Flowers for Health: Bach Flower Remedies
The Cracked Pot will be offering Bach Flower Remedies in our hamper for new Mums to help them through the transition to motherhood.
Here, Joanne Sumner, a local Bach Flower Essence consultant describes her own journey with the flower essences.
What is the essence of the Bach flower healing system?
The Bach Flowers restore emotional balance and reconnect us with our inner wisdom. The patient and how they respond to their illness is more important than the exact physical symptoms, as these are primarily a way of drawing attention to an emotional or psychological cause. Indeed, Dr Bach believed that there were only two causes of ill health – not following your ‘soul’ purpose and going against unity by being cruel, greedy, angry, proud etc.
What is it that attracted you to working with Bach Flower remedies?
I was looking for a more effective way to manage my health, rather than just pill-popping, and I was particularly concerned that my asthmatic symptoms were getting worse over time rather than better! So, when a friend suggested flower essences, I was intrigued. What could they offer? How did they work? Did they work?
To begin with, I found myself slowing down and taking note of what my body was telling me. The essences helped me see and begin to resolve the underlying issues that were causing my ill health and I began to make some major shifts in both career and lifestyle. My sleep pattern improved and my stress levels fell, and over a few months I began to experience the best health I’ve had in years. Having experienced such far-reaching benefits myself, I wanted to extend the same gifts to others.
What are the remedies primarily used for and who would benefit?
The remedies are most commonly used for dealing with our emotions and for alleviating conditions which conventional medicine has struggled to treat. These could be specific - fear, loneliness, despair, over-sensitivity, worry, lack of interest or direction, etc – or just a sense of things not being as they should be.
Who would benefit from using the remedies?
The remedies are great if you are feeling the effects of stress, anxiety, anger; if you want to feel more vital and on an even keel; or if you want to address a health issue, particularly long-standing ones where other approaches don’t seem to have worked. Because the remedies are completely safe, they are uniquely accessible to everyone including children and pregnant women. New Mums, for example, can really benefit from the support of knowing they can safely take something to help with their emotions and to help their baby settle into a good routine.
How do the remedies work with other complementary approaches?
The remedies promote self-awareness and emotional stability, so they are a fantastic adjunct to other approaches. Clearing the emotional ground can help you see what’s really happening in your life, which then makes you far more effective at creating the changes you want. Personally, I’ve found them very effective in combination with herbal medicine, yoga therapy, and kinesiology, but you can safely take them with any other medicine without interference.
How do you know which remedies to use with your clients?
Each remedy has an associated positive and negative state, so I listen out for certain key words and thought patterns that would link with a particular remedy. I also look for correspondences between the client’s physical appearance, gestures and demeanour and the characteristics of the plants. On occasion, I will ask people to select a remedy by scanning photographs and selecting those which most appeal, or which they actively resist.
What is it about your approach that you find works really well for your clients?
I am collaborative in my approach – calling on the client’s intuition about which remedies are right for them, as well as my own. This motivates people to become an active partner in their healing process and, I hope, empowers them to take more control of their health afterwards.
If you would like a consultation with Joanne, please call on 07786 273 826, or email jo@joannesumner.com
For a relatively small investment of £495, and 6 days of your time, you can add this powerful healing modality to your existing therapies or as part of your coaching toolkit. Find out more about the international Training programme Joanne offers on behalf of Healing Herbs Ltd at www.joannesumner.com/bachflowers.