it depends on what you're meaning.
I read your saying it bows away from the strings as meaning that you need more neck relief .... that the neck is arched so that you get the strings too close to the fretboard in the middle and thus some buzzing ...... that if you put the neck on a flat plane the center would be closer to the strings than the ends. In that case it's counterclockwise.
IF what you mean is that the neck bows in a way that gets the strings further away from the fretboard at the middle and you want to bring the strings closer to the fretboard then that would be a bowed neck and you need less relief.
If you take a neck and fret it at both ends and in the middle around the 10-12th fret the strings also touch the frets .... if it's exactly ruler-flat that's NO relief. and if it's actually arched back then you have negative relief. You would loosen the truss rod to correct that (counter clock wise)
To me that was what you described.
If you fret it at each end and in the middle there's a small space between the strings and the fret ..... that's relief. If the strings are far away from the center then you have too much relief and you would tighten the truss rod to correct that (clockwise)