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Flower Essence Therapy:
Balance for Emotions in Times of Pandemic
Brazil Recognizes Flower Essence Therapy:
Reported by Cynthia Asseff and Thais Accioly,
Editor’s note: For several decades, Flower Essence Therapy has been used widely in Brazil, facilitated by the work of many skilled practitioners. It has taken much courage, fortitude and dedication on the part of those practitioners to bring the modality into the mainstream. As a result, Flower Essence Therapy is recognized and promoted by the country’s Ministry of Health as part of a widespread adoption of holistic practices in Brazil. Two people key to this development are Cynthia Asseff, a professional health practitioner, educator, and director of Essências Florais in Brazil, and Thais Accioly, a widely known flower essence practitioner and educator. They contacted the Flower Essence Society (FES) with the exciting news that the Federal Health Council of Brazil has recognized Flower Essence Therapy as a component of an integrative health program to help people with COVID-19. Flower Essence Therapy Becomes Part of the Official Brazilian Health Care System Healthcare in Brazil is overseen by one national system called Sistema Único de Saúde (Unified Health System) or SUS , which provides everyone access to free public health. Although the national health program has oversight for the country, each city and state manages how to use the money allocated for these programs. While Flower Essence Therapy and alternative practices are allowed in public programs throughout Brazil, official acceptance varies from region to region. Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo, has committed money for integrative practices and has included Flower Essence Therapy as part of its public health programs. Thais Accioly has been instrumental in this development, working since 2013 with leaders in local government, education and public health, to develop a pilot program with a school in one of the impoverished favelas in São Paulo. After a four-year hiatus due to a change in the city government, in 2018 the new mayor and his team took a renewed interest in holistic practices including Flower Essence Therapy. These practices received added support when the Ministry of Health of Brazil released a new document updating its regulations on integrative (holistic) practices, including Flower Essence Therapy. These practices are referred to by the acronym PICS , which stands for Práticas [Tradicionais,] Integrativas e Complementares (Traditional, Integrative and Complementary Practices).
Although PICS practices had been authorized by SUS in some form since 2006, the 2018 document was the first to allow the possibility of using SUS funds for PICS, and the first to specifically include Flower Essence Therapy. This is recognition of how well established Flower Essence Therapy had become throughout Brazil. Flower Essence Therapy is taught in major Brazilian universities, and there are professional associations of Flower Essence Therapists in many Brazilian states. In March 2018, seven days after the document was released by the federal government, the city of São Paulo enacted further legislation allowing Flower Essence Therapy to be utilized in its public health programs. These regulations were finalized in August 2019. Furthermore, many health professions have been authorized by their councils or regulatory bodies to employ Flower Essence Therapy for their patients. These professional populations include nurses, pharmacists, dentists, physiotherapists, naturopaths, and speech pathologists.
Flower Essence Training for
Once an integrative therapy is approved for health practitioners in Brazil, they need to complete a training program before they can officially offer that therapy. For example, after Flower Essence Therapy was authorized for speech pathologists, Cynthia Assef was invited by a school specialized in distance education for speech pathologists to teach its first course on Flower Essence Therapy. The city of São Paulo has authorized a postgraduate course for the staff of its public health department. This course is planned for 400 hours of instruction, with scheduling uncertain due to the pandemic. Those health practitioners who complete the course are allowed to offer flower essences to their patients in the Family Health Centers, a component of the public health system. In addition, these practitioners will collect official data on the use of flower essences, to be made available for government and university research programs. Holistic treatments are encouraged in the city of São Paulo, where every public health center must offer at least one alternative complementary practice. For example, a nurse may provide Reiki in addition to standard medicine. Features of the São Paulo Public Health Course on Flower Essence Therapy Thais Accioly, Caio Portella and Olympia Gimenes, are health professionals, flower essence practitioners and teachers, who have been instrumental in developing São Paulo's new course on Flower Essence Therapy. They emphasize the importance of mind-body wellness through addressing multidimensional levels of the human being, including mental, spiritual, emotional, social and physical health. Inspired by the pioneering insights of Dr. Edward Bach, Flower Essence Therapy will be presented as a viable modality to promote health and prevent illness. Rather than focus on specific physical diseases, such as hypertension or diabetes, the course will show how to take care of each person who is suffering from an illness by using a comprehensive, holistic approach. This course will review healing challenges that could arise during each phase of human development as well as how to use the essences for particular life transitions.
In May 2020, the Brazil's National Health Council announced its support for the use of integrative therapies, including Flower Essence Therapy, for pandemic health care. Folha de São Paulo, the city's major newspaper, announced this development with the headline, “Health Council Recommends Flower Remedies, Homeopathy and Reiki to Help Treat COVID-19.” The article announced, “The CNS (National Health Council) approved a recommendation for public managers to use and disseminate integrative and complementary practices, such as homeopathy, acupuncture, herbal medicine, flower essences and Reiki, in the treatment of COVID-19.” These decisions provoked some controversy among scientists who questioned the evidence for integrative therapies. The article then describes the work of FioCruz (Fundação Oswaldo Cruz), a well-respected foundation in Brazil involved in health research and education, including treatment for COVID-19. Its research supports the scientific foundations of Flower Essence Therapy. One of the initiatives of FioCruz is The National Observatory of Traditional, Integrative and Complementary Health Knowledge and Practices , known as ObservaPICS ), which provides research data for integrative health practices.
In 2020 ObservaPICS began publishing a series of booklets titles Cuidado integral na Covid-19 ("Integrative care for COVID-19") covering the 29 integrative practices recommended by the Ministry of Health of Brazil Health. The first booklet in the series is titled TERAPIA FLORAL: EQUILÍBRIO PARA AS EMOÇÕES EM TEMPOS DE PANDEMIA ("Flower Essence Therapy: Balance for Emotions in Times of Pandemic.") The booklet features the original flowers of Dr Edward Bach and cites supporting academic research from Brazil and other South American countries. The authors of the booklet are Prof. Dr. Maria Julia Paes da Silva, Prof. Dr. Carla Araújo and Prof. Ms. Vanessa Damasceno Bastos. Since 1998 Dr. Maria Julia Paes da Silva has pioneered a postgraduate Flower Essence Therapy course at the University in São Paulo. Dr. Carla Araújo has led research using flower essences for HIV/AIDS patients at the Ana Nery School of Nursing in Rio de Janeiro, as described in this FES article. Vanessa Damasceno Bastos, who also participated in the AIDS study, is a doctoral student and flower essence specialist, nurse and teacher at the Ana Nery School. You can read the flower essence booklet in Portuguese here , or an unofficial English translation here . Below are key conclusions about Flower Essence Therapy from the ObservaPICS flower essence booklet:
Four research studies were cited in the booklet as evidence for the effectiveness of Flower Essence Therapy. The results of the studies are summarized in the following table:
About Thais Accioly and Cynthia Asseff Thais Accioly
Cynthia Accioly Abu Asseff
In addition, Cynthia is the director of Essências Florais ,a company that imports and distributes flower essences throughout Brazil. |
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In the current context, facing the COVID-19 pandemic, we look to the teachings of Dr. Bach as encouragement and inspiration for how to reduce the suffering of the general population and, in particular, of health professionals who are facing this pandemic. We know that depressed people have a weakened immune system and, consequently, are more susceptible to the spread of disease.
Thais Accioly is an authorized teacher for the
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