The value of a Bach flower remedy consultation

A personalized Bach flower formula contains up to seven flower essences.

by Maria Troia — 

You may be familiar with Rescue Remedy®, the Bach flower crisis formula. But did you know that there are 38 other Bach flower remedies that can be used to restore emotional balance and help you achieve what you came to this earth to do?

People often try to self-treat with these remedies, based on the generic two- or three-line descriptions they read on the labels. But those who do this merely end up with a collection of bottles and have not resolved their emotional conflicts. This is because they bypassed a professional consultation.

A personalized Bach flower formula contains up to seven flower essences. As you are gradually restored to emotional balance, these flower essences need to be changed after a period of about three weeks. Specific “type” flower essences that define your personality may stay in your individual formula for months and even years. However, as one emotion is resolved, another emotion almost always lies underneath, waiting to emerge and be treated. As with many natural approaches to healing, working with the Bach flower remedies is like peeling away the layers of an onion. When this happens, it is time to address the underlying emotion with a new formula.

This is, in part, how people acquire multiple bottles of the flowers and find themselves frustrated. The original group of flower remedies they chose no longer works, so it was time to isolate a new formula.

A more common cause of that collection of bottles is that people do not select the correct emotion to treat in the first place. They do not look deeply enough under the surface emotion. This is not their fault; it is merely human nature. It is very difficult to honestly assess the source of one’s own emotions.

The 38 flowers are divided into seven categories: Fear, Uncertainty, Over Care, Loneliness, Oversensitivity to Influences, Despondency and Despair, and Insufficient Interest.

Let us say someone suffers from a lack of confidence. He might immediately be drawn to Larch, a flower used for someone experiencing a lack of confidence. Larch is found in the Despondency and Despair category.

But what if a person holds no confidence because he believes that nothing he does is ever good enough? That belief/emotion actually relates to Pine, which is also found in the Despondency and Despair category but relates to a very different type of personality.

The person who needs Larch has such low levels of self-confidence that he will not even attempt something, because failure seems certain for him. The person in need of Pine simply faults his every step, feels guilt and partakes in self-blame. The Pine person will try, but all the while apologizes for not being better.

What if a person’s lack of confidence pertains to an inability to trust his own judgment? What if he constantly has to ask others what he should do before making a decision? On the surface, this person might seem to have low self-confidence. But that behavior is actually treated with Cerato, which is in the Uncertainty category. If the source of the person’s insecurity has its roots in an inability to trust his own judgment, Larch will not help at all.

Let us examine another commonly voiced complaint — fear. This requires examining why someone is fearful and what it is that frightens him. If it is a specific fear, such as a fear of spiders or driving on a freeway, the remedy is Mimulus. But if the fear is a general sense of foreboding — a feeling that something bad and yet unnamed waits around the corner — the remedy is Aspen. Another person might fear losing control, which is treated with Cherry Plum. Or another might be panicked, shaken to the core and in terror — all Rock Rose emotions. All of these essences fall into the Fear category, yet each is distinctly different. It is vital to select the correct flower that matches the unbalanced emotion.

Now what if someone is fearful of trying and, as a result, will not take any kind of action? This actually is not a type of fear that can be resolved with remedies from the Fear category, but it is Larch remedy behavior, which stems from Despondency and Despair.

What if the person is terrified of confrontation, and as a result, never expresses his true feelings or shows a happy face to the world? He suffers inside and finds something else to do to avoid a confrontation. Agrimony is called for in this case, which falls under the Oversensitivity to Influences category. While the person might appear to be frightened, balance will not be restored to the emotions unless the proper flower is chosen to address the source of the fear.

The Bach system is wonderfully simple and infinitely safe, yet it can become complex and overwhelming when you attempt to assess yourself, especially when you are under stress and emotionally out of balance. This is where the beauty of a consultation comes in. The consultation allows the trained professional to hold up an invisible mirror for the client. In doing so, the client is gently led to an awareness of the root emotion, which is also an important aspect of restoring balance. The consultant serves as a neutral listener and observer. As a result, the consultant is able to select the appropriate flower remedies for the client.

Most consultations take an hour, though some may only last 45 minutes. In complicated or more acute situations, a session can last for 90 minutes. Then, based on the information gathered, the consultant puts together a formula bottle containing up to seven essences. The formula is taken in four drops, four times per day and lasts for about three weeks, at which point another assessment is done. A new formula is usually given until the problem resolves.

Sessions are most often conducted in person but also can be done by phone, with the formula shipped to the individual.

Maria Troia, MSEd, LMT, NCTMB, CH, is the owner of East-West Holistic Healing Arts in Scottsdale. She is a Level 2 Bach Flower remedy consultant, trained in the John Barnes Approach to Myofascial Release and AMMA Therapy® and approved by the NCBTMB as a continuing education provider. www.EastWestHolistic.net, [email protected] or 480-313-6260.

Reprinted from AZNetNews, Volume 30, Number 6, Dec/Jan 2012.