Bach Foundation International Register
The Bach Centre
Mount Vernon
Bakers Lane
Sotwell
Oxon OX10 0PZ
England
www.bachcentre.com
Telephone +44 (0)1491 834678
Fax +44 (0)1491 825022
Logos, badges, letters
As you will know if you attended the practitioner conference in Oxford last month, we have launched a new logo, badge and membership letters, all reserved exclusively for use in connection with the Bach Foundation International Register of Practitioners.
The logo features a specially-commissioned woodcut of Mount Vernon, stressing the link to the Centre but giving the Register its own individual look. We are already using the logo on Bach Centre letter paper and compliment slips. Our version includes the words ‘Bach Foundation International Register’, as shown at the top of this Bulletin, where it will appear from now on.
As a Bach Foundation Registered Practitioners you can use a slightly different version of the same logo (as at right) on your business cards, letterheads, advertisements etc. The wording – ‘Bach Foundation Registered Practitioner’ – shows your inclusion on the Register, and sets you apart from other Bach practitioners who have not taken on the same commitments that you have to Dr Bach’s ideals of simplicity and self-help.
By now you should have received your practitioner badge, again featuring the new logo (see right). And you will know that while you are registered with the Bach Centre you can use the letters BFRP (Bach Foundation Registered Practitioner) after your name.
All these innovations will we hope help to raise your profile with the public and media, enhance your professional status, and help us to demonstrate clearly the unique position of the Bach Centre’s Bach Foundation programmes.
Practitioner conference 2000
All BFRPs will have received (or soon will) a pack from the conference, so we won’t report everything here that will be in the pack. But we would like to know what you thought of the conference, whether or not you came.
Animal experimentation
We don’t usually bring politics into the Bulletin, but on this occasion we feel moved to do so, and apologise in advance if anybody feels it is out of place.
A user of the remedies has sent us a cutting from Alternative News about the growing use of animal testing as a way of ‘proving’ the efficacy of various forms of natural medicine. Healthy animals are deliberately poisoned, infected with disease or electrocuted to stimulate various illnesses which the scientists then attempt to ‘cure’.
Alternative News rightly points out that holistic therapies can’t be tested properly in this way. Holism aims to treat the whole person – or animal – and the artificial modelling of a specific condition completely ignores the very emotional, lifestyle and spiritual causes that holism treats.
For our part, we are happy to say that we do not believe any maker of Bach remedies has ever tested them on animals.
If you feel strongly about this you might write to any other professional bodies that you are registered with, to ask for their views on this subject and to underline your own concern. The more people speak out against these practices the more hope there is of stopping them.
Using the cream
by Margaret Foster
I gave a talk last July. About ten people attended, three of whom had heard of, or knew a little about, the remedies. They were all without exception extremely interested in the talk and contributed with questions and real or fictional case histories. As well as talking I incorporated a lot of activities so that they would all feel involved and although I only introduced a few of the flowers I gave them quizzes or questions so that from the start the remedies would be relevant and real to them.
The whole activity, including my talk, lasted two hours, which turned out to be far too short, and I was asked to come back at a later date. But there was one question which I found it difficult to answer.
A lady asked about the cream version of the crisis formula, saying she was disappointed that it hadn’t cleared away a spot on her face. I explained that the remedies were for treating the person, not the disease and that they were used for the emotions and feelings. She asked, ‘well why is it made into a cream then?’
I talked about how the skin absorbs substances, such as in nicotine patches or aromatherapy, but as everyone was different the cream wouldn’t necessarily ‘cure’ every blemish. I said that if she had been feeling contaminated or dirty then the Crab Apple in it might have helped. I talked about how the mind and body work together, so that a physical injury could be associated with mental irritation (Impatiens) and shock (Star of Bethlehem). The group seemed quite satisfied with my explanation, but I felt I could have done better.
[Editor’s note: this can be a tricky question to answer, so how would you answer it? Let us have your thoughts, and we’ll give our own explanation next issue, and print any good angles on the question that we receive from you.]
Welcome to…
Since the last (May 2000) issue was prepared, 36 new practitioners have joined the Register:
- in Argentina, Maria Elena Ruiz;
- in Australia, Dianne Temby;
- in Belgium, Lea Van Looveren;
- in Brazil, Miriam Terezinha Molinaro Reis, Regina Marchant Gomes, Renato Marco and Celia Bertao Correia Leal;
- in Canada, Helene Lowry, and Linda Macdonald;
- in Costa Rica, Monika August-Neukirchen;
- in Denmark, Susanne Hamilton Clausen;
- in England, Caroline Palmer, Kate Harris, Juliet Brand, Hilary Canto, Kitty McCormick, Lorna Gallimore, and Ester Naylor;
- in France, Christine Ronda-Szwarc, Michèle Nicolas, and Bernard Lisbonis;
- in Japan, Anna Konno;
- in the Netherlands, Everdine Smakman, and Jeannette Bodt;
- in New Zealand, Wendy Knott;
- in Scotland, Carol Souness, Evelyn Munro, and Theresa McInnes;
- in Spain, Maria Victoria Ramos Sanchez, Ana Landa Berraz, and Trini Torres Estella;
- in the USA, James Lama, John Frieden, Carrie Adams Smith, and Linda Hughes;
- and in Wales, Jean Lang.
There are now 751 practitioners on the Register.
Your letters
We want you to use this Bulletin to keep in touch with each other. 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.
Anne Woodhead wrote a question about how to react on clients who can’t stop calling you. I think that clients who like to ‘disturb’ us on any inconvenient moment are there to remind us that we are not taking good care of ourselves. We can learn from people like this.
This has happened to me, and I learned to say: “I understand that you have a lot to talk about and I would like to give you the attention it deserves. Can we make an appointment and do a consultation-by-telephone? I will send the bill afterwards.”
In this way the person does not feel guilty for taking my time (or think they can get a free consultation on the phone). And I do not blame myself for listening while thinking of the work I should be doing instead.
In the beginning the price of my consultation by telephone was half the price of the normal consultation. But I was not satisfied with this, as the work was just as intensive as when I was seeing the person. Maybe even more intense, as I wanted to be sure that I heard the reactions well enough!
Marianque den Draak BFRP, The Netherlands
Anne, I read your letter that was published in the practitioner bulletin and decided to respond. I’ve found it helpful in my experience to ask myself the following questions:
Do I have a problem with setting boundaries between myself and other people?
Is it important for me to be ‘nice’? If so, what is the cost to me of being like this?
Why is it so important not to be rude to others by doing things I don’t want to do? Maybe I’m being polite to my client but at the cost of being rude to myself!
I think it is as important for us to say the things we want as it is for our clients to hear them. This can be part of their own learning experience and development.
I hope this helps. I apologise for my English and I hope you understand the spirit of what I want to say.
Keren Hen-Refael BFRP, Israel
A few weeks ago I was visited by a reporter from a local newspaper who wanted to find out about the remedies. Her article when it appeared fairly accurately reflected our discussion in a positive way.
I had an overwhelming response for about a week from a very wide area, right into south-east London. One day I returned home to find sixteen messages on my answerphone! The result is that my next course is full and I have lots of appointments to see new clients. I’m still getting calls, even now.
I would definitely recommend that practitioners contact their local paper and offer a consultation; this has brought me in touch with far more people than an advertisement would have done.
Angela Davies BFRP, UK
This archive material has been edited to remove some out-of-date advice and information.