Bach flower therapy

In many clinical pictures, the individual moods of the sick play a role. Naturopathic procedures like that Bach flower therapy focus on these relationships during treatment and look for individual healing options.

What is Bach flower therapy?

The Bach flower therapy, named after its developer, the English doctor Dr. Edward Bach (1886 - 1936) is a naturopathic method of alternative medicine.

Dr. Bach, originally a surgeon and orthodox physician, has been intensively involved in herbal medicine and homeopathy since his youth and, based on his practical experience with patients and through surviving cancer, in which he was only diagnosed with a short life expectancy, he came to the conclusion that Many illnesses have their cause in a disturbance of the mental equilibrium and a healing must therefore be initiated from the mental and spiritual level.

From this he first developed the description of 19 states of mind, in the following period 38, to which he assigned flower and plant parts that were placed in water or boiled in order to transfer their effect to the water. From these mother tinctures thus created, the Bach flower essences were produced in a further step by dilution.

Function, effect & goals

Bach was a very good doctor in his time, but was dissatisfied with the healing success of conventional medicine and tried to find new treatment methods for chronically ill patients who could not be helped by conventional medicine.

To do this, he researched the connections between pathologically altered intestinal flora and chronic disease processes and was able to isolate 7 pathological bacterial strains from which he developed vaccines against the previously untreatable diseases. After his own cancer with a short life expectancy, which he overcame to everyone's astonishment, he came more and more to the conviction that the patient's personality was more the focus and less the symptoms.

Since he was dissatisfied that the vaccines had to be made from pathological pathogens, he searched for herbs and was able to name 38 negative emotional states as possible causes in 1935, to which he assigned 38 flower essences, which should stimulate self-healing powers through harmonization. Bach assigned a medicinal plant to each of these states of mind, the essence of which is supposed to dissolve the negative soul pattern. So z. B. beech for people who are particularly critical, provide more compassion and tolerance, ormennig helps with fear and restlessness, lead root harmonizes a low self-esteem, gorse hopelessness, olive exhaustion and dog rose indifference.

The preparation of the Bach flower essences follows a fixed ritual. The flowers must be picked on a sunny day before 9 a.m. and lie in the water for 3 hours.The liquid is then preserved with brandy or cognac, they are diluted in a ratio of 1: 240, the solutions are bottled and further diluted. By further dilution, the Bach flower essences are produced, which can be taken as drops. In the case of trees and bushes, stems and leaves are boiled instead of flowers.

A special form of Bach flower essences are the "emergency drops" developed by Bach, a combination of 5 constant flowers with double concentration. They are particularly suitable in emotional emergency and stressful situations z. B. before operations, dental treatments or exams. In real emergencies, however, a doctor should always be consulted.

Risks, side effects & dangers

Only natural plants are used for the Bach flower essences. Since the Bach flower therapy only transmits the healing information, the body only absorbs the active ingredients when it has a deficit of this energy.

If the wrong remedy is taken, it will not be absorbed by the body and therefore cannot cause any damage. If the flower essences are used and dosed correctly, they are free of side effects. A positive and wanted side effect can show up in more intense dreams and relieving tears. When using Bach flowers, there are also no interactions with other drugs.

With some remedies there is a risk of dependency due to the substances used, and over time the dose must be increased to keep the effect constant. Bach flower therapy does not involve this risk. People with alcohol problems should still be careful because the Bach flowers contain alcohol. Dry alcoholics should avoid the flower essences. Alcohol can also affect the way other medicines work if they react to alcohol.

The effectiveness of the Bach flowers is controversial, the treatment costs are therefore not covered by the statutory health insurance. In Germany they are not approved as medicinal products and can therefore only be obtained from pharmacies abroad. Today, Bach flower essences are mainly taken by people to help themselves, but are also used in some cases by medical and psychological institutions for treatment, either for general health care, to help in stressful situations or to support chronic illnesses. Children in particular often respond well to treatments with Bach flowers.

Good treatment results can also be seen in animals and plants. If you want to find out which Bach flower essences are best for you, you can find out in online questionnaires. It is important to pay particular attention to the states that are currently present, less the states typical for the character.