Bowen Therapy has been taught to people since 1986 by Ossie Rentsch, the Founder and Director of The Bowen Therapy Academy of Australia.

Ali Goward learnt Bowen Therapy in 1988 and has developed EMRT™ (Equine Muscle Release Therapy) based on the original human Bowen Therapy Technique. EMRT™ has been taught since 1993.

Ossie Rentsch, asked Ali to develop the CCMRT™ Cat & Canine Muscle Release Therapy in 2002 due to the requests made from people who would love to treat small animals.

Tina Spurling learnt EMRT™ and Bowen Therapy from Ali Goward in 1997 and became a Practitioner in both disciplines in 1998. Due to Tina’s extensive dog practise and experience she was asked to come on board as a teacher of CCMRT™ through the Equus College of Learning & Research.

Ali Goward & Tina Spurling

CCmrt™ has been developed based purely on the work of Equine Muscle Release Therapy (EMRT™) developed by Alison Goward, from observations that animals are athletes, under stress and strain on the body, which if not alleviated can lead to problems within the physical structure of the animal. From her work as a physical therapist and teacher of body therapies, Alison developed, in her opinion, what is the most dynamic, gentle yet profound modality “Bowen on Horses” in 1990.  This has been taught as “Equine Muscle Release Therapy”, EMRT™ since 1993 and is recognised internationally as the official Bowen for Horses with the Bowen Academy of Australia.

Due to the extensive successful field trials carried out over the last 7 years by EMRT™ Practitioners on animals other than horses, and due to the increasing number of enquiries made to the Equus College  to learn EMRT™ for dogs and cats, CCMRT™ was developed.

Dog expert Tina Spurling will be teaching this modality for the Equus College of Learning and Research. Since 1998 Tina has used her extensive knowledge of EMRT™ in her busy Animal Therapy Practice. This modality is comprised of a series of moves in sequence, which unblocks muscle spasms, allowing the energy to circulate through the body, revitalising the entire being, including internal organs.

Tina’s background is one in General and Maternity Nursing for 23years.

Dogs have become a part of Tina’s life and she was introduced to the Showing circuit in 1980 with an English Cocker Spaniel and continues to show her Shiba Inu’s today.  She has also owned Shar Pei. Our first dog arrived in our home in 1978, she was a very strong willed, dominant, aggressive cattle dog that we had difficulty controlling. We felt there was more to owning a dog than just being around.

This led on a journey of dog obedience for pleasure before being introduced to competing in dog obedience Trials and Agility.

Tina became a dog obedience instructor in 1995 and an Obedience Club Trail Secretary later.

She felt there was more to helping people and their pets so did a course in ‘CANINE/HUMAN INTERACTION’ through the Canine Studies Institute which is a course to encourage understanding of the psychology of dogs and effective techniques of obedience training. Nutrition and canine development and history of why dos do what they do were other subjects covered.

She strongly believes if you own a pet you must take on the responsibility to care for it for its whole life. This led to her to becoming a volunteer to raise funds and awareness for animal welfare bodies, like RSPCA, where Tina and her dogs would sit in shopping centres collecting for a few hours a week. Any function that the RSPCA held like the Million Paws Walk she would be helping out as an organiser and controller. The education arm of RSPCA then looked for teachers to go into schools to educate the lower primary students so Tina took up the challenge of becoming a teacher and a co-ordinator of a group of local volunteers as teachers.

Tina has continued her self interest studies through research and reading different books on dog psychology and stories of amazing animals.