GC Gets a Bach Flower Treatment at NowStudio Chicago

There was a beautiful moment shortly after I climbed the stairs off of N. California Avenue when, upon stepping inside NowStudio, I was dazzled by light. There were dozens of light beams streaming through the window in the massage room. I heard the dog before I saw this, though– and I then met Nourhy Beatriz, who at the time had blue hair, an awesome pendent necklace, and the warmest, most welcoming smile I’d ever seen on a stranger. I felt like I knew her instantly, and I loved her space.

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I had gone to NowStudio to get a Bach Flower Remedy, which is something that I had never heard of at this point except from my European friends. You don’t often see therapists offering Bach Flower Treatments in the United States, mostly because the U.S. doesn’t have a culture of homeopathy. I had heard that NowStudio was THE place to go for this kind of treatment in Chicago, and a cursory Google search confirmed while I was there that people who went to this healing studio all loved Nourhy, and in hindsight I totally get why. Bach remedies are a system of healing “essences” directed at particular emotional states in the body, and Nourhy is a lovely, sympathetic therapist who is trained in how to formulate them. 

“A friend of mine reports administering Bach’s “Rescue Remedy” to injured animals to ease their pain. Because Bach Flower Essenses are gentle and non-invasive, they are safe enough for small children and animals, consisting mostly of water and other trace plant elements…”

There are 38 Bach Flower remedies, each of which corresponds to a different characteristic, which can be combined based on what your issue is and taken with water to promote healing. When you get a Bach Flower remedy made, it’s a cross between a therapy session, a clinical visit, and a spa treatment, where you just have a cathartic conversation about what’s going on with you–are you anxious? Stressed? Can’t sleep? Romantic issues?–and the person administering the remedy (in my case, Nourhy) formulates a homeopathic cocktail based on your needs. You put a few drops of the flower treatment in water and drink it each day– the tinctures include things like agrimony, white chestnut, and impatiens, which helps you “cope calmly with irritating problems or people”. (None of the flower essences give off a taste, so “drinking” them in water is easy.)

Bach remedies date back to the 1920’s, when the system was developed by a physician named Dr. Edward Bach. I spoke with Nourhy about life, stress, travel, family, friends…and after our discussion (which focused mostly on my work-life balance and stress load), she formulated a tincture for me consisting of Agrimony, Oak, Aspen, Honeysuckle, and Impatiens.

Nourhy put this mixture into a 30-ml Bach mixing bottle with spring water, and I was instructed to put 4 drops in water multiple times a day– pretty much any time I found myself drinking a bottle of water. (The box recommends a minimum of 4 times daily.) 

The iconic “Rescue Remedy” Bach spray is a formulation of five flower essences: Rock Rose, Clematis, Impatiens, Cherry Plum, and Star of Bethlehem, and it’s the one you’re most likely to see on the shelves at Whole Foods or hear about from a friend who espouses Bach Treatments. Two sprays on the tongue reportedly provides instant relief from stressful situations, which has a number of versatile applications: pre-interview nerves, to calm you down after stressful events, to ease tension in a traffic jam, etc. A friend of mine reports administering Bach’s “Rescue Remedy” to injured animals to ease their pain (because Bach Flower Essenses are gentle and non-invasive, they are safe enough for small children and animals, consisting mostly of water and other trace plant elements).

Rock Rose “adds courage and presence of mind in the face of terror or extreme fear”; Clematis “helps you live more actively in the present rather than in the future or in your own dream world”; Impatiens “helps you cope calmly with irritating problems or people”; Cherry Plum “helps you act rationally and think clearly with a calm and balanced mind when you fear losing control”; Star of Bethlehem “softens the impact of shock, grief, or fright”.

And so on. Not everyone has the time or wherewithal to have a custom Bach Remedy formulated for them, but centers like NowStudio (an wonderful therapists like Nourhy) make the process easy, fun, and above all: accessible. For those in a pinch, the standard “Rescue Remedy” Spray is a nice entry point into the world of sympathetic medicine and flower essences– the future of noninvasive medicine that uses nature as a means to heal, restore, and enliven.