We are now well into the new year and we hope that you all found time to relax and unwind over Christmas. Whether it was fraught and tiring or a blissful few days of total indulgence, it’s over now and time to focus on what is to come.
As far as we are concerned, a very full year lies ahead with a variety of exciting new projects and events to work on. We have started the year wearing our Vervain hats and allowed enthusiasm to rule! Our next task is to (reach for the Elm and) bring all our plans to fruition!
Local education
We have received a tremendous response to the questionnaire which was sent out with the last Bulletinand as a result we have a much clearer understanding of what is available around the country. We have also been able to put together a list of courses being run by Registered Practitioners. This is updated and growing all the time and will be a great help when answering queries from people interested in local opportunities to learn more about Dr Bach and the remedies. Thank you for all your efforts.
Trainer training
In addition to information about local educational activities currently taking place, we also asked whether you would be interested in additional training on how to teach the remedies in adult education. This request was met with overwhelming enthusiasm.
We are planning to run a short intoroductory course here at the Bach Centre (comprising either one or two days, depending on your experience) that will enable you to acquire new skills and ideas to help you in the teaching work you are already doing. In addition, and at the moment for UK practitioners only, there will be an ongoing course for those who would like to progress with a view to teaching an approved introductory Bach course. We are in the process of arranging a programme and will soon be contacting all those who expressed an interest, inviting them to apply for a place on the first series of courses.
Refresher days
Again, a great response has been received. The suggestions you gave for special topics of interest have given us much food for thought. The general consensus puts case history workshops and counselling skills as the most favoured subjects, closely followed by children and then animals. The whole idea of these events is to give you what you want, so we will organise the days to reflect your preferences and needs and thereby make the seminars as stimulating and enjoyable as possible.
Registration renewal fees
The current annual registration renewal fee has been the same since the very first practitioner was registered over five years ago. In view of all the new activities and support we have established and are planning for the future, we feel the renewal fee should be revised and set at a more professional level. The registration fees will therefore be increased from 1st May 1997. If your registration renewal is already due (or overdue), therefore, please make sure your renewal instructions reach us by 30th April, otherwise the new rate will apply.
Insurance proposal
In previous issues of the Bulletin we have brought to your attention various insurance companies’ policies which other practitioners have found comprehensive and good value. One of these companies, C.E. Heath (UK) Ltd., has now come forward with a proposal for a group scheme. The main terms of the scheme are:
- Insurance for working with Bach flower remedies (other therapies can be added) with a limit of indemnity of £1,000,000
- £100 excess on all claims
- Premium approximately £60 for 12 months
These terms are subject to a minimum of 50 students/practitioners joining in the first year, so we would like to hear from anyone who may like to participate in order to know whether or not it is a viable proposition. If you are interested, let us know, in writing please.
Old rumours die hard
The remedies have been the subject of strange tales for many years now. Once upon a time, legend would have it that at the back of Mount Vernon there was a secret room where a huge cauldron smouldered away…
More recently, if one were to believe the gossip, the remedy plants would be subject to mass cultivation, forced into flower and harvested with farm machinery. The tinctures would then be made by floating this vast crop on the surface of enormous vessels of water which would be left under simulated sunshine in the middle of winter, inside a factory.
Mount Vernon, of course, would have been demolished, a housing estate built in its place, and we would be operating from the top floor of an office block in Portsmouth.
The rumours came to a head when Nelsons became responsible for the bottling and distribution of remedies, but they have now been compounded by a new version of an old twist: the Bach Centre (presumably having been resurrrected from the demolition rubble) is said to be under new management, with the result that the remedies made from mother tinctures made here are supposed to have lost their strength.
Some of you may have heard of an article in the Winter 96/97 edition of Caduceusmagazine which reported these rumours as fact. Whilst many of you will not have had the chance to read the article personally, a client or colleague of yours may have read it. We have therefore prepared a detailed response in case you are asked for an explanation and would like to have the facts to hand. If you would like a copy, together with a copy of the article, please let us know.
Now we’ll take another dose of Vervain and move on to happier topics…
Success at last!
Those of us who have endured the perils of learning to drive and the virtual torture of the test itself, will perhaps remember only too well just how terrifying it can be! Jill Woods, Registered Practitioner in Romford, wrote to us recently with a wonderful success story:
A lady with an imminent driving text rang to say she was suffering sleepless nights, terrible nerves and apprehension, especially as she had taken several tests before (she would not say how many!). I gave Mimulus, Aspen, Larch and White Chestnut, and advised Rescue Remedy at any time. She rang a couple of weeks late to say that the test had been brought forward and she had only been able to take the remedies for two days before it, but that she had passed! She then confessed that she had been failing tests for eight years!
Congratulations, Dr Bach!
It just goes to show how perseverance pays off in the end! Dr Bach was absolutely right when he said “Never let anyone give up hope”. This lady certainly proved that point!
What would you consider her type remedy to be? Going by the determination, long struggle and clear reluctance to give up, she might well be an Oak.
Thank you Jill, and well done to the lady concerned – please pass on our congratulations!
Visual aids
Those of you who have been active on the speaker network, may have taken up our offer of a loan copy of the video and set of slides. The only slides we have available for this purpose is the set of 12 which includes photograps of Dr Bach, Mount Vernon, the sun and boiling methods and six flower pictures.
We will be endeavouring to shoot some more this year so that we can offer a further selection of remedy plant photos to people teaching courses on the remedies. These will be designed to reinforce the indications – e.g. an oak tree to depict the strong, reliable Oak character. Using pictures as a back-up to your explanation in this way should provide additional interest, increase understanding and act as a cue to further discussion, so we hope they will work well.
Obviously it will take a little time to get this collection together due to the flowering times of the plants we wish to use, but we will announce availability in the Bulletin.
An appeal
It is now four and a half years since the first Bulletin was issued, and we have sent out between two and three each year. We feel it is an important way for us to keep in touch with you, and for you to feel a continued link with the the Centre, and we would therefore like to increase its frequency to bi-monthly. This would provide you with a more readily available forum to share something with other practitioners or raise an issue of interest.
We will continue to pass on any new information or matters of interest and generally keep you up to date with what’s going on. However, we would like to receive some input from you as well! The Bulletin is your paper and will be what you want to make it. Hints on the practicalities of practice, ideas on appointment systems or how you might overcome difficult situations or deal with difficult clients – anything at all would be welcome.
Contributions can be as long or as short, as detailed or as frank as you like. We will send a voucher, redeemable against any of the items in our Bach Collection leaflet (i.e. anything except remedies) to everyone whose article is published. Now there’s an incentive! So why not give it some thought, put pen to paper and we will look forward to reading whatever you send us.
Competition
Have a look at the picture opposite, make a study of the posture, expression and possible scenario, and based on your perception, decide which remedy or remedies you would choose and why.
Your choice of remedies must be restricted to no more than three, and you must explain your interpretation of the scene and the reason for your selection in no more than 100 words.
The winning entry will combine creative reasoning and imagination with plausibility and appropriate application.
Please send your entry, making sure you include your name, address and a day-time telephone number, to the usual address to reach us no later than April 30th 1997. Please mark your envelope “Bulletin Competition”.
The winner will be notified as soon as possible after the closing date. The prize will be a book of your choice. (Please note, the prize may be selected from our current range of books or held over for a future publication.)
Good luck – we look forward to receiving your entries!
And finally…
It has been a long, somewhat dreary winter, but despite the howling winds of later, the crocuses are brightening up the garden, the Cherry Plum tree is covered in little green flower buds and the Aspen catkins have all burst forth. All good signs that spring is most definitely on its way!
This archive material has been edited to remove some out-of-date advice and information.