Bach Foundation International Register
The Bach Centre
Mount Vernon
Bakers Lane
Sotwell
Oxon OX10 0PZ
England
www.bachcentre.com
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Book Review: How to be a Successful Therapist by Celia Johnson
This book aims to help new practitioners to set up and run a successful therapy practice. It covers the basics of marketing and promotion, and includes advice on working with clients and dealing with the tax man.
Celia Johnson writes well, and if the book is easily read in one sitting that isn’t just because it is only 100 pages long – it’s also because the words flow well, from hard advice to humorous anecdotes about some of the things that can go wrong in practitioner / client interactions. We won’t forget the practitioner having to cope with a client and a drunken daughter in a hurry!
Ms Johnson is a massage therapist, so the book is good on those problems that are especially likely to happen to practitioners of that therapy, from nuisance phone calls to inappropriate male responses (‘before you make a withering comment, remember that the poor man may just be bursting for a wee!’).
Much of the material here has been covered before (and sometimes in greater depth) in other books, but this remains an entertaining and helpful book. And if it helps you deal with one difficult client with any of Ms Johnson’s humour, it will have been money well spent.
How to be a Successful Therapist was published in 2003 by The Book Guild. 100pp, price £10.99.
Have you read a book that you would like other practitioners to know about? Please send your reviews to the usual address, and we will be happy to print them.
Plant Experiments
by Clarissa De Becker (daughter of Patsi Reeve-De Becker BFRP, Germany)
In 2002 I carried out an experiment with Bach remedies on a coloured nettle and a begonia. I took two cuttings from both plants and put them into a glass of water. I started to treat one coloured nettle and one begonia with a 30 ml bottle remedy mix to see if they developed in a different way to the untreated ones.
I gave both plants Walnut at the beginning. The coloured nettle started to lose its leaves, while the untreated plant was fine and I was worried that the experiment would not work because of the alcohol. At this point I had to leave for a 2 week trip and left the watering in the hands of someone else, who was not very interested in my experiment! On my return, although it had grown, the coloured nettle’s leaves had begun to droop and drop. I added Larch as it seemed listless and I thought of Dr. Bach’s group ‘Despondency and Despair’. I also gave it Olive because I thought it had lost energy through growing. It then started to grow very quickly and even created new blossoms. In this time the untreated plant only grew a bit, but did not form any blossoms. After a while I realised what had happened to the treated plant: I think the plant lost its leaves, because it had let go of the old to start something new. The untreated coloured nettle just started to grow, while the treated one changed its whole being.
The begonia showed a totally different reaction to Walnut. It did not lose its leaves, but the roots started to grow much more quickly and it was ready for potting four weeks earlier than the untreated one. Walnut helped the begonia to find a quicker way to settle in, literally to root itself whereas the coloured nettle was helped towards a new comeback, throwing off the old (leaves) and developing the new.
These are the most important points within the experiment.
I would like to add that I don’t think anyone can say my mind influenced the outcome of the experiment, as I had to leave the watering to an uninvolved party and was completely busy with other things in my absence. This experiment has expanded my understanding of the remedies, especially ‘wonderful Walnut’. I was perhaps a little hasty and in retrospect Walnut could have been enough.
Thanks Clarissa! The nettle’s listlessness must have been due to the plant’s ‘feeling’ that it was going to fail. It’s great to see people moving beyond the usual ‘rescue’ approach to working with plants. Does anyone else have stories on this to share? – Ed.
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 recently qualified as a BFRP and am also a registered mental health nurse. I would like to use the remedies in my nursing work as well as independently, and was wondering if any practitioners who have worked in mental health or in the health service generally could give useful tips on how they have incorporated them into their practice. I have some ideas already but tried and tested ones would be very useful!
Nathalie Harris BFRP, UK
You can contact Nathalie c/o the Bach Centre and we will pass on your replies. – Ed.
I would like to thank Ann Hull for the interesting article in Nov/Dec 2003 issue of the Bulletin, and with the importance of helping the remedies move into the allopathic sector. The effects noted within Anne’s article speak volumes for the remedies!
I personally would like to approach my local hospital/general practitioner to raise the profile of the remedies and I would be grateful for any correspondence, email, or a letter to the Editor so we can all share any ideas about how practitioners can generate interest and opportunities within the Health Service.
Caroline Kenyon BFRP, England
I found the following guidelines for qualities of a good listener and thought they were worth passing on. They come from Frances Farrer’s A Quiet Revolution, the story of Neil Hawkes and his extraordinary school in West Kidlington which encourages positive values in children. Clearly they apply to Bach practitioners:
- Non-judgmental
- Flexible in attitude (not school-teacherish)
- Honest -saying how it is (but mercifully)
- Calm, with positive feelings
- Be human, not appearing never to have had problems
- Sense of humour
- Ensure that my own position/values are understood
- Maintain confidentiality. Vital – then people will trust your integrity.
- Not saying things just to be popular
- Consistent in morale and manner
- Follow talk with note or phone call, when someone is in difficulty
- Show that you are unbiased and objective, and not just protecting your staff, your colleagues or your family
- Show that you genuinely care about people
Pat White BFRP, England
Thanks Pat. A Quiet Revolution: Encouraging Positive Values in Our Children is published by Rider, price £9.99. ISBN 0-7126-0577-0. – Ed.
Welcome to…
Since the last (November 2003) issue was prepared, 43 new practitioners have joined the register:
- in Argentina, Blanca Ana Romero and Patricia Maria Gimenez;
- in Australia, Pamela Geering, Valeria Ferraro, Vickie Sheffield and Wilma Roberts-Cameron;
- in Brazil, Renata Guimaraes Molitzas, Ane Cristina Baptista Pimentel Coelho, Roseli de Almeida Rodrigues and Yvone Barros de Oliveira;
- in Denmark, Liss Luna Selby Hervard and Magna Riis;
- in England, Lesley Davies, Judy Rigby, Pippa Standen, Siân Livesey, Miranda Olding, Richard Banks, Louise Beaumont, Nathalie Harris, Joanna Corscaden and Grace Boardman;
- in France, Marie Treppoz, Annie Letourneux, Dominique Cure, Marie-Odile Notter-Bettini, Claire Monnerie, Isabelle Collet, Marie Jourde, Claire-Christiane Blache and Susan Ariaudo Smith;
- in Japan, Yumi Nakagawa, Chizuru Fujioka and Hiroko Miyamoto;
- in New Zealand, David Siu Sun Cheung;
- in Spain, Liesl Bartjes-Harvey, Manuela Gonzaler Urender, Irene Castillo Beltran, Maria Dolors Arbones I Cabistany and Cristina Cayuela;
- in the U.S.A., Tamara Ballen;
- and in Wales, Neil Clarke and Fiona Macdonald.
There are now 1,423 practitioners on the register.
This archive material has been edited to remove some out-of-date advice and information.