Flower Essence Therapy for Emotional Balance
What if you could take something completely natural that could help you better handle stress, anxiety, and a whole host of other emotional issues?
Natural help for anxiety, depression, and stress without side effects, sounds pretty interesting huh?
Sit back and get comfy while I introduce you to one of my absolute favorite tools in my medicine bag- Flower Essences!
As far as we’ve come in the wellness arena I’m still surprised that most people haven’t heard of flower essence therapy. I’ve used this with my patients for 17 years now and I can’t imagine my practice without them!
So, what are Flower Essences?
Flower essences have been used for thousands of years in many different cultures but modern use began when they were “discovered” by Dr. Edward Bach in the 1930’s. He was a British Physician that had been working on creating vaccines and was then introduced to homeopathy. Once he learned a more natural approach he realized his life’s work was to advance the more natural approach to health and he began researching the effects of flowers. He used the flowering part which is the most highly developed part of the plant. He began to discover that the flower remedies he was making were very effective at treating a variety of emotional issues and once those were cleared up his patients began experiencing healing on the physical level as well. During his short life he created 38 different flower essences and those are what we know as Bach Flower Essences.
flower essence blends from Lotus Wei
Today there are hundreds of different flower essences from all over the world and more research is being done all the time. In my practice I use mostly Bach, North American and some Australian flower essences. I also use some blends like Lotus Wei and then create a custom blend for my patients depending on what shows up in our testing. Sometimes it’s exactly what we think it’s going to be and other times it seems random but we usually end up seeing that it was needed because of an underlying issue that hadn’t been revealed yet.
How are they made?
Flower essences are basically made like an herbal infusion or decoction and many of them are made by steeping the flowers in water for at least 3 hours in the sunlight. When sun is not available or it’s a heavier less delicate flower they can be made by boiling pure water and the substance for 30 minutes. Once the flowers have been infused into the water an equal part of brandy or sometimes glycerin is added to create what is called the mother tincture.
creating a flower essence elixir
How does it work?
We’re energetic beings in a physical body. The remedies are made by taking the energetic imprint of the specific flowers and those energies are what’s contained in the liquid. By introducing the positive energetic frequency of those flowers to our bodies it’s like we are gently nudged in the more positive direction. As an Acupuncture Physician it makes sense to me that flower essences are able to travel through the acupuncture meridians in the body.
What does it feel like?
Honestly the reactions that people have vary so much. I’ve seen some pretty huge shifts in some patients while others felt changes were less noticeable. For some it was a much needed boost in confidence, a realization that it was time to let go of something really big that was negatively affecting them, or a final push towards wellness after addressing long standing emotional trauma. In others it’s a very subtle change or an overall feeling of wellbeing. I often hear “I don’t know, I just feel better!”
I have quite a few patients that will take the results of their flower scan report into their talk therapy appointments so they can use that information to guide them on what needs to be addressed or even dig around and see if maybe there’s something that’s been hidden but needs to be addressed.
One of the best things about using flower essences is that you can’t harm yourself by taking them. At their worst they can be ineffective and you notice nothing though in my 17 years of practice honestly this is rare that there was no benefit found at all.
What are some of the most common things they help with?
I’ve worked with people who are working to heal past trauma, dealing with major changes within their families, addressing grief, wanting to reduce the negative effects of stress and loads of other circumstances. Using flower essences are great if you know you are coming up on a high time of stress also, or you’re preparing for a new job, a baby, or maybe your youngest is going off to school!
There are definitely some themes and specific flowers that I see come up over and over again.
Walnut - helps deal with transitions or change
Scleranthus - helpful for indecision or hesitation
Rescue Remedy- a mixture of 5 flowers that helps with times of major stress or trauma
Elm- helps dealing with feelings of overwhelm
Cherry Plum- fearful of losing control
Typically I’ll have patients fill out an intake and based on their health or emotional issues I’ll create a custom blend that they take for at least a month. Sometimes they feel like staying on that blend for awhile, others will move on to a new blend once their bottle is empty.
There’s no wrong way and I encourage my patients to listen to their intuition. Flower essences are truly an amazing therapy tool and I hope you’ll look into adding it into your wellness plan!
P.S.- They work really well for kids and pets too!
Interested in knowing which flowers are best for you- contact me and we can set up a flower essence consult. There are a couple of different ways to do it so either send me an email if you have any questions or you can book a flower consult online through my practice website by clicking here.
I love flower essences and know you will too!
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