How to Explain Flower Essences
to the Uninitiated

©2001 by Gretchen Lawlor

Explaining what flower essences are can be a real challenge. We are well beyond the limits of modern scientific thinking--into the realm of vibrational medicine. Yet, your ability to describe what they are and how they work is a cornerstone to using them successfully in healing. Your clients' progress depends in great part on their confidence in you.

Additionally, their willingness to persevere in this form of treatment may require having a simple understanding of the essences that they are able to communicate to significant others. Otherwise, their mate, family, or a skeptical mother-in-law can sabotage the work with critical comments or ridicule.

Of course, each essence practitioner will have a different perspective on the essences and thus a different way of explaining them. You'll also find yourself using different definitions for different kinds of people. Clients who have had experience with meditation or alternative medicine will be more receptive to the spiritual dimensions of the work. Very conservative people or those with no exposure to the field may need you to communicate in a more scientific mode and in greater depth.

You might start by asking clients whether they have heard of the Bach remedies, as they are the best known. If they have some experience of them, then your job will be to fill in the holes in their information and perhaps share a few favorite remedies. Remedies you know well and have personal experience with will be your most effective educational tool. There's nothing like enthusiasm and conviction to win people over.

For the uninitiated, and especially for the rather conservative, I tend not to volunteer details about how the remedies are made--it's just too much of a stretch! If pressed, I may compare the essences to homeopathy, because many of my clients are acquainted with homeopathic remedies. Both are composed of common substances in a highly diluted form; both affect the subtle energetics of body mind and spirit.

A survey of writers in the field revealed some helpful approaches to explaining the remedies. For hard-core skeptics, I like to refer to Richard Gerber's Vibrational Medicine or even to loan them a copy of the book. He is a medical doctor who has done much to establish the credibility of homeopathy, acupuncture and other forms of vibrational medicine. He says, "Vibrational medicines are usually essences or tinctures which are charged with a particular frequency of subtle energies."

More accessible to the general reader is Donna Cunningham's Flower Remedies Handbook. She says, "For the totally uninitiated, you might say that the remedies are made from flowers and other plants, prepared in a very diluted form, and that they help people mobilize to change destructive patterns in their lives." (p.37)

Deborah Bier of Whole Energy Essences recommends the use of testimonials. Without making healing claims or diagnoses, share a story or two about how the remedies have help others in situations the listener can relate to. Simply told, these are enormously powerful and right to the point. They are also easy for the client to retell to friends or family who are asking about the remedies and maybe pooh-poohing them.

Although I said earlier that enthusiasm would help you convince people to take remedies, there are times when it is wise to temper your enthusiasm. If you were to claim that vibrational remedies could cure physical or mental illnesses, then you could be in danger of being charged with practicing medicine without a license.

To avoid trouble, watch your language! Plant Spirit Medicine teacher Eliot Cowan says the term diagnosis is a no-no for essence practitioners, instead use assessment; rather than treatment, say recommendation or suggestion. Within these guidelines, however, go ahead and introduce others to these excellent healing tools --with enthusiasm!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gretchen Lawlor, who has contributed several articles to Vibration, is an astrologer and naturopath of many years experience who conducts a practice on Whidbey Island, Washington. Visit her web page. She can be reached at P.O. Box 753, Langley, WA 98260. For consultations, call her at (360)221-4341 or e-mail light@whidbey.com.

CREDITS: The outermost and center background tiles are from Absolute Background Textures Archive. The flower tile is from Kree's Kreations. The matching elements were created in PaintshopPro5.