Deborah Bergman is strongly committed to working as a volunteer flower essence therapist for social programs in the Rio de Janeiro area of Brazil. She volunteered her services providing Reiki treatments and flower essences at the Santa Barbara Foundation (FSB). She also volunteered at a center that works to socially reintegrate street boys and men, where she teaches yoga classes and also offers flower essence therapy.

Deborah Bergman

Originally a physical education teacher, since 1998, Deborah has been working with various holistic therapies. She is a flower essence therapist, Reiki master, and yoga teacher.

The area in which Deborah works

Following is a sampling of short case narratives from her volunteer work—

Healing the souls of abused children

Alexandro and Alexandra are brother and sister, aged 3 and 2 years old respectively. They were taken away from their mother because they were treated badly and were being cared for by their uncle, who is a transvestite. The legal system wouldn’t allow them to stay with the uncle because of his behavior and companions.

They came to FSB in June, and when they arrived, they were under-nourished because they were being fed only water and corn flour. They looked sad and very aggressive when they
arrived.They have been taking flowers essences for three and a half months and their behaviors have changed. I believe their souls are being cured and we will see other benefits realized in the future as they grow up and make their own sexual choices.

Essences used:

Mariposa Lily
Baby Blue Eyes
Self-Heal
California Wild Rose
Yerba Santa
Borage
Almond
Sunflower
Calla Lily
Evening Primrose

Wendell is five years old and has been at FSB for just over a year. He was taken from his mother because he was suffering physical and mental abuse. For this I gave him Mariposa Lily , Evening Primrose and Mallow .

He was a very distant child, very distraught and he appeared to hold in his emotional trauma. I gave him Yerba Santa and Chamomile . He used to have melancholic eyes and was in a very bad mood in the morning. He would wet the bed, and his teeth would chatter at night. For these conditions, he was given Snapdragon , Morning Glory and St. John’s Wort . He was having many difficulties at school and so we used Penstemon.
Wendell never knew his father and I believe he misses him a lot; he likes to be in contact with men, but at FSB there are only women working there. And, my sister who is trying to adopt him, is a single woman. We used with him Baby Blue Eyes and Sunflower .

My sister and Wendell are having a good time together. She picks him up on Fridays at FSG and spends the weekend with him, while during the week he remains at FSB. It is very difficult for them, and they miss each other a lot. However, they have to wait for the legal issues to be resolved.

Wendell is a lovely boy and he is very different now: he is very happy and has a special light in his eyes. He is eating and sleeping well now, but he still wets the bed. His teeth don’t chatter anymore and he is in a good mood in the mornings.

Resolving feelings of rejection and low self-esteem

Cristiana likes taking flowers essences and she is the first one to ask me for more when the flowers essences are used up.
Cristiana arrived at FSB when she was 4 years old and has never been adopted as she wished. Therefore, she felt rejected by everybody and she is very shy.

Now she is 18-years-old, pregnant, married and she is still living there, working and taking care of FSB children. She doesn’t like her body in its pregnant state.

In the first month, I used with her Mariposa Lily , Baby Blue Eyes , Mallow , Evening Primrose , Manzanita , Pretty Face and Yerba Santa . After having taken these essences, she feels much better, happier and feeling more beautiful.

A month or so later, she complained about feeling very “explosive,” irritated, and very negative and insecure about being a mother, and not being a good mother. She was very worried about contaminating her baby with these feelings. I continued using the flowers essences above and included these:
Chamomile , Lavender , Pink Yarrow , Forget-Me-Not and Star Tulip .

After completing these, she asked me for more essences, because she is feeling more balanced and feeling very good about the baby, and she says she feels okay.

Sandra is 16 years old, has a great deformity in her back due to scoliosis, and has to wear a special vest for it.

She doesn’t have interest in life, and she doesn’t want to make friends; “Everybody is better than I am and people don’t like me." She is shy, thinks she is ugly, and has low self-esteem. She has much fear.

I chose the essences below and she has responded very quickly in a positive way to the treatment. She is more confident now, happier, feeling beautiful, she is using her special vest with more frequency (without feeling shame), she is going to parties with friends  and making new ones. She is going to the gym twice a week, and she is showing self-assurance.

Self-Heal , Mariposa Lily and Walnut
Garlic – for fears; psychological fears that cause insecurity
Evening Primrose – for feelings of rejection – rejection and birth trauma in the womb
Mallow – for shyness and a tendency to create barriers to friendships; social insecurity
Pretty Face – to not feel ugly and for feelings of not being loved
Buttercup – to develop high self-esteem; in personal relationships, to develop her own value and high esteem
Oregon Grape – because she always expected disapproval from others
California Wild Rose – to rekindle interest in life

Emotional support for girl with AIDS

Maria (not her real name) is a 16 year old girl at Santa Barbara Foundation who has HIV. Her mother died from AIDS, and she was living with her older sister who sent her to the foundation. Maria felt abandoned, rejected, and uncared for. The treatment she was receiving with special medications wasn’t helping her; it wasn’t effective.

Today she is happy and taking her medicine everyday; she isn’t talking about death anymore, and she is responding to the medication. She is receiving Reiki therapy too, to help with the healing process and to reinforce her immunological system. I’m using almost the same essences for two other children who have AIDS, and am waiting to see the results.

Essences used:

Self-Heal – to start the inner healing process
Bleeding Heart – for abandonment
Borage – for courage and optimism about treatment
California Wild Rose – for the long-time, ongoing healing process
Penstemon – “for severe life circumstances that test the soul's uttermost faith and tenacity” (Flower Essence Repertory , Kaminski & Katz)
Love-Lies-Bleeding – to reinforce the immunological system
Chrysanthemum – because she was worried about death, and she said repeatedly that she would be dead soon
Crab Apple – used for purifying the blood of poison and infections

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