What is Flower Essence Therapy?

This article has been adapted from my assessment on Flower Essence therapy.

Flower Essences (FEs) are a form of energetic medicine that works by influencing changes in the physiological responses that help to coordinate the way you think, feel and act. This then influences your physical wellbeing through the mind-body connection. It may have a placebo effect, but research has shown that a positive thought can improve the outcome of treatment.

In natural medicine, we look at treating the person holistically and take an individualised approach in treatment. Some disease states can be caused by traumatic experiences and as everyone has a different response to experiences and treatments, it is best to receive individualised treatment for your symptoms.

As health practitioners, we use our clinical judgement to do the best we can for our patients. Therefore, if we feel that any aspect of your wellbeing needs some support, please trust us to do the best we can to help support that.

How do Flower Essences work and when are they considered?

This is where we get to the science-y side of it. FEs are said to work by shifting electromagnetic energy, which alters the physiological reactions that are responsible for the coordination of neurotransmitters, neuropeptides and hormones; which further helps to transform how a person thinks, feels and acts (de Albuquerque & Turrini, 2022). In other words, it indirectly makes changes to the messages in your mind and your body through the mind-body connection.

Although this is not an exhaustive list, the prescription of FEs would be considered; in cases where gentle therapies are desired, when a person is experiencing emotional and/or psychological issues, and to aid in personal growth.

What evidence is there to confirm the efficacy of Flower Essences?

There is a need to acknowledge scientific evidence to prove the efficacy of FEs to the public; however, as the prescribing of FEs is based on individualised treatment and changes as a person experiences different life events, it is difficult to research its efficacy without generalising the population. Generalisation will abolish the individuality of the treatment, causing it to be less effective as it then does not treat the cause of the dis-ease and only then looking at symptomatic treatment.

Qualitative studies of the efficacy of individualised cases may be more beneficial in supporting the use of FEs as opposed to quantitative studies on whole populations. Therefore, it is less important to have scientific evidence and more important to have clinical evidence of successful cases of FE therapy.

There was a research study conducted by de Albuquerque & Turrini (2022) on a small sample of 14 people. Participants already taking herbs, antidepressants and anxiolytics were excluded. The majority of participants were young, single and female; and all participants were from the same region. Participants who did not meet the minimum score on the Baccaro Test were also excluded from the research, which does not account for efficacy in mildly stressed individuals.

The placebo & flower essence (FE) groups were randomised but the allocation was not blinded. The pharmacist responsible for preparing the formulas knew who was given FE and who was given placebo, which could input bias. There was also only one single mix of FEs that was given to everyone in that group, which reduced its individualisation to each person's situation.

This paper concluded that there was little variation between the FE group and the placebo group. However, there are a number of aspects within the study that made it inapplicable to the prescribing and efficacy of FEs. Therefore, it is more important to have clinical evidence of individual cases, as opposed to evidence of scientific research studies to assess the efficacy of FEs.

As of yet, there is limited research on its efficacy in individual use but there have been positive results in almost all of my clients that I have used it with.

Until next time, keep nurturing your inner sprout.

References

de Albuquerque, L. M. N. F., & Turrini, R. N. T. (2022). Effects of flower essences on nursing students' stress symptoms: a randomized clinical trial. Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U S P, 56, e20210307. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-220X-REEUSP-2021-0307