Flower Essence Therapy by Dr Andrew Tresidder

It is vital for our health to resolve our negative emotions and to express ourselves as positively as possible. Babies always express their emotions freely - if they’re cold they cry, if they’re hungry they cry, if they’ve a dirty nappy they cry. Adults rarely express their emotions - a case of stiff upper lip, or men don’t cry or some such other twaddle. What happens instead is a sort of constipation of emotions, a series of emotional blockages which pile up, layer upon layer.

From childhood our spontaneity steadily shuts down to conform - how many ‘No’s’, ‘Shouldn’ts’, ‘Can’ts’ do we hear as children? To this add the possibility of abuse, so common even in families, be it physical, emotional or sexual. Then many of us have suffered bereavements, divorces, relationship break-ups, the effects of affairs, alcoholism or drug abuse. And if you ask most adults in the street how they are - what do they say? ‘Fine’ Fine!!! The conventional answer underlines the fact that most of us don’t even want to acknowledge the buried pain of the past we all carry - because we all accept it as normal!!

Bach Flower Essences are made by several makers, including Healing Herbs and Ainsworths. They are widely available – they are brandy, pure and simple! In the brandy are captured healing vibes from flowers – sounds barmy, perhaps – but no more than a round silver disc (a CD) having music on it! These vibes, like music, seem to retune our feelings and other bits of our invisible software that are out of balance. Put drops into each drink, or onto your tongue, or make up a treatment bottle, and watch yourself change!

Flower Essences are powerful vibrational catalysts to transform negative emotions into positive. By taking essences appropriate to the emotional aspect that is out of balance, transformation can occur. ‘Emotional Broken Glass’ that has been unresolved for years, let alone months can sometimes be relatively swiftly transformed. For instance, Holly transforms jealousy, envy, suspicion and greed into a loving aspect, as I found out over just three days in my two year old suffering from toddler jealousy. Another example:

Some years ago I knew I had to take a Bach Flower Remedy called Larch. Larch is for confidence, when it has gone. Now, I had no problems with confidence at the time -  but I took it all the same. After two weeks, I found myself going swimming alone, something I had always avoided. As I swam up and down the pool, I reflected that I had learnt to swim aged nine, cold and unconfident – and that this lack of confidence had tainted my attitude to swimming for thirty years! – healed in two weeks by 50p’s worth of treatment! What other hang-ups do we each carry, hidden and unresolved?

Essences are not instead of conventional therapies such as antidepressants, counselling etc and do not work in every case - however they do provide a valuable tool for the practitioner, or for you and I to choose for ourselves. And for feeling down, the most important things can be exercise, a good diet with added supplements, and sleep.

Choosing essences is the difficult bit - luckily there are helpful leaflets available, also websites such as www.edwardbach.org . It’s often easy to look down a list and choose for someone else – more difficult for yourself.

Luckily, there are combinations available now to help us. Any Boots store will either stock or order for you the Balancing Blooms Combinations www.balancingblooms.com . These include Calm Down, Peace, Confidence, Rebalance, Get Up and Go and Monday Morning, whilst Ainsworths do Recovery Remedy. Some Health Food Shops carry the Jan de Vries range, also available from www.bioforce.co.uk. These include Concentration, Confidence, Craving, Emergency, Mood, Night, Relaxing and Vitality Essence.

Flower essences can either be taken short term, for minor upsets, such as Rescue, Recovery, Five Flower, Rebalance or Emergency for shock, upset and bad news, and exam nerves etc – every house should have one of these just in case! Actually, there’s enough bad news in the world to benefit from taking these frequently, or for a period of 2 weeks every so often!

Here are some hints on others:

Many of us are sensitive to other peoples’ emotions – we pick up on them easily, and feel the hurt, especially if someone is upset or angry with us. Walnut, Red Chestnut, Heather and Chestnut Bud act to protect most of us who are sensitive from this outside clutter, whilst Crab Apple and Hornbeam clean out the yuk that has crept in!

Holly and Willow are good to allow more love into your life, especially if there’s someone or something you feel less than loving towards! – Calm Down contains these, and I know a number of people who take these day in, day out because it makes them feel better about life.

The ones for sadness include Gentian, Gorse, Mustard, Sweet Chestnut and Wild Rose, found in Rainy Day and Mood Essence. These will help to lift our spirits when they are down.

Wild Oat is a powerful essence to help life go in the right direction – it helps us find out true path.

Whilst taking the essences, many people notice not only a change for the present, but also old forgotten memories come to mind, only in more positive light. During and after taking these combinations you may notice profound changes in yourself. You may notice all sorts of forgotten or painfully remembered past events come to mind, only in a different light - a more comfortable light. You may experience the shedding of long-repressed tears. A variety of emotions may be released from deep within you and come to the surface to be acknowledged and released as the emotional memory banks are cleansed and healed. The following is the best description I know of this process:

‘The suggestion of using Bach Flower Remedies help me at first seemed novel and different. Although I agreed to give them a try I was very sceptical. They had been around since the 1930’s and were developed by a physician with a Harley Street practice so why wasn’t every doctor prescribing them? I liked the idea of trying to treat the real problem.

‘To begin with the Remedies (Mustard and Walnut) did not seem to be having a noticeable effect. Then I began to notice that various events or occasions in my life would come to mind. Often I would rethink these occasions, see what was really good in them for me and feel much more at ease with the thoughts.

‘This happened not only to the good memories but to the bad ones as well. It was as if someone had opened the emotional filing cabinet and no way could I close it. Gradually I have found incident after incident coming to mind for reassessment, memories which at one time I could never have faced again, memories which I could not under any circumstances have shared with anyone could be dealt with and put away. Pandora’s box of personal memories was revealing the bad things and gradually each was being cleaned away.

‘In this process I learned to really cry again and not to withhold my feelings and batten them down. As a child my mother had insisted that my father never saw me in tears, but now the tears could flow freely. There was no guilt feeling about crying now.

‘As the gentle cleansing and healing process has gone on over the weeks I have begun to realise that I am still an attractive woman with a lot to contribute to the world I live in.

‘The whole effect seems to me to be rather like an old Dutch master’s portrait which has become grimy and soiled with time and smoke from the fire. When it is gently cleaned and restored with modern techniques the beauty of the picture is almost better than in its original state; the lights and tones shine through much more clearly, the subtle hues and highlights become more apparent.’ Lady, age 53, Dec 97 having taken Mustard and Walnut for six weeks.

Resources:

Balancing Blooms www.balancingblooms.com from Boots, Jan de Vries, Healing Herbs and Ainsworths from Health Food Shops or others from www.healingherbs.co.uk www.flowersense.co.uk www.ainsworths.com www.essenceworld.co.uk  www.universalessences.com www.theessenceshop.co.uk among others
Information from
www.edwardbach.org www.drandrew.co.uk www.bachcentre.com www.bfvea.com

Copyright Dr Andrew Tresidder, MRCGP Cert Med Ed.
Lazy Person’s Guide to Emotional Healing, Using Flower Essences Successfully is now out of print, but is available at www.drandrew.co.uk, whilst his second book, I’m Fine, Learning to Unblock Your Emotions (ISBN 07171 34164), is available from any bookstore or online. Other articles are also regularly uploaded at his website.

For further information on Andrew’s courses, please contact andrew.tresidder@tesco.net or see www.drandrew.co.uk. To book on courses, please contact carol.lydiate@springmead.nhs.uk. Andrew is also available to assist organisations and individuals within the organisation.