To think Bowen therapy is a bit woo?

[TheDairyQueen]

I've had recurrent sciatica and despite (rather significant quantities of) analgesia, it will not go away quietly.

My mum has been at me to try Bowen therapy. From what I can tell there's no scientific evidence it works, and I'm worried some unlicensed person with a penchant for Reiki and a fetish for fondling could only make it worse. AIBU to tell her 'not a chance', or is there proof it works?

What’s the worse that could happen?
Give it a go - if it works then great and if it doesn’t then at least it will get your mother off your case!

I'd agree that it's not very well evidenced.

Have you tried anything else? I have a fantastic masseur who got me doing piriform stretches from the NHS website - they also have other pages for different elements of sciatica - and things improved dramatically. piriform stretches and video

I hadn't heard of those annandale but I'll give them a bash, thanks.

I suppose it's admitting my mum might be right that I have the issue with!

I had Bowen therapy when I was pregnant and it made my breech twins both turn! It was so weird. They would turn straight after the appointment and I’d feel sick. Then three or four days later they’d turn back. This happened about six or seven times and then they went head down for good. (Well, T1 did, T2 kept moving) It also made me so much more comfortable in late pregnancy so I didn’t mind all the appointments.

It was a chiropractor who did it so maybe it was the chiropractic that worked rather than the Bowen? Or maybe it was placebo, but I had a definite sense that it was doing something, much more than I did with the reflexology and acupuncture I also tried.

I’m a massage therapist- I can only say from the my own experience with that it should only be carried out in conjunction with other therapeutic treatments such as physio/ massage/ Accupuncture otherwise, it can be a bit woo xxx