CB writes: “I have a question about a new technique that I’ve heard of. My mom was given information on Neurostructural Integration Technique for help with back/neck issues. I wasn’t able to find out too much information about it directly and was wondering if it deals with ‘energy’ work and should be avoided?”
Thomas Ambrose Bowen (1916-1982)
This technique is considered to be pseudo-scientific and is based on the existence of a putative energy that has no basis in science.
Neurostructural Integration Technique (NIT) is marketed as an advanced form of another New Age healing technique known as Bowen Therapy which practitioners claim is “accepted by leading health authorities and practitioners alike” (in their dreams).
Bowen Therapy was developed by an Australian man named Thomas Ambrose Bowen (1916-1982) who had no background in medicine. It supposedly works by helping the body to remember how to heal itself by sending neurological impulses to the brain which in turn signals the muscles to relax, thereby easing pain. It does this through a type of “light touch therapy” that is said to stimulate circulation of energy and to clear energetic blocks. “Coincidentally, several of the moves are located along acupuncture meridians or on specific acupuncture points which are known to stimulate and balance the body’s energy,” one site proclaims.
NIT was invented in 1995 by a fellow Australian named Michael Nixon-Livy who took Bowen’s later work and systematized it into the more advanced form. Nixon-Livy is an “applied physiologist” who has a diploma in Solution Focused Therapy, aka Eriksonian therapy.
I could find no substantive research done by independent researchers on the effectiveness of NIT, only studies conducted by proponents. (To be scientifically valid, it must be unbiased.)
My advice is to stay away from NIT – and all other New Age modalities that are based on the existence of a fictitious energy form. They’re bogus and good for nothing except emptying your wallet.
Send your New Age questions to newage@womenofgrace.com
I wanted to add some clarity to the information in this article. Bowen Therapy, though considered ‘energetic’ healing by some, uses physiological means to enact change in the body. There is nothing ‘New Age’ about it and most websites that describe it miss the point. Most of the ‘moves’ actually stimulate muscle spindles and golgi tendon organs, both of which are used by the body to sense when a muscle or tendon is being stretched. These sensors usually help prevent overstretching by relaxing some of the tissue. In the case of Bowen Therapy, we are giving these same sensors a stretch from the side which activates the spinal reflex to relax that tissue. As various muscles around the body relax due to the therapy, the entire body tends to also relax, which by effect causes the nervous system to move in to a more relaxed state as well. Because the relaxation of muscles and tendons is guiding by the practitioner, certain physical ailments can be directly addressed. I use this modality with great success and have seen it work nicely in physical therapy offices as well.