from newborns to the aged, infirm and immobile. The technique is so effective that it has been embraced by a broad spectrum of health practitioners and patients, resulting in a reputation that has justly spread throughout the world.

Bowen began developing his technique by treating co-workers at a Geelong, Victoria cement factory. By the age of 43, he was doing so-called 'soft tissue manipulation' at his own full-time remedial therapy practice, which eventually grew alongside his reputation. Treatments were usually given seven days apart, and most people required only two or three visits due to his instinctual ability to sense minute vibrations in the soft tissues, which allowed him find the precise locations to mobilize.

Bowen was not formally trained in any medical or alternative therapy discipline, and spoke of his work with a great humility. He was a quiet and gentle man, stating simply that his work was 'a gift from God'. Once a month, he even ran a free clinic devoted to children with disabilities, and on Saturday nights he opened his clinic to injured football players. Having built his practice exclusively by word of mouth, Bowen modestly estimated his success rate to be about 88 percent - no small feat considering he was seeing 280 patients a week and 13,000 a year.

Bowen was selective about those therapists he would mentor in his technique. In 1974, he met a kindred spirit in Oswald Rentsch, a natural therapist practicing massage and osteopathy. Over the next two and a half years, Rentsch became Bowen's apprentice and scribe, unprecedentedly documenting his treatment protocols for posterity. Rentsch began using Bowen's original technique in Hamilton, where he and his wife Elaine ran their own clinic.

Though Bowen lost his legs to diabetes in his later years, he continued to treat patients from his wheelchair, all the while refining his technique.

After his death in 1982, the Rentsch's began teaching Bowen's technique. Their goal was to share his unique therapy with the world, and by 1990 had successfully spread the word throughout Australia and New Zealand and then on to North America and the United Kingdom.

In 1987, the Rentsch's opened The Bowen Therapy Academy of Australia, and seven years later established teacher training programs in Australia, North America and the UK to satisfy the increasing demand for new seminars. Bowtech, as it came to be known, is now taught by instructors in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Austria, France, Italy and Israel.

In his continuing efforts to advance Bowen's technique, Oswald Rentsch has published a journal called 'Bowen's Hands.' Rentsch best describes the technique in the journal's introduction, where he writes: "Whenever I use the Bowen technique I am always conscious of tissue tension and I visualize the moves exactly as they were used by Mr. Bowen. I can see him positioning his hands, assessing with his fingers, taking back the slack gently, deftly and effectively, performing the moves, resetting the body, opening up the energies to allow the body to heal itself."

Tomas Bowen was a shining light to all those who follow in his footsteps. Those who have benefited from his therapy owe him a debt of gratitude, because without his perseverance, tenacity, dedication, generosity and goodwill, their health and well-being would not be possible.