piezoelectricity Archives - Bowen Therapy in Dallas

Electrical Currents and Energy

Today I am going to borrow, but give credit to Jenny Petridis (a Bowen practitioner in Austrailia), something that caught my attention regarding piezoelectricity. This is a very important aspect of what happens with energy and the body’s response in a Bowen session.

~ Because of piezoelectricity, every movement of the body, every pressure, every tension anywhere, generates a variety of oscillating bioelectrical signals… (throughout the continuum of the connective tissue matrix). ~

(rephrased from the work of J Oschman)

Piezo (means ‘pressure’). The term piezoelectricity is where stress is passed through a material and deforms it. In biological materials such as our fascia this creates a slight electric impulse which is said to cause a response in the tissue, effectively changing the tissue intercellular and extracellular environment.

And of Bowen therapy? We may postulate that it has something to do with the unique shear + compression + tension of the Bowen ‘move’.

Studies have brought to our attention, that the piezoelectrical response in tissue is sensitive to whether collagen is aligned or not. In simple terms, the more ‘organized’ the fascia, the better the flow of bioelectrical information within the soft tissues.

Plus, it is accepted that, according to fascia research, piezoelectricity seems to be an explanation for more long term change, not immediate. Thus, each Bowen therapy session builds on the previous one. So, if sessions are done in succession (within a couple of weeks or less), we can take advantage of the body’s energy momentum and how the body is responding to this piezoelectricity from each session and build on it.

Thanks, Jenny Petridis, for such wonderful information!

So what’s the big deal about “piezoelectricity?”

Bowen Therapy / By admin

The word “piezo” means to press or squeeze, and piesoelectricity is the energetic charge that builds up in certain materials in response to mechanical pressure. Think of a spring. . . the extension of a spring is directly proportional to the load applied to it. When we press onto a coiled, spring-like structure, there will be a recoil.

This is similar to the potential energy built up in our fascial tissues. Bowen therapy uses piesoelectricity to make changes in the fascia that surrounds muscles and that runs through them. If your fascia is too tight and tense, it crystalizes and the muscle cannot relax and return to its normal size and shape. Once the fascia is released by this pressing and squeezing action, it returns to its normal gel-like consistency and allows the muscle to return to normal balance.

Not much pressure is needed for this change to take place in a muscle. That is why it is said that Bowen therapy is non-invasive and gentle but effective. It really does not take much effort, strength or pressure by the Bowen therapist for the body to respond with amazing changes toward better tissue health and a return to homeostasis. Each muscle, tendon, ligament, nerve, etc. has its own existing energy stored in the fascia that runs through it and around it, known as its potential elastic energy. So it is the fascial structure itself which is responsible for its own change and release in response to the Bowen therapy moves.

So, the big deal about “piezoelectricity” is that the body uses this principle when the tissue is manipulated in order to make subtle, as well as remarkable, changes in its healing process.