Editor’s Note: Lori Wilson is an acupuncturist living and practicing in Guanajuato, Mexico. This is a report from her in regard to the use of flower essence therapy in her volunteer social service work with women and children at a shelter in the area. She is “very inspired and committed to working with the disadvantaged populations in central Mexico.” This report has been slightly edited from Lori’s original writings.

Healing childhood sexual abuse  

Soothing abandonment by mother  

Alleviating the effects of a chaotic, abusive household  

Rescue and recovery from sex slavery  

Healing the insecurities of young children  

Addressing family instability  

Helping with the responsibilities of guiding the shelter  

Helping rescued and abandoned animals

I moved to central Mexico six years ago and started a private acupuncture practice here. In addition, I have been volunteering at a battered women’s shelter, Buen Pastor , giving acupuncture treatments one day a week to women and children. I also started going to a rural village with a group called Las Libres, and treating women there with a history of domestic violence. After working there one day, word spread and another community asked if I could come and treat them too. (I had to say no for the time being.) Not having worked with this population in the United States, this has been very challenging, interesting, and fulfilling work. I have been treating women for many stress related disorders: insomnia, anxiety, depression, headaches, including migraines, digestive disorders, and—especially in the children—bedwetting, even suicidal tendencies, as well as neck and back pain, fibromyalgia, etc. Many of the women have chronic health problems and have limited access to medical care.

Lori Wilson

As a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, I found my field has its limitations. Acupuncture alone was not addressing the emotional trauma of my patients to the extent I had wanted. I had treated several children and mothers for months at the shelter without significant changes in their negative emotions, especially children with a history of sexual abuse. Having not worked with this population before, my learning curve was very steep, especially in the beginning. When I wasn’t seeing the results I had hoped for, I attended a course on flower essence therapy and was encouraged to try using them with these patients. I bought books and went through them looking for remedies that would be appropriate for the people (and animals) I treat and bought remedies that I thought would help make a change in the healing process at the shelter. The mothers of the children all reported to me that the remedies made a significant difference with their children. They also felt that they made a difference for them, especially with anxiety and insomnia.

I have been making custom remedies up for most of the children in the shelter. One of the more common complaints from the mothers is that the kids aren’t sleeping well or waking up often at night, or won’t sleep without them in the bed, or they have nightmares. Several of the mothers have remarked that the Kinder Garden formula works better for this than the custom remedies I make up. The way they know this is when the kids come for treatments with me, I spray some around them and in their mouths. The day they receive the spray, they are much calmer and will sleep without their mothers in the room. In general, the mothers feel the remedies are making a significant difference in the lives and behavior of the children. They always ask me to fill the bottles when they are out of remedies.

Healing childhood sexual abuse

Anna is an 8-year old girl who was sexually abused by her uncle who also abused and killed her 3-year old sister. She was taken away by the state and brought to the shelter. When she arrived, the nuns said she acted like a wild animal. She was hyperactive, wet her bed, fought with other girls, and had dark black rings under her eyes.

The first thing I did was treat her with Chinese Medicine. I returned the next day with the following remedy: Baby Blue Eyes (abandonment and abuse, hardening of soul forces due to bitter life experiences), Black Cohosh (incestuous relationship trauma), Chamomile (hyperactivity), Dogwood (hardening of body and emotions due to trauma), Five-Flower Formula (trauma), Self-Heal (helping child to draw on her own forces to heal), and Star of Bethlehem (deep shock or trauma).

When I came back the next week, Anna had stopped wetting the bed, was much more calm and relaxed, and was getting along better with the other children; she was actually hugging and laughing with the other girls. One month later, with weekly acupuncture and the flower essences, her caregiver said she felt she was 80% better. She is a different child now.

Of course many factors are involved here: the love and good care she is receiving in the shelter, regular meals, going to school, acupuncture and the flower essences. Her biggest challenge now is concentration in school.

Soothing abandonment by mother

Diana is a 6-year old Asian-Mexican girl whose mother abandoned the family. She is the youngest at the shelter. She presented with bed-wetting, hyperactivity, has enlarged tonsils, is constipated, has bad dreams, and is angry and sad that her mother left.

I treated her with Chinese medicine for damp heat, and the next week she had stopped urinating in her bed. Then I gave her the following  remedies: Chicory (emotional neediness and demanding excessive attention), Black-Eyed Susan (repressed emotions), Chamomile (calming), Holly (sibling rivalry), and Willow (acceptance and forgiveness).

In two weeks she was a happy, friendly, seemingly well-balanced little girl. She received no further treatments from me. She personally told me that she “felt fine.”

Alleviating the effects of a chaotic, abusive household

Karin is an 8-year old girl who has lived in and out of the shelter for four years. She now stays in the boarding school run by the nuns during the week. Her mother was recently turned in to Health Services for beating up her son. According to the nuns, the mother is very tense, negative, angry and never smiles. She has a new boyfriend. Karin says her knees shake when her mom comes to pick her up on the weekends. Karin started having acupuncture; she presented with itchy skin, insomnia, bad dreams, headaches, stomachaches, diarrhea  and constipation, nausea, poor appetite, and nervousness. She said she has a lot of fear. The nuns said she is angry and tells lies a lot.

During her acupuncture treatments, Karin completely relaxes and sleeps very hard. Karin has been slowly improving with acupuncture but then I decided to give her some flower essences as I was not seeing rapid enough improvement. I gave her the following: Aspen (bad dreams), Chamomile (insomnia), Mimulus (shyness and fear), Walnut (transition), Rock Rose (fear), and Sunflower (relationship to father).

Because Karin has to live with her mother during the weekends, she continually has to deal with a lot of stress, neglect and possibly abuse, so her progress is slower than usual. She is slowly relaxing, her headaches have stopped, she is sleeping better, but she still has pain in her abdomen though it seems to be lessening.

Rescue and recovery from sex slavery

A couple of women currently at the shelter have been rescued from sex slavery. One is 15 year old indigenous girl who was sold by her father; she has a two-year old daughter, and the other is a 25-year old woman with a 4-year old child. Obviously, the sense of their feminine selves has been severely damaged. I have given them the Grace formula with fabulous results. The 25-year old woman from Tijuana who was in the illegal sex trade, complained of being very nervous, angry, lacking patience, and cried whenever she felt stressed and nervous. In two weeks, after taking the formula,  her low self-esteem improved, and she felt very happy, relaxed, secure and she said that her true personality had returned. She was receiving acupuncture also and responded very well to that. She and her 4-year old daughter (who wouldn’t eat for several weeks and is now eating again) are making plans to leave the shelter.

Her daughter Jainie was very fearful when alone, not eating, emotionally needy, and really missed her father, with whom she has a very good relationship. I gave her Aspen (fear), California Wild Rose (eating disorder), Self-Heal , Chamomile (calming), Chicory (emotional neediness), Sunflower (relationship with father), and St. Johns Wort . They have had the quickest recovery I have witnessed at the shelter.

The 15-year old indigenous girl, named Juanita, complained of headaches, pain in her waist and low back, painful breasts, and insomnia, when I started treating her. Months later, she still has recurrent headaches, and lack of appetite, but she is slowly improving. She mentioned she has a lot of anger, not unusual for her case. I have given her Black-Eyed Susan , Chamomile , Holly , Willow , Impatiens , and Self-Heal . For the first refill, I changed the Self-Heal to Echinacea . For the first few months I didn’t have her complete history, and I had no idea of the level of abuse.

Her two-year old daughter is on remedies for low appetite, insomnia,( St. John's Wort ), and Chamomile (calming), Chicory (anger), Holly (jealousy), Rock Rose , Shasta Daisy and Yerba Santa .

Healing the insecurities of young children

Two sisters, Jarelli and Brenda, came to the shelter. Brenda, a two-year old, was extremely shy, withdrawn and had no appetite.  I gave her California Wild Rose (appetite), Holly (jealousy), Chicory (clinging and insecurity), Mariposa Lily , Self-Heal , Shasta Daisy and Yerba Santa . They also had acupuncture treatments weekly. Jarelli, the 4-year old, took Aspen (fear), Baby Blue Eyes and Sunflower (to heal the relationship with her father), Mariposa Lily , St. John’s Wort (insomnia), Mimulus (timidness), and Yerba Santa .

A month later, the girls were totally different. Instead of sitting with blank looks on their faces, they were playing and laughing, and their mother said they were finally eating well. Their mother felt the remedies made a significant difference in their recovery. They have since left the shelter and went to live with their grandmother.

Addressing family instability

Cassandra is an 11-year old girl whose father died when she was young. She is shuffled between relatives as her mother travels for work. She has tried to commit suicide. Cassandra lives on an “emotional roller coaster” and at times has severe out-of-control temper flare-ups (one time it was over an hour in duration). She has nightmares, poor appetite and digestion, constipation, very low energy, and feels cold. She gets headaches when she is angry. She also has low back pain.

I have been treating Cassandra with little success. A few weeks ago, I gave her flower essences when she showed no improvement with the Chinese medicine, acupuncture and herbs. I gave her the following: Baby Blue Eyes (lack of support from the father in childhood), Sunflower (poor relationship with father, heals the souls relationship with the masculine), Chamomile (calmness), Self-Heal (encourage her own ability to heal), Chicory (getting attention though negative behavior), and Impatiens (patience, acceptance, flowing with life, dealing with anger). At this point, it remains to be seen how these essences will help her.

Helping with the responsibilities of guiding the shelter

Madre A, the director or the shelter, has had severe migraines for years. At 73 years old she is running all the time and has a lot of stress dealing with people, finances, never having enough money, etc.

She has had very good success with acupuncture and herbs for the migraines and gastritis. She also asked for something for depression so I gave her this remedy: Willow (bitterness and resentment), Walnut (feeling burdened), Oak (over-striving beyond limits), Chamomile (calming), Self-Heal (to draw on her own inner resources to heal), and Five-Flower Formula (stress). I did not have at the time, the following, but later added Elm (overwhelmed by duties), Aloe Vera (burnout), and Agrimony (anxiety hidden by a mask of cheerfulness).

The first week she said she felt 15% better with the addition of flower essences, after the second week 50% better, and the third week, 80% better.

Helping rescued and abandoned animals

Since I arrived here, I have also been rescuing and treating abandoned and abused dogs and cats. I am on the board of Amigos de Los Animales of Guanajuato , and I have used flower essences with several animals, two of my own, with fantastic results. Recently a woman brought in her rescue dog as the animal was over-protective and biting people who came to close to her.

I have treated two of my own animals with success; both are rescued animals.

Sylvie, a 6-year old Siamese-calico mix was found on the street by me when I heard the most blood curdling cat scream. I was in the house and ran out to see what it was. There she was, a tiny kitten, with very coarse, thin fur; she was filthy and smelled like rotting flesh.  She had an umbilical hernia so she was not digesting her food well.

Sylvie has always been terrified of dogs and has not liked other cats. She would typically hiss and hit other dogs and cats with her front paw. However, she is very affectionate and sleeps with me under the bed covers. A couple years ago when I bought the flower essences, I decided to try them on her. I gave her the following flower essences: for fear, Aspen , Rock Rose and Mimulus ; for hissing  and unprovoked attacks, Holly , and Impatiens …no patience with other animals.

Sylvie is much more comfortable around dogs now. She doesn’t like them very much, but she is not in a state of panic around them. She now allows other cats and a small dog in our bedroom and in the bed. Now, all three cats sleep on our bed at night, something that could have never happened before she received flower essences.

A side note: Sylvie has a disease in which her bones dissolve and rot her teeth. During part of her life, she had severe pain in her teeth and needed six extractions. This could have added to her lack of tolerance for other animals.

During one of the Amigos de Los Animales spay campaigns, we had two cocker spaniels that cried and were very disturbed after surgery. I gave both of them Five-Flower Formula and they both quieted down immediately.

Lori A. Wilson, MAc, LAc, licensed acupuncturist, is a graduate of the Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Seattle. Two years after she graduated in 2000, she moved to Guanajuato, in central Mexico and started a private practice. She began volunteering at a local battered women’s shelter almost two years ago. Finding that the women and shelter were slow to heal from the emotional trauma they incurred, she took an introductory class on flower essences, bought a few books, and ordered a basic amount of remedies from Flower Essence Services, who have since made several donations of supplies for her social service work. She has found that the flower essences work well in conjunction with Chinese Medicine, and routinely gives flower essences as part of her treatment to women and children who have a history of domestic violence.  She also used them with rescued dogs and cats with behavioral problems as part of their rehabilitation, with good success.