He was arriving at the Clinic just before 9 a.m. to commence the day’s work. Tom was going home every lunch time for approx. two hours and came back in the afternoon, to repeat the morning’s routine. He always had an “open door” for asthma sufferers and pregnant women, although these patients did not comprise a large percentage of his clientele. He would frequently make “house calls” in the middle of the night to offer relief for asthma sufferers.
It has been assessed that Tom worked at the rate of 14 patients per hour and on average; he would see patients two to three times before they were “fixed”. According to Pam, if her father met people who were in desperate circumstances or with handicapped children needing extra care, he was the most generous person. At this stage of his career, he could have made a great deal of money, but this was definitely not his priority and it was a blessing that Rene was there to keep an eye on his finances. Every Saturday, his clinic was open to disabled people, where they were treated free of charge. He was helped by two of his students, Romney Smeeton and Kevin Ryan in this labor of love
What Tom could do for people was his greatest reward!
Tom was heavily involved with the local football clubs and it was well known that the practice stayed open every Saturday night until “the last footballer had left”.
He also had a special affinity for animals, treating small pets like cats and dogs, but also horses.
Although Tom had no formal training in health care, he became a celebrated therapist, regularly treating over 13.000 patients a year. These figures were verified by the WEB report findings of the 1975 Victorian Government’s inquiry into alternative health care professionals.
Tom’s healing services were always so in demand that many times his family suffered the effects of having such a well known father, especially on days like Christmas, when he was visiting “special children”.
Although many people over the years asked to train with Tom and learn his technique, he however trained only six people: Keith Davis, Nigel Love, (deceased) Kevin Neave, Oswald Rentsch, Kevin Ryan, and Romney Smeeton.
They were regarded as “Tom’s boys”. All of his “boys” asked him the same question: from where and how he found and developed this amazing technique? He gave all of them the same answer:
” It was a gift of God.”
In 1974, while attending a National Health Conference in Adelaide – South Australia, he was introduced to Oswald Rentsch and invited him to come to Geelong and train with him.
As Bowen had no manuals or charts, he asked Ossie to document his work and authorized him to teach it to anybody interested to learn, after his death.