The Frozen Shoulder and the Mystery of the Dented Tin

Sometimes Bowen therapy is a bit like detective work, because the site of the pain or restriction is not always where the underlying issue is. And so it was many years ago with my client Mia, which I present to you as The Case of the Dented Tin!

Mia had seen me a few months after suffering a fall at a shopping centre, resulting in a small fracture of her right shoulder. She was also diagnosed with frozen shoulder, a condition which involves severe pain around the shoulder and restriction of movement. When she presented to me, Mia was in a great deal of pain and had very little use of her right arm as she could only raise it a few centimetres away from her body. Although her fracture had since healed, she was left with frozen shoulder which her doctor had told her would most likely take two years to ‘unlock’ by itself. The extreme pain and lack of movement was understandably having a big impact on Mia’s physical and mental wellbeing and severely impacting her quality of life.

Over the course of the next few treatments, I worked on ‘the usual suspects’ (places on the body where I’d expect to see improvement after a Bowen therapy treatment) - such as the upper back, arms, chest, jaw and of course the shoulder. Unfortunately there was very little improvement in Mia’s pain or mobility levels and we were both disappointed by the lack of results.

In what was shaping up to be her last appointment before I referred Mia on, a tin of mints fell out of her handbag as she sat down. She pointed to a big dent in the tin and said that it had occurred when she had fallen in the shopping centre (resulting in the shoulder fracture and frozen shoulder). I asked where the tin of mints had been in the fall and she replied that they were at the bottom of her handbag. I surmised that that would have meant that the point of impact of the fall would have been around her hips/glutes area (and not in fact her shoulder), so I decided to focus on this area during the treatment.

The next day, a surprised Mia called me and informed me that her frozen shoulder had become ‘unstuck’ and that she was free to move it again, without pain. She was amazed as we hadn’t even worked on the shoulder/upper body area during the Bowen therapy treatment the day before. And that’s how a chance encounter with a tin of mints resulted in the clue that unlocked Mia’s frozen shoulder!

Bowen therapists work on different connective tissue lines in the body. You may have heard of the term ‘referred pain’ and for Bowen therapists it means that if the tissue is damaged/affected at some point in the body, the pain/tension/restriction can occur at any point along that line. It’s the role of a Bowen therapist to look at the body as a whole and to find the clues (through assessment and observation before a treatment and by paying attention to what you’re feeling during a treatment) to target the correct area…and solve the mystery!

*client’s name changed to protect her identity