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
Credit cards
We’re happy to say that we are now able to accept credit cards (Visa, Delta or MasterCard). This means that if you pay your registration renewal fees direct to the Bach Centre you will be able to use a credit card in future. You will also be able to book places on courses using your card.
We hope that this change will make it easier for practitioners outside the UK to pay their renewal fees, as it will mean you will no longer have to organise payment through a bank and pay their unreasonably high fees.
Even more new Bach Centre courses in 2001!
On top of the bumper crop of refresher day courses to be held this year (see the January 2001 edition of the Bulletin) we’re delighted to announce two further courses that you can attend.
- Children and families with special needs – a one-day course run by Bernice Ensall. Bernice worked for 8 years as a Specialist Health Visitor for Special Needs Children, being involved in counselling, developing services and developmental assessments and training. The day will include a look at the problems experienced by special needs children and their families, and how to choose remedies to help. Real life cases will be used, and Bernice will call on her own experiences of how the remedies have helped in cases she has worked with. Course code R7/01; 8th October 2001; practitioners only.
- Mind-body study day – a one-day workshop run by Maggie Evans that will explore the mind-body phenomenon within the context of the latest thinking and research. The day will be linked into the philosophy proposed by Dr Bach, whilst reflecting on how the remedies work in harmony with mind-body wisdom. Maggie is a midwifery lecturer in higher education, and has special interests in the use of complementary medicine within the context of orthodox medicine. Course code R8/01; 9th October 2001.
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.
I have long wondered why Dr Bach did not put Gentian and Gorse, the remedies for despondency and for despair, in that category. My conclusion is that these two states come about when we lose our sense of being looked after by the Universe and hence become uncertain of the ‘good’ outcome of whatever is troubling us. (‘Good’ does not necessarily mean of course that the outcome is one we want, though it will be what is right for us.)
I would love to hear the views of other practitioners.
Judith Brooke BFRP, UK
There’s always the feeling that you’ve heard it all before but as a relatively new practitioner I’m still at the stage of being amazed and honoured by the wonderful feedback from clients – I thought I’d like to share some of them with you.
I had a visit from Anne – a single mother with two young daughters. The younger girl Jane aged 7 was suffering from a very unsightly condition called Molusculum – her whole torso and upper arms were covered in little wart-like blisters – although not painful this usually takes between six to nine months to disappear. Her sister Lara aged 9 kept getting repeated outbreaks of cold sores. I decided to use Crab Apple for both girls plus Chicory (Jane’s type remedy) and Larch (Lara’s type). I let them make up their own treatment bottles and practice using the dropper – they enjoyed their visit and were calling each other Chicory and Larch when they left! – I also explained how their mum could use Crab Apple externally.
About three months later Anne appeared in the shop to let me know that Jane’s skin had been completely clear within three weeks of starting the remedies and Lara had had no further cold sores. She also mentioned that Lara’s school report stated that she was really trying hard in class.
Robert is a client who has been severely depressed for a number of years – he was very distressed as his lithium dose had been increased and he couldn’t cope with the awful metallic taste in his mouth – we decided to add Crab Apple to his treatment bottle. His verdict -“Within two days although I knew the taste was still there it didn’t bother me.”
As I’ve already mentioned I continue to be amazed by the positive feedback I keep receiving – and on a personal level I don’t know how I managed without Bach as part of my life.
Theresa McInnes BFRP, UK
Reading the draft Code reminded me of advice I was given by a homoeopath many years ago when I found a gentleman in a coma in the street. I asked a householder to call an ambulance whilst I put him in the recovery position and checked his airways. Later I asked my homoeopath if I could have given him a remedy but he said something like –
If you give medication, treatment or assistance to a member of the public who is unwell or injured then you are deemed to have taken responsibility for any outcome of your ‘treatment’.
In view of the fact that people sue at the drop of a hat these days should something be included in the legal section of the new Code? Or perhaps you would feel it more appropriate in the Bulletin?
Pamela Wells BFRP, UK
A good point, Pamela. The Code already points out that practitioners are responsible for their actions, but it’s worth bearing in mind that this can apply even outside formal consultations. If in doubt about giving a remedy it is best to give it externally, which you would probably do anyway in a case like the one you describe.
I work with children who have been sexually abused, and I am preparing a research paper on using Dr Bach’s remedies with these children. I would like to make contact with other people who have worked with children in these circumstances, to discuss with them the effects of the Bach flower therapy. I would also be interested in any clinical cases that they can share with me.
Thank you for any help you can offer.
Alicia Abadi, USA
I have been doing a lot of work with the East Kent Hospital Trust staff support programme. The Trust covers five large hospitals, and I am doing ‘Bach’ days four times a year in each of them, plus various other pieces of Bach-related work in the hospitals.
I would be very interested in contacting other practitioners who are working with Health Authorities, so that we could swap experiences and tips!
Janet Blake BFRP, UK
I am a student, currently working my university access course. As part of my course I am preparing a project on the links between complementary medicine and the treatment of people with cancer.
I would be very interested to hear from any practitioners in any discipline who have experience in this area and would be willing to talk to me about their work.
Thanks for your help.
Clare Hadley, UK
Since last year, my family and I have been spending our holidays in La Maddalena, which is located in a tiny group of islands between Corsica and Sardinia. It’s a natural marine park that the two countries are protecting between them.
Our home is right by the sea. It lies in a fairly wild part of the land, and we are honoured by the presence of little tortoises and wild lilies. The place is really impressive, with century-old trees amidst the Mediterranean macchia and species like junipers, agave, cactus and many others.
But sadly, the environment has deteriorated, with grey spore illness attacking trees, exhausted soil and different types of algae flourishing along the bay shores.
During last October I instinctively tried to bring back some balance in the natural environment and got to cleaning the water of the flowing green algae. I also watered the seashore with a Crab Apple dilution for a few days. Then I went along without thinking any more about it, and went back to trying to take care of the soil…
One year later, the lady who lived there before us asked me about the seashore and beach, whether I had dragged the sea or something, because she was so surprised to see the crystal clear water, no weeds and new plants with flowers on the sand.
I too was astonished, remembering the situation the previous year. And the same can be said about trees and soil, for after pruning and watering them with Crab Apple and other remedies the spores almost disappeared and fresh plants and flowers showed up this year.
Our experience offers only simple and positive aspects… maybe someone could try and experiment with the same ideas somewhere else?
Nora Magnocavallo BFRP, Italy
An Oxford professor writes…
‘My fundamental assumption is that feelings and passions have not themselves changed in any essential respect over known human history; love and hatred, fear and hope, greed and generosity, these and their like are recognisable as far back as our sources stretch.’
Robin Briggs
Lecturer in Modern History and Senior Research Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University
Witches & Neighbours, HarperCollins, 1996.
Welcome to…
Since the last (January 2001) issue was prepared, 36 new practitioners have joined the register:
- in Australia, Petrina Tomkiw;
- in Belgium, Gerda Husson, Ludwina Vergote, Lieve De Kinder and Mia Butaye;
- in Brazil, Fabio Raimundo and Maria De Lourdes Savio;
- in Canada, Brenda Lalonde and Ingrid Spiegel;
- in Denmark, Mette Stauning, Susanne Luup Jensen, Maria Schou Larsen and Helle Rasmussen;
- in England, Christine VanderNoot, Michelle Callaghan, Helen Carmichael and Yash Bhupal;
- in France, Lilianne Chaloub and Corinne Mangasaryan;
- in Ireland, Breda Kelly and Gillian Houlihan;
- in Japan, Keiko Kakimura, Kei Kuwahara and Chie Kimura;
- in the Netherlands, Maria Vastenhout-Van Elten;
- in New Zealand, Frances de Latour, Janine Gilberd, Suzi Tetenburg and Catherine Bindon;
- in Scotland, Diana Manson;
- in Spain, Alfonso Aparicio Mena, Carme Collado Matamales and Victoria Sanchez Carretero;
- and in the USA, Joyce Caldcleugh, Mona Breitbeil and Lois Denmark.
There are now 906 practitioners on the register.
This archive material has been edited to remove some out-of-date advice and information.