I am a flower essence practitioner, mainly Bach, and herb consultant. My Creative Play workshops for children taking flower essences evolved intuitively as I began to realize that children, unlike adults, could not verbalize the various issues they were processing. The children readily admitted feeling jealousy, anger and depression. However, they would confess to a frustration of not knowing why they felt the emotion. They would tell me, "it just happened."

At the time, I was unaware of the concepts of a "safe but protected space," "creative play" or "emotional intelligence. When I came across these concepts from therapy for children several years later, I was amazed at how my workshops substantiated them.

The children I worked with came from dysfunctional families, where parents were heavy substance abusers. The kids needed creative expression in an environment where the only rule was to treat each other as they wished to be treated and where there was no judgment.

Their social interactive skills were quite poor, and they mostly communicated by shouting. We started with watercolors, then clay, then making an Indian village where each of the children had a section of the village and had to respect each other's home. The activity grew to more and more complex expression, culminating in Jungian sand play. Written creative expression was the last to emerge.

The most challenging child was "Tom," age ten. His mother originally came to me in desperation about Tom's explosive rage. At dinner, for instance, he smashed his fist into his mashed potatoes with such force that the potatoes sprayed onto the wall. She told me she couldn't control him and that he tormented his younger sister to tears daily.

Tom also had difficulty keeping friends. After a few weeks, his new pal of the moment would stop playing with him because of his bullying and demanding behavior. Despite being quite intelligent, he got mostly F's in school. At the first workshop, he proudly said that his favorite pastime was shooting birds with his BB gun. Although this was upsetting to hear, I passed no judgment.

As I did for the other children, I made up a blend of essences for Tom. The only rule I made these dysfunctional mothers follow was to be consistent in giving the blends to their children.

Tom's blend consisted of the Bach essences of Chicory (emotional neediness and feeling a lack of love, where negative behavior, acting out, gets attention, even if it's negative attention), Vine (for the bully, demanding it be done "my way") Clematis (for bringing his attention to the present moment rather than being "out there"), Schleranthus (for being focused, able to make decisions), Holly (for his jealousy, anger and sibling rivalry), Impatiens (for impatience), Chestnut Bud (for being able to break bad habits), Beech (for his disdain and criticism of others) and White Chestnut (the racing thoughts and inability to fall asleep then waking up throughout the night).

This may seem like a lot of remedies, and general wisdom in the field is to limit mixtures to five or less. Given the level of family dysfunction, however, I was concerned that Tom's mother might not follow through in getting him to the group or in administering the mixture. I might get only this one chance. Thus I packed the remedy full, a judgment call that paid off in a startling improvement.

As he used the essences, Tom quickly became the group leader. He brought his friends, which were now long lasting, to the group. He would "interview" them about their feelings while I made up their blends. In one semester, his grades went to mostly A's. His worst subject, math, showed the most dramatic improvement.

Within the course of a few months, this formerly mean-tempered bully came to me one day with a startling announcement I will never forget. By his behavior, I knew that what he was about to tell me was something of great importance.

I was so struck and moved by this profound realization from this ten-year-old I became too choked up to talk. All I could do was to reach out to Tom and hug him tightly.

This is but one example of many children in my practice who have been helped by the wonderful combination of play therapy and flower essences.

BIO: Kate Reynolds Yaskot is a flower essence practitioner, herb consultant, free lance writer and photographer. Her practice using essences, primarily Bach, has been extensive, including work with babies, children, adults and animals. Most of the children had numerous emotional and learning problems, including several ADHD children who were able to stop taking Ritalin and other psychoactive drugs through the essence work. She can be reached by e-mail.

DESIGN CREDIT: This background set based on Kokokapelli, the Story Teller, was created by SilverHawk's Graphics.

The World Wide Essence Society does not mean to imply any recommendation of nor give certification to any individuals or companies above. This article is provided purely for informational purposes. We ask consumers to make their own determination as to quality of the services and products offered above. This article is not meant to be advice, and the information is not meant to replace medical or psychological treatment.

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