Bardley Bowen

Vicky Franklin cert ECBS ESEBT SCBT
Bowen Technique Practitioner

Telephone: 07976 750987

Introductions

So I guess we’d better get to know each other !

I will leave the family details out for now, other than to say that it was pretty much the females in my family that formed, shaped and gave me something to aspire to. They pretty much held my metaphorical hand until I finally graduated to the key stage of ‘Grown Up part 1’, after which they gracefully retired to the bleachers, giggling at the mistakes that I resolutely made before quietly setting me back on track.

Most people (and sometimes myself included) find it hard to believe that I have two engineering degrees.  I have no idea how I managed that, but I am the proud owner of a BEng (hons) no less, and an MSc.  I have flown all over the world with a job that I was driven to do.  I had to do it – I felt compelled to do it and actually, I needed to do it to satisfy an inner desire to succeed and succeed in a field that I should never have succeeded in.  I mean, this was the early 90’s and who actually wanted a female engineer ?  and that was actually the harsh reality.  Maggie was in power, but we, the ‘normal’ women were at the start of a total revolution.  Women were not supposed be engineers, but we were all signing up in our droves and engineers we were to become.  That is one of the driving forces in my life – you tell me I can’t and I bloody well will.

When considering a career change, one of the leading lights in the Bowen world told me that ‘I wasn’t so different’, ‘why was I so special’ and ‘why did I think I could make a living out of it when all the other Bowen therapists around couldn’t?? ‘.  I am and always will be forever grateful for that statement.  It might have been said with a curious mix of sentiment, but for me it was a challenge.  The gauntlet had been thrown – and by golly I was going to pick it up and run with it.  From memory, my instant reaction was ‘Just watch me Bitch’.

I will also never forget that life changing moment about a year later, when I was called into the MD’s office.   It wasn’t supposed to be like that, but I had been in tears for the previous weeks in that job. One manager had put his hand up my skirt on a staircase as well as another senior manager ask – in one of those voices that has a crystal clear element to it so that everyone in every corner of the factory was able to hear – ‘did I want to see his erection?’.  I hated the job and actually as it turned out, they hated me!!  At the time, for me it was a mix between total horror and total blessing.  I remember feeling desolate but also what felt like an awakening – a realisation as I drove away that ‘oh shit – what was I going to do’ and yet ‘OH SHIT – look what I am going to do’.   And that was that.  October 12th, 2015.  A fortuitous and life changing day.

So, here I am.

In the four and a half years since that day, that wonderful day, I sit here a revamped version of who I had become.  I have lived a much better quality of life than I ever had during my 26 years as an engineer.  I have attended more training weekends than I care to remember and I have learnt – oh my goodness have I learnt.  I have met some amazing people and I have a wonderful group of friends with whom I have shared some fantastic experiences.

But really, the best bit is that this is really only the start.  I have so much more to pack in to my life and as hard as it is at this current time, with the Covid Cloud hanging over us all, I’m busily planning my next steps.  Because, you know, every journey of a million miles starts with the first step …….

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