Flower Essences for children
The simplicity and directness of Bach Flower Remedies is a good match for children's open, vital, expressive emotional natures. Children generally respond positively and quickly, giving parents a meaningful, effective and safe way of supporting and nurturing their children's emotional well being and helping them to deal with emotional issues.
The most basic place to start with flower essences for children is Rescue Remedy, using it when children have had a fright, a scrape, have become distressed, or when they are just tetchy because they are over-excited or tired. The next step is to look at the individual Bach Flower Remedies to see which of them could support your child with their most common difficulties, and to use one or two as needed. Children's emotions usually come and go quickly, but they can may become stuck with the emotions if they are in a situation that is continuously stressful or if they have had a traumatic experience.
Knowing about some of these essences can be truly empowering for parents when they are able to see their children quickly return to a more balanced and positive state. A few examples:
At times it will be more helpful to come for a consultation, to have an objective listener and to benefit from my experience and wider range of Flower Essences. I have a lot of empathy with children and in a consultation I take their concerns and the way they express them seriously, no matter how trivial they may seem from an adult perspective. To select the most useful essences it is also helpful to try and understand the situation that provokes the emotions or behaviour. Sometimes the triggers may be overlooked simply because they seem insignificant, normal or common (to us as adults). It helps to look at the situation from a child's perspective, remembering the support, structure and reassurance that they need to help them feel secure enough and confident enough to handle difficult situations. Exploring the problem from a number of different angles often gives parents a different understanding of what is happening for their child and new ideas for practical ways to support their child alongside using the essences.
The most basic place to start with flower essences for children is Rescue Remedy, using it when children have had a fright, a scrape, have become distressed, or when they are just tetchy because they are over-excited or tired. The next step is to look at the individual Bach Flower Remedies to see which of them could support your child with their most common difficulties, and to use one or two as needed. Children's emotions usually come and go quickly, but they can may become stuck with the emotions if they are in a situation that is continuously stressful or if they have had a traumatic experience.
Knowing about some of these essences can be truly empowering for parents when they are able to see their children quickly return to a more balanced and positive state. A few examples:
- Gentian flower essence for the child who is easily discouraged and wants to give up after a set back
- Holly for children who seem full of anger, maybe pinching and biting others
- Mimulus for those who are fearful, with many different things they say they are scared of
- Honeysuckle for children upset after moving house, consumed with homesickness for the old house
At times it will be more helpful to come for a consultation, to have an objective listener and to benefit from my experience and wider range of Flower Essences. I have a lot of empathy with children and in a consultation I take their concerns and the way they express them seriously, no matter how trivial they may seem from an adult perspective. To select the most useful essences it is also helpful to try and understand the situation that provokes the emotions or behaviour. Sometimes the triggers may be overlooked simply because they seem insignificant, normal or common (to us as adults). It helps to look at the situation from a child's perspective, remembering the support, structure and reassurance that they need to help them feel secure enough and confident enough to handle difficult situations. Exploring the problem from a number of different angles often gives parents a different understanding of what is happening for their child and new ideas for practical ways to support their child alongside using the essences.
Some of the problems where Flower Essences are supportive for children:
- Tantrums
- Separation anxiety
- Fears and nightmares
- Difficulty with school work - demoralised, fear of failure, exam stress
- Problems with friends and relationships
- Changes in the family - divorce, blended families
- Reacting to parents' stress - illness, work or financial stress, relationship stress
Parents benefit from offering Flower Essences to their children
- Happy, resilient children means happier parents
- It's empowering for parents to have something simple and effective that they can use to help their children emotionally.
