Positive Health Online

In this ever more rule-bound world I am very conscious that when it comes to our emotional and mental health as well as our physical health, our freedom to take responsibility for ourselves is being eroded. In the name of prevention we are told the medical profession and the drug companies are the only people who have the answers. Going down this route ends in people being labelled and stigmatized as well as often being over treated and then made to suffer side effects of their medication.

Thank heavens for publications like Positive Health and this enlightening and usable book by Chris Phillips. This book gives readers the opportunity to take control of their destiny, to reconnect to their soul values and goals and to release emotional reactions and work through them. Getting over loss, trauma, hurt or abuse is not something that is cleared as a one hit wonder. Our emotional responses are the way we work through mental, emotional and cellular acceptance of our experiences. When these are blocked the body’s alarm system sends us messages. These symptoms or alarms are generally ignored and then treated as ‘Mental Health’ problems. They are simply in most cases the body telling us the process is being blocked.

There is a time line to any process. It may vary in time and reactions, depending on the person and the circumstances but there will be a timeline.

This book is ground-breaking in that it looks at the issues and how we experience them ourselves or in our clients. It allows the individual to explore how they feel, understand the emotions they are experiencing and, most importantly, to choose the essences that will help them to process and properly integrate every difficult experience.

Depression in its many forms is the state that descends when we resist that integration and separate the experience from our soul.

This book is a wonderfully easy read; it is informative for therapists as well as those challenged with emotional turmoil.

After insights into his own personal journey and the loss of his wife, the author shares how finding the essences has helped him to embark on his emotional healing and a new career.

Chris leads his reader through an overview of ‘Mental health’ in general and Depression in particular and onto the background and rational for the flower essences.

In the second part of the book Chris goes through the different forms that depression takes or manifests in, From General depression to Anxiety, From low self-esteem to Insomnia, Exhaustion to Family conflict or to feeling unloved or abandoned. In each of 20 chapters he gives us his thoughts on the underlying causes or at least a psychological aspect of the problem. He goes onto give us a Case Study from a client to back up each example Many of these studies are illustrated with delightful photographs of the flowers and plants used in the study.

Scattered through the chapters are asides with statements and explanations, for instance in chapter 14 ‘Psychological Trauma’, the inset says:

We Forget Traumatic Times - The traumatic events often happened long ago and we buried the hurt and continued our life, growth and development despite it, yet remain subconsciously deeply influenced by it.

One theme throughout the book is how flower essences can be and are being used by many psychotherapists as an effective tool for change.

I really welcome this as I do more and more Bach trainings with Psychotherapists and even Psychiatrists who are open to exploring non-drug based methods of treatment for the Mental Health side effects of emotional trauma and loss.

In the third part of the book the reader is taken down the ‘Road to Recovery’ looking first at dealing with setbacks and recognizing resistance to change. He introduces other Complementary therapies and addresses the issues of alcohol as a medium for some clients or individuals.

Chris has information on choosing the remedies, as well as keeping motivated for growth and change in our lives.

If I had any reservation about the information it would be that some chapters have a huge number of suggested essences. I know that clients can find the 38 remedies of Dr Bach difficult to choose from without guidance, so the wide range of different essence producers could be overwhelming and could be intimidating to a novice. However towards the end of the book Chris does address choosing them by intuition and endorses their safety and their balancing actions.

This is a very readable, thorough and interesting book that will appeal to sufferers and Therapists alike. My recommendation would be – not for the book shelf but as an effective desk reference for any Complementary Therapist who embraces the power of flower essences. I will be putting it on my reading list for our Bach Professional Course, and I thank Chris for bringing the possibilities for self-healing to thousands of people who struggle daily with issues that are actually unresolved emotional issues. This book could greatly reduce our Mental Health problem.

Further Information

Available from Floris Books

www.florisbooks.co.uk/book/Chris-Phillips/Treating+Depression+Naturally/9781782504276

and Amazon

www.amazon.co.uk/Treating-Depression-Naturally-Essences-Rebalance/dp/1782504273