In the nineteen-thirties, the British doctor Edward Bach formulated his Bach Flower Remedies, herbal medications to assist in healing the conflict between spirit and ego which he saw as fundamental to ill health.

Bach flower remedies are chosen in line with psychological states. However, they can also be used to treat physical ailments - often linked to emotions - as they are designed to treat the whole person and their internal imbalance, not just an illness.

Early in his distinguished, orthodox medical career, Bach decided that the best method of medical education was the observation of patients' reactions to disease, and that the main fault of modern medical science was to treat effects or symptoms rather than causes.

In the course of practising at University College Hospital, London, and at his private consultation rooms in Harley Street, Bach became dissatisfied with the success rate of orthodox medicine, noting that patients who enjoyed permanent recovery were rare while others made only scant improvement or suffered relapses.

He began to search for more effective treatment, a quest which led him to explore many fields of medical research. He won acclaim for his work on vaccines as Assistant Bacteriologist at the University College Hospital during the First World War when his responsibilities included a huge war casualty ward.

In July 1917, Bach was given three months to live and he determined to complete his current research before his death. He noticed that far from declining quickly under this stress, his health improved. His experience led him to conclude that a sense of purpose in life was fundamental to good health.

Following his recovery, Bach continued to practise orthodox medicine, gaining further professional distinction during the influenza epidemic of 1918 when his vaccines saved the lives of thousands.

Soon after, he read The Organon of the Healing Art by Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy. Hahnemann's philosophy was to treat the sufferer, not the illness, and he obtained most of his remedies from animal, vegetable and mineral matter.

In 1928, Bach suggested that people could be categorised as personality types and that, although individuals may encounter a variety of illnesses, the people within each grouping would react in the same way. These similarities presented a useful frame of reference for diagnosis and treatment.

Bach also supposed that if distress could affect one's appearance it might also adversely affect internal bodily organs.

These theories and his study of Hahnemann encouraged Bach to abandon his London-based work and search for remedies that would work on an emotional level to change a person's temperament and increase their inner peace and vitality. He set out to investigate the effects of simple, herbal medicines on human thoughts and feelings, and believed that the sources of these remedies would be found in nature.

From 1930 until his death in 1936, Bach walked the countryside of England and Wales, observing nature and developing the Bach Flower remedies. During this time, he discovered that his sensitivity to plants increased so that he could hold a flower and feel the effects of the bloom's properties in his body.

Recognising exactly how you are feeling is very important when it comes to choosing the most appropriate Bach Flower Remedy. You need to try to pinpoint exactly how you are feeling at the moment and then match the exact mood you are in to the appropriate Bach Flower Remedy.

Sometimes it can be difficult to admit to ourselves some of our more negative emotions, but once you have admitted how you feel, you are half way towards resolving and transmuting that emotion to something more beneficial.

An astrological consultation is ideal for those times you may have difficulty in reconciling or understanding your feelings, as a reading can allow you to stand outside of the situation and consider things in a more objective fashion, enabling you to see things clearly and perhaps in a new light.

In these instances, I cast your birth chart along with several other charts, and, discussing the matters with you, recommend remedies according to the astrological indicators. As a very simple example, for instance, Aquarius has a reputation for detachedness, a disconnection to others and an inability to get in touch with their feelings - for this I recommend Clematis.

Of course in reality the recommendations will be based upon the whole chart indications and an assessment of 'where you are at' in that given moment of the consultation.

For further information or appointments, please contact:-

The Work of Dr. Edward Bach - An introduction and guide to the 38 Flower Remedies - Wigmore Publications Ltd. 1995

Heal Thyself - Edward Bach, C.W. Daniel Co. Ltd. 1931

The Twelve Healers and Other Remedies - Edward Bach, C.W. Daniel Co. Ltd. 1933

The Bach Flower Remedies Step by Step - Judy Howard, C.W. Daniel Co. Ltd. 1990

The Bach Remedies Repertory - F.J. Wheeler, revised by Judy Howard, C.W. Daniel Co. Ltd. 1992

The Original Writings of Edward Bach - Judy Howard and John Ramsell, C.W. Daniel Co. Ltd. 1990