Publishing your names and addresses
On the internet…
We’ve had a couple of requests recently from potential clients who want to be able to contact local practitioners direct from the Bach Centre’s web site.
We propose to start publishing on our web site the names, phone numbers and (where possible) email addresses of all registered practitioners who are accepting referrals. We will also include enough information to allow members of the public to know where in the world you are – in other words, the name of the country, state/county and town that you live in. We will not list house numbers, street names or postcodes/zip codes, so that your postal address will remain private.
This service will start in September this year. Please write and tell us if you do not want your name and contact details on the web. If you have only recently obtained an email address and want that to be listed, again let us know.
In print…
In general, we do not give a print of the full register to anyone who asks for it. This is because we don’t want practitioners to be inundated with junk mail, especially if (as has happened in the past) a company is going to imply in its approach that the Bach Centre has vetted and approved a particular service.
When you first register you are given the chance to say whether you want us to release your name and address to companies who might want to send you details of their services, and the same question is asked on the registration renewal form. We only release the names and addresses of practitioners who have given us permission, and then only to organisations who to the best of our belief are genuine and offering a useful service.
Full practitioner lists, including address details, are made available to Local Registrars (Bach Centre representatives) in some countries, but only for the purpose of maintaining the register and offering Bach Centre support.
To other practitioners…
Registered practitioners who want to refer clients to practitioners in other parts of the county are encouraged to do this through the Bach Centre, which always has the most up to date information. Full phone lists of all registered practitioners taking clients are however available on the web site.
To clients…
Unless you specifically tell us you want us to, we do not release the full addresses of practitioners to members of the public. We only give out a telephone number and name, so that you can have an opportunity to talk to the person on the phone before deciding whether to arrange an appointment.
Update from India
by Karen Rosen
My first ‘season’ in Kovalam has reached its end so I am joining in with the majority and closing up for 2 or 3 months during monsoon.
I have no regrets over the decision I made a year ago to come and live in South India. I was overwhelmed by the friendliness of the people here and the way they enabled me to settle in so very quickly. The heat, the colours, the smells, the sounds all instantly hit you but soon become assimilated. It has been a truly wonderful experience, first for me, and then to watch my ‘guests’ as they experienced the rewards of letting go and just ‘being’ in India.
Kailasam is very much a home, enabling people to feel that their stay in Kovalam was spent at a friend’s house and so easing the transition for them.
The courses have been interesting and rewarding for the teachers and students alike as they exchanged knowledge on Ayurveda, massage, yoga, cookery and cultural differences. I have continued to work with aromatherapy and the Bach remedies and have been seeing amazing shifts in people’s health and attitude. Maybe it’s the energy here – strong, vibrant and never subtle; maybe it’s due to visitors here being more open and receptive. I’m sure it’s a combination of both and I find it humbling to be part of that energy.
I will be in England for July and August and I’m happy to talk with anyone who wants more information. And I shall be back ‘home’ in India from September, looking forward to meeting many new friends in the coming season.
Om shanti.
Karen Chapman
Our good friend and registered practitioner Karen Chapman has been the main driving force behind the Bach International Education Programme for several years now, and has worked closely with the Centre to launch training programmes in a dozen different countries.
For a few months, however, she will be taking things easy (!?) while she has her first baby – due in August. Our good wishes go to Karen and her partner Richard, and we hope to see all three of you soon!
Welcome to…
Since the last (May) issue was prepared, eighteen new practitioners have joined the register:
- in Brazil, Carlos Roberto da Rocha;
- in Canada, Lieve Perneel and Karen Christopher;
- in Italy, Diana Antonaroli;
- in Latvia, Katrina Rikarde;
- in Spain, Sylvia Cervello Alcaraz and Josep Maria Pujol Abella;
- in the UK, Brian Weld, Margaret Irvine, Jenny Pollock, Judith Gavan, David Barnett, Susan McCarthy, Howard Wood, Ingrid Lang and Hilary Baines;
- and in the USA, Debra Diane and Beth O’Boyle.
There are now 456 practitioners on the register.
Your letters
I am writing in response to Lyn Macwhinnie’s article about Marketing Courses on the Bach Flower Remedies in the March issue of the Bulletin.
I have been teaching various health & complementary therapy classes in Adult Education for the last 12 years. A method of finding students and clients which has always worked well for me is this: I go to the local library and get a list of all the women’s groups in the area. I then write to the secretary of each group offering to give a talk to the group about any of the subjects I teach. My proposal is usually greeted eagerly by the secretary who needs to find speakers, they pay me for the talk and I can advertise my classes and services, so I get students and clients.
This is how I have built up my classes and client base. The only slight disadvantage is that the secretaries will often be looking for speakers for the forthcoming year so it might be quite a while before you actually get to visit the group. However, if you begin now with a letter, you will reap the rewards later!
Angela Davies, England.
If all cases could be so cut and dried as one I had the other week it would be wonderful.
An old friend called for help. Her 30 year old daughter, a new mother and recovering heroin addict, was enrolled in a methadone program in a rural area. It included going to the local pharmacy every day for her methadone. A new pharmacist took over dispensing to her, did not measure correctly and overdosed her. She left the pharmacy feeling very sick and was taken at once to the local hospital.
We are experiencing major cutbacks in funding for medical services in our province so there is not the time, compassion and technical skill that there used to be. The idea is to treat as quickly as possible and discharge patients, especially those with unsavoury difficulties like drug addiction.
Even though she was the victim of her recovery program they fed her charcoal and sent her home. She was still very sick and felt like she was losing her mind. Her mother at this point called me and we put her on a mix of the crisis formula and Crab Apple. In a short period of time she started coming down and feeling better, and was fine by morning. Both mother and daughter were very grateful for the remedies.
Susan Woolfenden Hamilton, Canada.
If anything wonderful, funny, interesting or just plain typical has happened to you in your work with the remedies, or if there are any questions that have been nagging away at you, or if you simply want to say hello, please write to us at the Bach Centre, marking your letter clearly as being ‘FOR PUBLICATION’.
We can’t promise to print every letter in the Bulletin, but even if we don’t use your contribution we always love to hear from you.
Competition answers
In March we gave you the passage on the right from the science fiction novel Valis, by Philip K Dick, and asked you to tell us which error you think is the worst one for a practitioner to commit.
The first prize goes to Jane Shaffer in Ohio, USA. ‘Dr Stone’s fundamental error,’ she writes, ‘is the word picture he creates making the Bach remedies seem like a magic potion, implying a secret that is attainable by only a chosen few.’
Jane will be invited to choose a book from the Bach Centre collection.
And a special prize of a bottle of Vervain goes to our old friend Barbara Stanhope-Williamson from London, whose entry was short and to the point: ‘The worst error Dr Stone could make is to prescribe the remedies at all. A total ignoramus. STRIKE HIM OFF THE MEDICAL REGISTER!’
Summer competition
At the Chelsea Flower Show in May this year, the names of some of the remedy plants appeared as part of a themed exhibit, all linked to quotations from Shakespeare. So we spent some time looking for quotations that could illustrate remedy indications.
For this competition, we would like you to look at the following quotations and tell us which remedy you would select for each one. As a tiebreaker, tell us why you made the selection you did for quotation number four. The practitioner with the best entry will win a book of his/her choice from the Bach Centre collection.
- ‘I must from this enchanting queen break off’
- ‘Oh! How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes’
- ‘And then it started like a guilty thing upon a fearful summons’
- ‘Indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow’
In the next issue…
- The ‘top ten’ remedies around the world
- Practitioners working with doctors
…and much, much more!
Thanks to all who have sent in articles and news to share. Please keep it coming – we enjoy hearing from you and what you have to say is always of interest to fellow practitioners.
This archive material has been edited to remove some out-of-date advice and information.