Yip, Flower Essence Therapy – involves using flower essences to open yourself up to seeing and understanding messages and insights – is “Woo as F” says Healthish contributor, Adriana Velez, who, having tried and tested the practice, also agrees the practice has merit:
“…as someone who speaks often with my houseplants – out loud – flower essence therapy makes some kind of sense to me. Plants are living things with constantly transforming energy: propagating, germinating, shooting up, blossoming, dying, decomposing, starting over again.”
This transformative growth period is what inspired the food, health and fitness writer to give the practice a go: “I’m about to get married for the second time. I’m changing careers, altering my parenting strategy for my suddenly teenaged son and managing my shifting hormones. With so much movement in my life, I felt like I needed a new way to ground and understand myself, this new person I’m becoming.”
So, what exactly is flower essence therapy like?
Velez went to Aki Baker, a Brooklyn-based spiritual coach, reiki practitioner and flower essence therapist, to find out:
“We began with a Reiki session to centre me (i.e., help quiet my monkey mind so I can be present). The flower essence therapy started off very much like traditional therapy, except we sat on colourful floor cushions and sheepskin. Aki and I talked about what was going on in my life. This is my second marriage, and at midlife, it’s a commitment made with wild optimism as well as fear, anxiety, and doubt.”
What did the flowers reveal?
“Aki laid out a set of cards, each with a photo of a different flower. Then she had me look them all over. “Pretend you’re at a party,” she prompted. “Which flowers do you want to have a conversation with? Which flowers do you not want to talk with?” Situations like this bring out the overthinker in me.
But I was relaxed from the Reiki. I breathed and chose the images that most appealed to me, and those that seemed, for some odd reason, repellent. These choices were surprisingly clear.”
Aki then explained that like tarot cards, each flower represents a particular trait: “Rock water, for example, is all about being more flexible, spontaneous, and going with the flow, while dune primrose is about mothering myself and feeling gratitude for maternal influences in my life. The flowers I was averse to may represent issues I’m avoiding but need to address.”
Velez was then given a bottle of the different flower essences, (usually made by soaking flowers) and advised to take four drops of it four times a day until the contents ran out:
“While taking the flower essence, I was supposed to pay attention, to look out for subtle changes or messages, synchronicities, shifts in relationships, solutions to problems, and meaningful dreams.”
So, did it work?
“Even for someone who’s not particularly woo, these regular nudges to be mindful and to focus on specific themes were a powerful cognitive exercise. Little by little, those flower essences began to infuse my relationship with my partner – sometimes in scary, uncomfortable ways.”
By taking the flower essences, Velez found that she and her partner fought more because they were finally being completely honest with each other. However, after the next session in which Aki prescribed different flower essences, Velez also felt she became more aware of her adversity to trying new things and experimented with the concept that there was nothing to fear, which led to her partner being better able to resolve arguments.
After a third session, Velez “…leaned into a new lightness in my relationship and my life in general. I saw more fruitful placements for setting boundaries – like around my time. I saw how those boundaries created more space for freedom, agency, and joy. Spring came, and I was suddenly drawn to the scent of roses, which were everywhere. I fell in love with my partner again”.
Of course, like any form of therapy, flower essence therapy is an ongoing process:
“Aki describes it as peeling an onion. You’re always working your way deeper. Sometimes you need a less direct route to get there. Sometimes you run over the same ground but in a different way…Maybe, in the end, I didn’t need flower essences to rescue my relationship and save the wedding. But I’m taking them daily still because the ritual keeps me mindful, and that’s a quality I’ll continue to need.”
And if you’re into flowers, consider using Releaf Echinacea Drops, a product of natural origin that may help relieve symptoms of the common cold and fight off respiratory tract infections.
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