Christine Hansen
Christine Hansen
Introduced by Alexia Monroe as a tireless advocate for Bowenwork throughout the clinical settings she has worked in. She has spent the last five years exploring Bowenwork in a scientific manner.
In 1997 she suffered from endometriosis in her late 20’s. The medical community she worked in recommended a hysterectomy. She had assisted in several similar operations in cardiothoracic surgical nursing but felt that this course wasn’t right for her. Turning away from healthcare altogether, she was introduced to Bowenwork from her friend who was experiencing back pain at the time and was approached by Alexia Monroe at the neighborhood pool. Her friend convinced her to come along and by the
second session, Alexia had done the coccyx procedure on her and she lay there on the table feeling the warmth spread through her whole lower back and butt region. Within a month, she went into a complete remission of pain. Doctors could not explain why the cysts on her ovaries were gone because they “just don’t go away.” 10 years later, she was married and conceived a beautiful and healthy baby girl.
The healthcare community wants scientific answers. She is very familiar with healthcare reform.
The World Health Organization was created for the sole purpose of safety of medical practices around the world.
The National Institute of Health has 27 divisions 1 is a huge branch
devoted to alternative health and her goal is to get Bowenwork to be a part of that branch. There is also 1 cancer control and alternative therapies branch to make sure these therapies are “safe” for the public to use. Christine has seen one vague reference to Bowenwork in the online website under the category of “Manipulative therapies/Osteopathy” which seems to fit our modality best.
The reports about alternative health say that women and children use it more than any other category of person and that patients with cancer are the third most prominent category going to alternative medicine. The survey suspects that with the billions spent to eradicate cancer over the years with only a 2% dip in death rates, no wonder patients have gone to alternative health management.
The allopathic community ignores stories and case studies of alternative modalities. They go by studies that have taken proper steps to bring information to the mainstream. 10-15 years ago the funding was higher for alternative health and now the funds have dwindled and who gets those research dollars is a lot more competitive.
Christine realized that her purpose is devoted to Bowenwork. “I just don’t give up.” She wanted to work on all of her patients using Bowenwork and her head doctors let her do it. But efforts to get it into the acute care setting failed because the medical staff was scared of malpractice, etc.
So, when she became head of a hospital and wanted to offer different forms of bodywork in recovery process, she found out that the dollars just weren’t there to do it.
Then she decided to advance her education and legitimize this work as a PhD.
She learned about the national guidelines for research and the human rights protection act. She learned that America has been downright mean in the past to prisoners and experimenting on people against their will and how it has been cracked down so hard that one just can’t do research without the strictness of academic settings or research hospitals. Before studies begin there is a proposal period where an institutional review board ensures the project is safe and follows committee guidelines. Even before that period the study must be strictly structured to a standard
outline. The golden standards include clinical trials by strict randomization, etc.
The problem lies in the fact that complementary alternative therapies aren’t strictly rigid and have a more holistic basis. They include the physical, psychological, emotional and mental aspects of a client.
There is good news that researchers are accomplishing this research anyway at such renowned places as Harvard, Yale, and Berkley etc. These trailblazers make it easier for us to follow in their footsteps. They know this research is complex but there are now mathematical formulae to analyze complex structures. The proposal stage is so important. One must pull in experts in Bowenwork to help. Picking pain management, cancer, and
women’s health was a boon to getting this study financed. The allopathic community seems to have fallen short in its ability to manage pain and even to have been irresponsible with medications and care for the purpose. The public is clamoring for pain relief and research dollars are still available for it.
Gratitude goes out to Teresa Peterson, Nancy Howe, Jeff Kurney and Alexia Monroe for their collaborative effort and consistency in helping form the structure and protocols involved in this study. They took required classes in being an aid in a study and followed all instructions with the greatest of care and willingness throughout the entire process.
Also a great compliment to BTAA for having a definitive certification process and presence of the professional organization that the institutional review board needed to allow this study to continue without the need for practitioners to pursue state licensure.
Another compliment was given to the Bowenwork students and practitioners who have written phenomenal articles and gotten these into nursing and or medical journals. This literature was necessary as a basis for her study. There is a call to put ourselves out there more so that the basis is stronger for researchers to pursue the study of Bowenwork under scientific specifications.
Christine’s study is a feasibility study with a 20 patient group. It is designed to see if there is interest in Bowenwork? Is it 100% safe? Is recruitment possible? Do patients stay in the study? Are patients cooperative? Is there community involvement?
Usually with this category of patients there turns out to be a lot of
non-compliance but this wasn’t the case here. No specifics about this study were given due to publication and broadcast requirements.
As part of the coming and needed healthcare reformation, Bowenwork should be known as cost-effective, non-invasive, doesn’t break the skin and therefore reduces the chances of infection which up until now are ‘by day 8 in a hospital you will be infected with something.’ Bowenwork can lower the
need for pharmaceuticals and can be used across the entire continuum of care. The 2012 initiatives are about making our country healthier. We can all benefit from Bowenwork.
In order for us to work on clients in the hospital, all we need is an
oncologist who is referring Bowenwork. If we wish to proceed into
research, we need to connect with a community research university or research hospital. We also need a primary investigator who is sometimes a Master’s Degree but most often a PhD in research. We need proper protocols and client consent procedures. That person has sole responsibility for the project. They insure safety and HIPA regulations and if anything happens outside of that, it destroys their career. Some medical doctors may do research but it may lack scientific rigor. Look for a scientist who knows this work and knows mathematical formulas to test your measures.
Measurement tools that have been scientifically proven to measure quality of life are Likert scale, etc.
Funding needs to be considered. It cost 6,000 dollars for her 20 person, student research project. Researcher does not get paid. It usually goes into a trust account and budgeted items get paid when receipts are given.
The more specific and alike you make your sample, the better the chance of funding.
Having a control group increases the validity of your results. Someday, it would be nice to see a “regular treatment,” “Bowenwork alone,” and “control group” study.
Having C.I.T.I certification is a great preparation for research and can be had at many universities around the country. It is needed before touching a study subject in any research project.
Christine believes that Bowenwork studies just to observe local physical effects is valuable to healthcare community even though we see so much more long-term results as well as the compounding effects of the time, and care we give to our clients.