Meet Sean. Sean is a 31-year-old Registered Massage Therapist and basketball player who had knee pain. And it was bad. But in one of our unique cases, he made it go away almost completely, and that was without exercise. We actually did something called the “Bowen Technique” on him to make it better. And it worked!

In this article, we’ll cover:

• How the knee pain was affecting Sean’s life
• What he’s tried to make it better
• What we did with Sean to make his knee better
• How his knee feels now

But if you want to hear Sean tell it all in his own words, you can check out his 7-minute video here.

And if you’d like help in resolving your own knee pain, you can fill out this form to see if you qualify to work with us.

How the Knee Pain Was Affecting Sean’s Life

Sean is an avid basketball player. He belongs to a team, and plays quite a few games. And in a sport as “stop-and-go” as basketball, having an injured knee results in serious decreases in performance.

So Sean developed what he thought was patellar tendinitis about 15 months before I saw him. What is “patellar tendinitis”? It’s inflammation of the tendon that attaches to the knee. Here is what it looks like.

For one thing, Sean couldn’t play as well as he used to before the patellar tendinitis, but for another thing, the day after a game, the level of pain was intense. He rated the level of pain a 6 or 7 out of 10. It was bad.

It got so bad that he had to start playing with a brace. And although his knee felt better with the brace, it still hurt about 4/10. Certainly a far cry from optimal performance.

Besides the knee pain during games, it also hurt him going up and down the stairs. So a pretty big nuisance to his life.

What He’s Tried to Make it Better

Naturally, if something hurts, you try to make it better, and being around therapists all day, Sean had at his disposal a wide array of options, and he’s tried a lot of things:

• Massage
• Physio
• Chiropractic
• Foam rolling and stretching

Basically, nothing really worked. Not long-term anyway. Everything worked short-term (hours to days), but no long-term solutions. Disappointing for a guy for whom basketball is such a big part of his life.

What We Did With Sean to Make His Knee Better, and How it Feels Now

We decided to try doing the Bowen technique on Sean, and it worked remarkably well. Wait. What’s Bowen? The Bowen Technique is a precise series of moves, followed by a precise series of pauses. So the practitioner may do a few moves, then step out of the room for 2 minutes. Then a few more moves, and step out of the room for 2 minutes. And it keeps going like that until the practitioner has done everything they have to do.

The touches are soft. This isn’t deep tissue. It’s soft. Surprisingly soft. In fact, it’s so soft that as you’re lying there, in your mind, you’re thinking “this is hokey, and it’s not going to work.”

Why did I choose to opt for Bowen, as opposed to corrective exercise? Because if a person is responsive to Bowen, it will work fast. In a matter of hours to days. Exercise works over weeks or months. So if it works, the problem will be resolved very quickly, even if it’s a long-standing problem, like Sean’s.

But to be fair, it doesn’t work all the time. Nothing does. No therapy, no drug, no exercise program works 100% of the time for 100% of people. Neither does Bowen. In my experience, about 60-70% of people respond to Bowen. They notice either large improvements, or a complete resolution of their issue. About 30-40% of the time, nothing happens. For that person, a different approach would be prudent. Then, there are the 2-5% of cases (in my experience) who are hyper-responders. They do just 1-2 sessions, and their issue is completely resolved, never to come back again. I love those cases! For the middle 55-58%, it typically takes 3-8 sessions.

So Sean did 4 Bowen sessions, each one 10-14 days apart. Each one got progressively better, but even after the first session, he felt approximately a 50% reduction in pain.

Then, after his fourth Bowen session, the pain was pretty much completely gone, and he forgot he had it.

• He played without a brace
• There was no hesitation in his mind or his body. Sometimes after an injury, an athlete will subconsciously try to protect the formerly injured joint even if everything is fine now. That went away.
• He didn’t feel it the next day.

It did unfortunately come back after about a month and a half, but not nearly to the same extent as it was to begin with, and even that was at the very end of an unusually intense and frequent week of basketball.

So we’ll set up another Bowen session with him, and make that go away as well.

If you have a chronic injury that you’ve tried a few things, and they haven’t worked, give Bowen a shot. If it works, you’ll know that fast. In a matter of 5 days. And if it doesn’t work, you’ll know that fast as well. If you’d like to see whether you qualify for a Bowen session, fill out this questionnaire.