Hello all.
Autumn is now definitely in the air. The holiday period is over for most people, and soon the evenings will be drawing in fast. Autumn invokes peace and stillness, and a sleepy yet inspiring calmness, so we felt it would be a good time to prepare another communication bulletin before winter descends and thoughts become too focused on bonfires, chestnuts, hot drinks and warm boots.
Refresher days
From next year we want to start running a series of refresher days, short one-day courses just for Registered Practitioners. They will allow you to brush up on your skills and at the same time give you a chance to renew old acquaintances with the team at Mount Vernon and of course make new friends with fellow practitioners from all over the world.
We have our own suggestions for the sort of study days we think would be useful, but you probably have your own ideas as well, and we would love to hear them. So whether you want a day on counselling skills, children or animals, a symposium on the legal status of complementary health practitioners, a case history workshop, a midwives’ conference or a line-by-line exploration of the Code of Ethics & Practice, this is your chance to let us know. Just write to Stefan Ball at the normal address and tell us what you think.
Internet
Those of your with computers and modems (and the time) to browse the internet, may have come across the Bach Centre’s home page. This is an informative and interactive means of finding out more about Dr Bach’s work. Simply click onto the WWW – http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Bach_Centre.
We also now have an E-mail address: 101744.1312@compuserve.com
[Both the above addresses are very out of date but are left here for their historical interest! – Ed.]
Have fun and drop us a line!
Advertising on the Internet
We have been contacted by Natural Healing UK Ltd telling us how we (or you) can advertise on the internet from just £2 +VAT per month. If you are interested contact Natural Healing UK Ltd.
Bach for Men
In the last Bulletin, we mentioned Stefan Ball’s book Flower Remedies which had just been published by Blitz Editions. He now has a second book, Bach Flower Remedies for Men, published last month by the CW Daniel Co, and already receiving a good deal of interest from publishers in other countries.
“BFR for Men” covers all aspects of the male experience – bullying, love & sex, work, fatherhood and a variety of health issues. Worth every penny!
Support groups
In the last Bulletin, we gave you an update on how the support groups were going. At the time, we were under the impression that all was well and that the groups were, indeed, supportive. Unfortunately we have since heard that in at least three areas they are far from that and have, sadly, gone a little flat. The organisers have, in each case, tried their hardest to drum up enthusiasm, bring fellow practitioners together and be supportive themselves. We share their disappointment at the lack of response, and hope that by addressing the situation we can encourage more of you to attend.
The areas which are most in need of support are Bristol/Avon/Wiltshire, West Sussex/Kent, and Essex (although in the case of the latter, where the practicalities of attending arranged meetings was a genuine problem, communication and discussion via correspondence has worked quite well). Well done everyone concerned, and good luck with your efforts.
We know that group meetings are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they are intended to bring people of like mind – and training – together to discuss anything which may be of interest or concern. They are there to help individual practitioners feel less isolated and provide a network through which you can voice an opinion, glean information, gain reassurance or just sit quietly and listen.
From what we gather, there is a problem in getting everyone concerned together at the same time – understandable since you all have busy schedules and prior commitments and we appreciate that it is not always easy to plan a meeting which everyone can attend. However, there also appears to be a distinct hint of apathy. Obviously, to make any group succeed, members do need to be personally motivated and prepared to take an active involvement, but sometimes, it is just a matter of making an effort. If this is the problem, take heart because all is not lost – a good dose of Hornbeam and/or Wild Rose should do the trick nicely! The rest is up to you.
Farnham Association for Complementary Therapists
Those of you in the Farnham area may be interested in the above. They meet in the evenings once a month at Brightwells Centre, Farnham, Surrey. There is a guest speaker at each meeting and membership costs £11 per year. Contact Sue Hall for details if you are interested.
Mind-altering medication
Following the article in the last Bulletin, one of our practitioners has written to say that she has found it quite difficult to treat some people taking certain medication. The clients she mentioned were suffering with tinnitus, a condition which, in these particular clients, had either been exacerbated or caused by the drugs they had been taking.
Unfortunately, some of these clients apparently experienced a return of their original symptoms when they started taking Bach remedies, even though they were still taking the anti-depressants, tranquillisers or sleeping pills originally prescribed. Clearly, the remedies were disturbing the apparently “calm clear water”, and as a result, the “muddy pool” effect was occurring.
However, as our practitioner said, it is very difficult to persuade clients who have become alarmed by what they can only interpret as a “bad reaction” to believe that the effect is a positive one and encourage them to continue to take the remedies.
When the problem is obviously deep-rooted, it would be wise to explain to clients from the outset how the remedies work (i.e. that it is usually a gentle process of gradual improvement), and what the possible (beneficial) effects might be (i.e. that suppressed emotions need an escape route, and dealing with certain feelings which may have lain dormant for a long time, might not be comfortable). You can then offer the necessary reassurance and explain that treatment will always be at their pace and that they should not feel embarrassed or afraid to tell you how they feel because a remedy or remedies will always be available to help them deal with whatever emotions they experience.
One must bear in mind, however, that as practitioners we are educators and guide, not prescribers, and although it can be frustrating and sad when it seems obvious how much the remedies could help a certain individual, yet that individual refuses to even look at them, we have to acknowledge and respect personal choice. Ultimately it is always up to the individual concerned whether or not he or she wishes to continue to take the remedies. We cannot force the issue.
We can only plant the seed – it’ll grow in its own time.
Local education
As you know, all through 1996 Seminars and Weekend Workshops have been held in different parts of the country to introduce people to the Bach remedies. These have been a great success, but there is a limit to how many parts of the country and how many people they can reach. It would be very convenient if people also had the option of going to their local adult education centre and taking a course there.
Many of you have long realised this, of course, and we hear now and again from Registered Practitioners who are teaching seminars or complete courses in the remedies. Now we have decided to take a leaf from your book. We want to try to support what you are already doing and at the same time make Bach flower remedy courses far more widely available.
The first thing we need to do is find out who is already involved in teaching, which is why there is a questionnaire and covering letter being sent out with this Bulletin. Once we have collated this information we should be able to produce a list of courses being taught by Registered Practitioners. When people ask us at the Centre about local training opportunities, we will be able to tell them about your course. We will also provide help and support to enable you to put together and run your courses as effectively as possible.
But this is only the first step. Some time in the next twelve months we plan to run teacher training courses here at the Centre. These will be open to Registered Practitioners (and only to Registered Practitioners) who want to make teaching the remedies an important part of what they do.
People who successfully complete this training will have the opportunity to teach “official” Bach flower remedies courses – in other words courses to the same level that is used for the Seminars and Weekend Workshops – at their local college. This will in turn pave the way for full recognition of colleges as recognised training centres, as long as they are employing Registered Practitioners to teach the official course.
We think that the benefits of this approach are very great. It will support work that many of you are carrying out already. It will give you as Registered Practitioners more status in the eyes of colleges and other organisations, since they will see the benefits of our providing them with publicity and – eventually – of being able to offer properly approved courses. It will ensure that only the correct, simple and pure message of Dr Bach is taught.
And above all it will give people all over the country the chance to learn about this wonderful system of medicine.
So what do you need to do?
The first step is to fill in and send back the form so that we know what you are doing now, and what other local training is going on in your area. If you are not currently teaching but want to this would be an excellent time to contact your local adult college or health centre and find out if they are interested in a course – most of them are always on the look-out for new subjects and will be keen to hear from someone with proper training in the subject.
We are putting together a pack that we will send you if you are training already, which we hope will be helpful right away and will also give more details of our plans. And as soon as we have finalised arrangements for the teacher training days you will be the first to hear.
In a sense of course all Registered Practitioners are already involved in teaching, since our role in helping people with the remedies is to give them the knowledge and confidence thy need to select for themselves. And of course the speaker network, which aims to provide speakers for WI meetings, local talks and so on, has been around for a couple of years already. This present effort is an obvious extension to these activities – and we are grateful to those of you who are already involved in this area for letting us borrow your idea!
1997 Seminars and Workshops
… but meanwhile the road-show continues! There will be a new series of Seminars and Weekend Workshops in 1997, and of course they will be open to anyone who wants to attend them as well as or instead of the new local courses. For this year’s series the introductory Seminar has been upgraded to a two-day course so that it really is the most comprehensive introduction to the remedies available.
At the time of writing we don’t have the final dates but we hope that in a week or two they will be ready and shortly after that a leaflet will be available. This will be sent out with the next issue of the Bach Centre Newsletter when it comes out in December, but if you can’t wait until then you can phone us and we will put your name on an envelope ready to send you one as soon as we have them from the printer. And if you would like a small stock of leaflets to hand out to clients or friends or anyone else, just ask.
The next Bulletin will be early in the New Year. So ’til then, enjoy the rest of the autumn and have a peaceful and happy festive season.
Keep warm, take care. Best wishes from us all.
This archive material has been edited to remove some out-of-date advice and information.