Testimonials

For the last three years, I’ve had chronic pain in my right knee that was at times so bad I had to lift my leg up with my hand to get into my car. Five days after the fourth Bowen treatment with Dr. Manon, the pain is 90 per cent better. It’s like a miracle.

I’ve also had numbness in both my feet, which has improved, and I look forward to further improvement as my treatment continues.

Ken Kollman

I injured my tailbone when I was five years old and lived with the pain, thinking nothing could be done about it. I came to see Dr. Bolliger for a completely different problem - my neck - and just happened to mention my tailbone because, as always, it hurt when I sat down. Dr. Bolliger said, "We can fix that." I was really skeptical, but in one single Bowen treatment, with very few manipulations, Dr. Bolliger stopped the pain - for good. The pain was so ingrained that, even now, two years later, I still expect it when I sit down or get up, but thanks to Dr. Bolliger, it's gone!

For twenty years, I had a very bad neck. It hurt and creaked when I turned my head in any direction. Dr. Bolliger's Bowen treatments completely eliminated the problem. Now, two years later, I still move my neck freely. The treatment is so gentle that such dramatic results seem almost miraculous.

Doris Kiernan, Vancouver

I suffered from chronic neck, shoulder, back and wrist pain from 2000 to 2006. The precipitating incident seemed to be a bicycle fall that led to a hairline fracture in my right wrist. The wrist healed fine, but I was left with constantly aching muscles on the right side of my body from my neck to my lower back.

This pain had a serious impact on my quality of life. I continued to work and attend to household chores, but everything was a struggle - I was exhausted by 6:00 pm every day, had no energy to have any fun, and was depressed. I expended a lot of mental energy dealing with the pain - trying to hide it, wondering what caused it and searching for a cure.I floundered around trying a series of treatments. Massage helped, as did Intramuscular Stimulation - but there was only temporary relief.

I heard about the Bowen Technique from a friend, and booked a series of treatments. I had seven sessions with Dr. Bolliger, and improved after each session. The treatments are very gentle, but had some effects afterwards (nausea, severe thirst, tiredness) that showed me something significant was happening. The hard knots and painful hot spots in my neck and shoulder seemed to gradually melt away, and after seven sessions I was ready to go it alone.

It has been almost a year since my last Bowen treatment, and I am still doing very well. I have occasional neck and shoulder stiffness that I am able to stretch out on my own. The constant debilitating pain is gone, and the improvement in my life is huge. The Bowen Technique worked gradually for me, but it did indeed work, and I am very grateful to Dr. Bolliger.

Tish McMurtry

I started homeopathy with Dr. Bolliger about four years ago. I suffered fromsevere insomnia, pms symptoms and psoriasis. I had tried traditionalmedicine for years. I was given pills and cortisone, and my symptoms would goaway temporarily and would then get worse.

When I first started homeopathy, I was told that the symptoms may getworse before they got better, but they would eventually disappear forgood. Homeopathy began working on my insomnia immediately (the most lifethreatening symptoms are worked on first). It was a slow process, butwithin a year I was sleeping as deeply as before I had children withoutany medication. The next symptom was my pms. That changed over the nexttwo years, and, finally the psoriasis has started changing. I still havesome patches, but it is much less than before. A lot of things havechanged for me over the years that I didn't even realize were a problem.For example, I had hyper energy all the time (a nervous energy) and overthe years I have become calmer and more focused, a much better energylevel. My husband started homeopathy three years ago. He suffered from severedepression and had tried at least five prescription drugs for it. They allleft him with terrible side effects, one of them being lethargy andhaziness. Approximately six months after homeopathy he was no longer onanti-depressants. It hasn't been an easy road. There are a lot of ups anddown, but one thing for sure, his depression was never as bad again asbefore homeopathy. Three years later, he has bad days but is no longer depressed every day.

My son is seven years old now and he started homeopathy two years ago. He ate alot of food, had very little attention and was scared to sleep in his bedat night. He started homeopathy and there was an immediate change withhim. When his remedy was on, he ate a normal portion of food, slept inhis bed without an issue and was able to concentrate (age appropriately ofcourse). There has been a very noticeable change with him.I have recommended Dr. Bolliger to many of my friends and they are all mostimpressed with the results that they experience.

Homeopathic remedies stimulate your own body's immune system to healitself and it truly works, but again it is a slow process. There are noimmediate, miracle quick fixes.

Angelika Tishler

"Although I went into Dr. Bolliger’s office two months ago, a sceptic, and not understanding at all what I was embarking upon, today I am able to say that polymyalgia, the short term disease and fibromyalgia, the life sentence, are no longer a part of my life. Thanks to the gentle hands of Dr. Bolliger as she treated my symptoms and her quiet and confident explanation of what she was doing and how it should help me, I am able to confidently say that the Bowen Treatment has proven itself a complete success for me."

Donna Woods

“After 20 years of visiting my chiropractor, I was at my wit’s end. After three Bowen treatments, my chronic back pain is completely gone...”

Fay Gordon, Financial Advisor

As a form of therapy The Bowen Technique has for me been a bit like unraveling a twisted cord on an old telephone.

After years of limited success with chiropractors, an osteopath, massage, physio, cranial sacral and other therapists for whiplash from three separate accidents, I was still experiencing chronic pain, and increasing loss of mobility and depression. Drawn by a sign for pain management, I walked into Dr. Bolliger’s clinic ready to try anything. The effects have been very gratifying.

Although I still experience neck pain, especially after long spells at the computer, my lower back is almost completely healed, as has my Achilles tendonitis, plantar fasciitis, headaches, insomnia, menopausal symptoms and depression. Being free to exercise again, I have also lost fifty pounds, partly due to a weight loss program and supplement that Dr. Bolliger prescribed and supervised.

Even during long spans between Bowen sessions, I still feel my body unraveling and relaxing, with muscle groups releasing and shifting. Because Bowen deactivates the normal defense mechanisms that can keep the body rigid and delay or prevent healing, I have had to learn to trust the healing process and go with it. At times I have felt vulnerable, even emotional, as old trauma is released. But my range of motion has increased dramatically, much to the delight of my general practitioner. Eventually, I expect to achieve full recovery even from my neck injury.

I feel transformed. Full of newfound energy and enthusiasm, my family and friends are asking what I’m doing to look and feel so much better, and several have become Dr. Bolliger’s patients.

Beverley Straight

Dear Dr. Bolliger:

My foot has almost no swelling in it today, about 50 per cent reduction in the ankle and lower leg, the knee swelling reduced on the side of the knee cap, the front is still hard and hot. Significant improvement-thank you very much!

Thoughts about BOWEN Therapy:

As a brief introduction: I am a professional educator, equine behaviour specialist and therapist who has practiced various modalities over the past 20 years. The most holistic therapy to date in my practice has been CranioSacral therapy, a form of Osteopathy. I have used CS on horses for 15 years and on humans for the past five years. Acupuncture, Feldenkrais, myofascial release, electromagnetics, movement analysis, anatomical, kineslogy, proper equine foot balancing, Touch for health, energy medicine, homeopathics, herbal remedies, flower essence therapy, Therapeutic Touch and T.E.N.S are all part of my practice.

In the summer of 2002, I was referred to Dr. Manon Bolliger by one of my horse owners. She described success with riding imbalances after experiencing Bowen. I recognized some of the problems that I was having with straightness in riding and made an appointment.

Due to severe riding injuries over the years (one in particular at 21 years old) I had severe pain throughout my body and functional shortening of my entire left side. My left leg had been very painful and twisted, and a number of years ago I had knee surgery on my left knee. I experienced more and more pain in my left foot, which lead to orthotics. I was limping badly and was developing severe pain in my left hip, which I knew was going to lead to hip deterioration. I was slowing down and becoming unable to do successful training with the horses- especially ground work - due to increasingly poorer timing due to pain and debility. Since I totally disagree with the currently popular beliefs surrounding orthotics and didn't want to use orthotics, I had gone to many therapists, including some very talented CS therapy colleagues, with a good amount of success but not a total resolution.

I was astonished that Bowen could actually straighten out my leg and foot (which included a hammer toe plus pronation and a locked arch among other things) while I was walking on it! My pelvis straightened out and hip pain, which had become progressively more serious over the past two years, disappeared as I started to walk straighter. My left leg, which was twisted and had muscle astrophy on the inside of the calf, started to straighten. It literally felt like an army of engineers was in there moving things around! I have experienced "unwinding" with CS therapy...but this was on a micro scale! Tiny little adjustments causing my leg to straighten out in a hundred different ways!

My right shoulder pain changed, tennis elbow and golfer's elbow (old injuries) flamed up briefly and then disappeared as my body straightened (it was as if my body was going back through time).

After two treatments, I was working a young horse in hand in the arena, no orthotics with simple shoes on my feet, whereas a couple of weeks before, I could not have walked twice around the arena (and would have been crippled the next day if I did). I was walking hours a day with little or no pain while walking and no crippling effects the next day!

The most dramatic change, however, was in the mid thoracic area. Due to the injury in my 20's, I'd also ripped the xiphoid process off my sternum, dislocated my collarbone, torn cartilage and tissue off my rib cage, twisted and smashed stress in the midsection which caused reflux and pain and also caused me to be pulled "inward" in a somewhat hunched way. Those areas have "unwound" for want of a better word and resolved back to more normal tissue and function. I am MUCH straighter in my shoulders, my collar bone area (which had also been severely damaged) is open, my shoulders are back without effort, my ribs have opened up more range of motion and better ability to breath, areas in my intestines and stomach area have changed and pain that may have occurred when I moved quickly or stretched have gone. There is some pain still in the right shoulder which took the brunt of the fall, but thatis changing and resolving.

Severe tension has released in my skull and occiput region.

Since age 15, I have received a series of blows to the head, which have caused my muscles that move my right eye to stop working fully. It had lost the ability to rotate up and down to the point that even looking straight ahead resulted in double vision. I realized that I was looking at everything with my head tipped back. Bowen has caused strong movement in that area including a feeling like the eyeball was being pushed from the inside causing it to stretch larger, as well as strong stretching movements which seem to be returning movement to the muscles surrounding the eye. I have a slightly greater range of motion in that right eye right now- looking ahead, I do not see double and I can rotate my eye upwards about 10 per cent above horizontal without seeing double. I expect this to improve.

Two weeks ago, I suffered a very serious knee injury due to a fall. The knee was hard and swollen, very painful, the entire leg was black and swollen like a tree truck from the top of the knees to the toes. Two Bowen sessions changed the bruising and swelling dramatically, helped to drain the lymph and release TMJ tension. The day after the second treatment, the swelling in my foot which had been like a balloon was resolved totally, the ankle and lower leg was resolved about 60 per cent and the knee swelling had reduced on both sides, the knee cap is less painful and still hard but the swelling there has also been reduced about 50 per cent.

It is hard for even a therapist to describe Bowen.... I have used the word dramatic a number of times- with intent. This is indeed the most efficient holistic therapy mobility I have ever encountered.

I have every intention of adding it to my repertory as an equine therapist.

Sincerely,
Cheryl Gibson
CEDAR LANE FARM

Fibromyalgia ... I could hardly comprehend the affect that would have on my future as the rheumatologist gave his diagnosis. To me this was a life sentence. I had been diagnosed with polymyalgia only six months earlier and had been on high doses of prednisone and painkillers to combat the stiffness and pain that I had constantly experienced for more than a year.

For the past five years at least, I had experienced various "injuries" and constant pain, all over my body - feet, knees, hips, back, wrists, elbows shoulders and neck. I had given up wilderness canoe tripping and snowmobiling, activities I loved to participate in with my family and instead, had been visiting the physiotherapist on and off during this time, receiving treatments with ultra sound, the TENS and even acupuncture. I had been given other therapies and exercises as well but after a few months the symptoms would return. It was like trying to put out little fires as almost every other month I would return with yet another 'injury' or complaint. At the time of the polymyalgia diagnosis, I was a physical mess. I was in constant pain, aching all over. I awoke stiff every morning and had very little sleep during the night and all the stresses of feeling bad and 'being tired of being tired and in pain', were beginning to affect me emotionally. The high dosage of prednisone and my body's positive response to it, had confirmed the polymyalgia diagnosis but the positive affect it had to relieve the symptoms lasted only a few weeks and the side affects from the steroid began to take its toll on my body as well. I gained weight, my blood pressure went up and I developed diabetes. Of course, each side affect required a new medication of its own and we were soon treating the cures with more and more medication. As soon as the attempt to decrease the dosage of prednisone was started, all the symptoms of polymyalgia returned with a vengeance. The only consolation I had was that this disease would 'burn itself out' over a number of years. I had decided to work only part time but that lasted only a short time when one afternoon my right lower back went into spasm. I was unable to walk or hardly breathe. Talking was difficult as well. My husband took me to the hospital and there I remained for four days, on morphine and muscle relaxants. When I left the hospital, my lower back still ached and the knot left in my back felt as if it were just about to go into spasm again at any wrong movement. This went on for another four months until I could no longer work at all. I returned to the rheumatologist who then confirmed that I had also developed fibromyalgia - meaning more medication to help me sleep and yet another muscle relaxant.

It was in this condition - fatigued, having difficulties carrying on a conversation, painful walking, stiff and in constant pain, and taking more medications than I cared to list, that a friend recommended that I see Dr. Bolliger for her treatments. The Bowen Treatment was something I had never heard of before let alone understood, but in my condition, I was willing to try anything. I desperately wanted my old life back. I was only 51 and didn't want to spend the next 20 years or more, in this condition. The challenge for me was that Dr. Bolliger's office was a two-hour drive from where we lived, but if the treatments worked, it would be worth the long drive. I had no idea what I was in for as I walked into her office and she directed me to lay down on the bed on my stomach, with my arms to my side. The very gentle movements she made on the muscles in my back seemed so insignificant that I left her office very skeptical. I can't say that I experienced any improvement after my first visit but I had committed myself to three visits so I returned a week later. My husband dropped me off and waited in the car. I literally hobbled like a little old lady, into her office that day, feeling wretched - my lower back aching, the knot in my back was so very tight and the bottoms of my feet were aching and burning. When I left her office that day, I left with tears in my eyes. My feet didn't hurt any longer! I hadn't been able to do our grocery shopping for four months because my feet and back hurt so badly, but that day we stopped off at the nearest mall and wandered around doing Christmas shopping for over an hour. That was just the beginning of the journey of healing for me. After the next visit, I began to get some relief from the lower back pain, pain in my knees, elbow and finally that knot in my back that had plagued me for so long. I was finally getting better sleep at night and I was able to reduce the prednisone with no return of the polymyalgia symptoms. I no longer required painkillers and by the fifth treatment, I could say that I was returning to my old self. Pain was no longer part of my life and I had more energy than I'd had for a long time. Dr. Bolliger recommended a diet that would help detoxify my system. This diet also helped me to begin to shed the weight that I had gained while on the prednisone and also aided in getting my blood sugars under control. By the time my seventh treatment had taken place, I had experienced four weeks of the best health I'd had in over a year.

I am returning to my job of teaching, after being off work for almost five months. I am returning with none of the symptoms of fibromyalgia or polymyalgia. I continue to decrease the prednisone gradually as well as other medications that I had once taken to relax muscles, and reduce inflammation.

Although I went into Dr. Bolliger's office two months ago, a skeptic, and not understanding at all what I was embarking upon, today I am able to say that polymyalgia, the short term disease and fibromyalgia, the life sentence are no longer a part of my life. Thanks to the gentle hands of Dr. Bolliger as she treated my symptoms and her quiet and confident explanation of what she was doing and how it should help me, I am able to confidently say that the Bowen Treatment has proven itself a complete success for me.