I stumbled onto the work of Dietmar Krämer this past year. Over the last several decades, he tested and developed new therapies working with Bach Flowers. It was an exciting find that is deepening my continuing exploration of this energy medicine.
I’ve been working with Bach Flowers since I discovered it in school. Probably like many other people, my introduction was Rescue Remedy. I continue to keep this on hand. It’s what I recommend to friends and clients. I’ve used it extensively with my own animals. Aside from Bach Flowers, I’ve also tried many others, including Australian Bush Flower Essences, Orchids, and Green Hope. As part of the certification coursework for ABFE, I learned to make my own. Dr Bach is right – what we need is right in our backyard. You can quite easily make your own mother tincture with the sun method.
Why flower essences?
I love how easy, simple, and effective flower essences. They are non-toxic and have no side effects. Also the same reasons I love homeopathy. As someone with a sensitive constitution, energy modalities feel the best to me. I’ve also seen how they work with kids and animals, especially animals as I observed it over time and in close quarters with my own dogs and cats. ABFE has several books, including Animal Healing.
So my newest purchase is Dietmar Krämer’s body zone book, one of his two books published in English. If you read German, you’re in luck. He’ll have a third English-language book coming in 2026.
Dietmar Krämer is a German healing practitioner and naturopath. While he retired in 2022 from practice, he continues to teach and give seminars at the International Center for New Therapies. His method uses Bach Flower Tracks and Bach Flower on Skin Zones. Practitioners also work with acupuncture meridians and use essential oils and gemstones that correspond with the flowers, as well as sound and colour. He has tested these correspondences in over 20,000 tests. [2]
The Sun Method
Allow the plant to find you. Take your time to sit in your garden or the fields on your walk. Enjoy this connection. I ask the flowers before picking them. Place the blooms in a glass bowl filled with clean purified water. Leave the bowl in the sun for several hours. When ready, remove the flowers without touching the water. I like to place them back on the ground. Then pour it into an amber (or blue bottle), leaving half of it for a preservative such as brandy or glycerin. This is the mother tincture.
The drops you take are from the Dosage bottle so you’ll need to make two more dilutions. Mother tincture -> Stock bottle -> Dosage bottle.
Stock bottles = 1/2 water + 1/2 preservative + 4-7 drops of the mother tincture. Dosage bottle = 75% water + 25% preservative + 4-7 drops of the stock bottle.
The New THerapies
Dr Bach (1886-1936) gave us 38 flower essences to work with. Originally, there were twelve, which he named the 12 Healers which reflect our nature and twelve archetypes. These help a person to transform core imbalances. He later added the 7 Helpers to support the process when the primary archetype is not obvious. The last nineteen are for immediate situations. The 12-7-19 method. Dr Bach died soon after discovering the 38th flower essence.
Each flower can shift a specific negative emotion. Rescue Remedy is a blend of Rock Rose, Impatiens, Clematis, Star of Bethlehem, and Cherry Plum. It addresses acute and emergency situations. Dr Bach believed that a sound mind and emotional balance were key to true health.
He observed that people responded to illness in seven ways, such as fear and anxiety. This was the first category he worked on.
What Dietmar Krämer brought to the field of Bach Flowers is new relationships or hierarchy in the flowers. He discovered this while working with chronic cases.
Bach Flower tracks
Dietmar Krämer observed something interesting when his patients took an essence for longer than four to six weeks. While the negative emotion related to the essence taken dissipated, that of another strengthened. He saw this relationship with certain flowers. This he called Bach Flower Tracks. After taking Centaury, a person can say no for themselves, they then may begin feeling guilty (Pine). States develop from another, from Centaury to Holly (aggressive distinction) to Pine. These tracks appear when you take essences longer than four to six weeks.
He called these deeper (Centaury) and superficial (Holly and Pine) flowers. The emotion of a superficial flower strengthened when a person takes the essence of the deeper flower for longer than the four to six week period. Each track, which consists of three flowers, also relates to an acupuncture meridian. As the twelve meridians “run” on a clock, noting the timing of symptoms can be part of the assessment process.
Read about the Centaury track.
Bach Flower tracks help practitioners work on the surface emotions first which allow a clearer picture of the deep imbalances. This way does not reinforce the other emotional states.
Dietmar Krämer also identified five flowers, such as Star of Bethlehem and Elm as “outer flowers”. Their emotional states result from external circumstances and influences. The others are “inner flowers”. While these are innate, their emotional states can also arise from continued environmental influences and events, such as a traumatic birth.
“In my experience, in 85% of cases of physical complaints, the affected skin zone is disturbed, which is why one has such great success with the skin zones. But in about 15% of the cases, the meridian located at this point is disturbed. In this case, the diagnosis is more complex, but the complaints can also be treated with Bach Flowers.” – Dietmar Krämer [1]
Bach Flower Skin Zones
After discovering the first skin map, Dietmar Krämer went on to discover the psychic reflex or Skin Zones. He has worked with these for over three decades. Totalling 243, these are reflex zones covering the whole body. Negative emotions change the structures of these zones energetically which can lead to physical complaints, such as pain.
By addressing the underlying emotional imbalance, physical complaints can also be relieved. The related flower essence is applied topically as a cream or compression. Dr Bach also used compressions for acute conditions such as sprained ankles. Dietmar Krämer shared his observation that this method works faster than taking the drops by themselves.
| 1 | Agrimony | Healer | Over sensitivity |
| 2 | Aspen | Fear | |
| 3 | Beech | Overcare | |
| 4 | Centaury | Healer | Over sensitivity |
| 5 | Cerato | Healer | Uncertainty |
| 6 | Cherry Plum | Fear | |
| 7 | Chestnut Bud | Lack of Interest | |
| 8 | Chicory | Healer | Overcare |
| 9 | Clematis | Healer | Lack of Interest |
| 10 | Crab Apple | Over sensitivity | |
| 11 | Elm | Despair | |
| 12 | Gentian | Healer | Uncertainty |
| 13 | Gorse | Helper | Uncertainty |
| 14 | Heather | Helper | Loneliness |
| 15 | Holly | Over sensitivity | |
| 16 | Honeysuckle | Lack of Interest | |
| 17 | Hornbeam | Uncertainty | |
| 18 | Impatiens | Healer | Loneliness |
| 19 | Larch | Despair | |
| 20 | Mimulus | Healer | Fear |
| 21 | Mustard | Lack of Interest | |
| 22 | Oak | Helper | Over sensitivity |
| 23 | Olive | Helper | Lack of Interest |
| 24 | Pine | Despair |
| 25 | Red Chestnut | Fear | |
| 26 | Rock Rose | Healer | Fear |
| 27 | Rock Water | Helper | Despair |
| 28 | Scleranthus | Healer | Uncertainty |
| 29 | Star of Bethlehem | Over sensitivity | |
| 30 | Sweet Chestnut | Despair | |
| 31 | Vervain | Healer | Overcare |
| 32 | Vine | Helper | Overcare |
| 33 | Walnut | Over sensitivity | |
| 34 | Water Violet | Healer | Loneliness |
| 35 | White Chestnut | Lack of Interest | |
| 36 | Wild Oat | Helper | Uncertainty |
| 37 | Wild Rose | Lack of Interest | |
| 38 | Willow | Over sensitivity |
Asked what are the most important factors for health. Above diet, “emotional balance is my first priority.” He recognizes that it is important not to be dogmatic. “It is not possible to consistently do everything right, forcing something like that would be a negative state of mind according to Dr Bach (Rock Water). I live more according to my intuition, do what I feel is right for me, even if it partly contradicts many things that are considered right in the naturopathic/ecological scene.” [1]
Most of his books are only published in German, which are numbered. For English-language books, start with New Bach Flower Therapies, followed by New Back Flower Body Maps. His latest book, Acupuncture Meridians in Bach Flower Therapies, is due to be released August 2026. (Click below to pre-order).
For Spanish-language books, here is the suggested order:
- Nuevas Terapias Florales de Bach
- Nuevas Mapas Corporales de las Flores de Bach
- Nuevas Terapias Florales de Bach 3 – Meridianos de acupuntura y flores.
- Nuevas Terapias Florales de Bach con Colores, Sonidos y Metales.
Starting with Bach Flowers
There are Bach Flower practitioners around the world available to consult. Depending on what you’re working on, you can also read about the Bach Flowers to see which one you may want to start with. Working with one or a combo may be sufficient to shift an acute condition. However, there is likely a deeper imbalance that may or may not be immediately ready to be addressed. Skilled and experienced practitioners that you connect with can make the difference.
Many people find Bach Flowers through Rescue Remedy, a mixture of five flowers. This blend can be used by adults, children, and animals. While traditionally, remedies are preserved using alcohol, there are also versions made without it.
The five flowers of Rescue Remedy are:
- Cherry Plum for fear of losing control of their emotions and breaking down in despair
- Clematis for not being in the present
- Impatiens for stress and irritability from being impatient (people also use this for stomach pains)
- Rock Rose for acute fear and panic that can lock in after shock and can be paralyzing
- Star of Bethlehem for shock and trauma
There are many good sources of Bach Flowers from which to purchase, such as Crystal Herbs. Their version of Rescue Remedy is Revival Remedy. It’s made from Dr Bach’s principles. They also offer consultations.
References
Article information taken from Dietmar Krämer’s website, including the following interviews:
- 2022 with School of Naturopathy of Uruguay [link] [download PDF of interview]
- 2015 with Swiss School of Naturopathy [link] [download PDF of interview]
