We had the good fortune of connecting with Rhonda PallasDowney and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rhonda, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?

As a child I was captivated by nature and plants, which stirred my passion. My mother, especially influenced my love of flowers with her devotion in gardening and caring for plants.   She and my Dad had beautiful rose gardens whom many a people adored.  In my late 20s and 30s, I learned about plants in a variety of rural settings. The plants taught me much about myself and how to survive in nature.

I was the first of two people to graduate with a Master’s Degree in Autism and

Severe Developmental Disabilities from the Nisonger Center at Ohio State University.  Because of my degree and the severity of disabilities, I was asked to be a teacher at the largest state institution in Ohio after my first year of graduating.  This was in 1976-1977.  The conditions for “my kids” were absolutely appalling, abusive, and demeaning.  I did everything in my power to improve their quality of life.  Yet to no avail, the system was so much larger than me.

I made it through a year of teaching, and loved the kids that I worked with who had multiple disabilities and severe behaviors, but felt dismantled from the system.  So I decided to take some time off, lost in myself, the direction of my own life and life’s circumstances.  As a native of a small farming town in Ohio, I then moved from Columbus, Ohio with a few belongings and set up a camp in the Appalachian mountains of Southeastern Ohio.  I had dreamt of developing a nature camp for kids and adults who have developmental disabilities, or also known as those who are differently abled as one may say.

I taught myself to live off the land, and to familiarize myself with the magnitude of the Appalachian mountains vegetation of plants and trees.  I dug a variety of plants such as American ginseng, goldenseal, burdock root, black and blue cohoshes and many more.  Being in nature, sleeping under the stars, snuggling next to burlap bags filled with roots that offered their nurturing and healing qualities, following the cycles of the moon, and learning how to survive simply yet profoundly, and to face my fears in a fairly low neighboring subculture was a vision quest and a test that I endured for nearly 3 months.

I was particularly drawn to digging a plant called black cohosh.  It was an exceptionally difficult and hard to manage root to dig.  Black cohosh seemed to bring out my feelings of sadness, anger, anxiety, fear, and confusion.  I would dig and dig, throw the roots, yell at them, and then get out of my “hole” and go pick them up.  Returning to this deep “hole”, I would then wipe off some dirt, and suck on the black cohosh roots.  They immediately made me feel calm.  I was astounded at the therapeutic value these roots offered me.  I tested this experience over and over, day after day.

In 1986, I met herbalist Matthew Wood in Flagstaff, AZ, now an internationally known herbalist, who became my herbal teacher over the years.  I was sitting in a room of about 20 people, and he looked at me and said “aha”!   He walked over to me with this wooden medicine box filled with bottles.  He picked out a bottle, looked in my eyes, and said “will you open your mouth”?  “Of course, yes” I said.

I felt the smooth gentle taste of several drops in my mouth and closed my eyes.

A familiar feeling of calm swept through me as if all the cells in my body were melting within me.  When I opened my eyes, I asked “is this black cohosh”?  “Yes”, he said.  “It is a black cohosh flower essence”.  I was intrigued that the energy of the flower matched the energy of the root.  Its essence filled me and held me in a cocoon with a deep relaxed state of being.  Matthew said “black cohosh is for those who feel entangled”.

That’s where the shoe fit, and I intrinsically knew that the subtle essence of the flower, or the “spirit” of the flower offered a deep and profound healing effect.  I knew in that moment, that I unraveled something deep and hidden within me that found its way out.  I began a new journey of exploring, discovering, and uncovering the mystery of plant energetics.  I experienced and learned how the healing power of plants, their signatures and personalities, their very intrinsic “essence” matched or connected with the signatures and energetics of a person.  I began a new journey into the captivating world of whole plant medicine and whole person medicine.

My expertise evolved as I was able to demonstrate similarities and differences of plants and people. Through my own research, I integrated these findings with herbalism, homeopathy, aromatherapy, and flower essence therapy.  As my experience grew with herbal studies, along with my spiritual practice, I synergized the “whole plant” concept with the “whole person” human energy system, known as the chakras.

From my years of studies and experiences emerged the creation of my own business, The Center for Plant Studies & Healing Arts. As a product formulator and educator, combined with a background in social services, my products offer a deep connection for people to heal and connect with the power of nature and plants.

My hope is that others will experience the magic of the healing qualities of my Flower and Plant Essence line, Voices of Flowers Perfumes with a Purpose, my Plant Energetics & Chakra Healing Correspondence 75 Hour Certification Program, Voices of Flowers Chakra Meditation CD MP3 Download, and the books in which I have written.

Flower essences, including catkins from trees, are vibrational in design, and they are charged with a particular frequency and special quality of a flower’s (or catkin’s) subtle energetic life-force field.

Flower essences offer a subtle energetic impact in the ways that people adapt to stress and anxiety. These essences by nature, embody a living energy (bio), can help a person bring awareness to the ways in which they adapt and connect to those places within that harmonize and calm, strengthen and restore, normalize and reinforce a healthy and vital inner and outer environment.

Flower essences help to create a fertile garden within our own inner environment that brings harmony to our natural landscape or our true self.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?

I have spent countless hours in nature, including sleeping next to plants, observing and experiencing them, meditating and journeying with them, preparing and making plant and flower essences, creating plant formats that include getting to know a plant’s energy system that includes its roots, leaves, blossoms or catkins, seeds, etc., and what times of days and cycles they are in their highest bloom.  Who are their neighboring plants?  What kind of soil do they live in?  How do different flowers and plants offer their healing qualities through the ways they taste, smell, touch, and feel?  What do they offer and teach me about myself?

Wanting to be like Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of Homeopathy, who presented research on homeopathic provings, my intention was to “prove”

that flower essences do offer healing energy and help people connect deeper within themselves.   I conducted a Research Prover’s Project in which I sent out unidentified bottles of flower essences to people throughout the United States.  Each person completed a 7 page Prover’s Diary that I developed, which included documenting physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual insights, dreams, and experiences while taking their flower essence for about 7-10 days.

They would then return their diary to me. I compiled all of the prover’s information, generally, about 10 prover’s per flower essence bottle, as a source for collecting Information of research and documentation.  I also accumulated a vast array of testimonials for the flower essences “proven” and in my own clinical case studies.

The compilation of this material provided a foundation for my original Materia Medica of 48 flower essences, along with a plant’s family of origin, energy impact, key rubrics, traditional uses, odors, tastes, sensations, physical makeup, and the healing patterns of balance and imbalance in the way that each plant or flower essence may offer an insight, perspective, and a deeper understanding for any given person.  This Materia Medica can be found in my book The Healing Power of Flowers: Bridging Homeopathy, Herbalism, Flower Essences, and The Human Energy System.

My flower essences are made with integrity, wildcrafted in remote areas where they grow in their natural habitats, or in some cases, in organic gardens.

I have many beautiful stories of finding the flowers, giving them my prayers, making their essences, and receiving their bounty.  I honor the sacredness of this experience, and bring this special energy all the way to the final flower essence bottle.

It is my desire that each unique flower essence assists you in your personal journey of self, and that you will feel its gifts from nature.

Our Essences feature a Southwest Kit of 8 essences ON SALE NOW for $115.00, Tree Kit of 8 essences ON SALE NOW for $115.00, and a Chakra Kit of 7 essences ON SALE NOW for $105.00, along with a variety of individual flower essences along with an additional 10% DISCOUNT!

Voices of Flowers, Perfume with a Purpose offers a vibrational influence to awaken your senses with essential oils and flower essences for each energy center in your body (chakras) to help you align with yourself, and to make conscious choices in your life.

Voices of Flowers, Perfume with a Purpose offers a vibrational influence to awaken your senses with essential oils and flower essences for each energy center in your body (chakras) to help you align with yourself, and to make conscious choices in your life.

Uniting with our chakras, a system of subtle life force energy centers within the human body, helps us to understand ourselves and others better. As you begin to form a relationship with the subtle intelligence of your own energy system, you may become more aware of your inner world – and feel whether it is in harmony or out of balance.

Individual Perfumes: SALE! $40.00 Perfume Set of 7 Boxed $250.00
PLUS 10% Discount Code: shoutout7 at Check Out
Product Formulator
As an artist, magician of color, scent, and elixir, my passion is spent masterfully blending recipes in my apothecary to bring the gift of nature into your hearts and homes. I also offer my services as a formulator for natural products, and I have a large inventory of a five- flower essence blend that can be merged with your product line.

Product Formulator

As an artist, magician of color, scent, and elixir, my passion is spent masterfully blending recipes in my apothecary to bring the gift of nature into your hearts and homes. I also offer my services as a formulator for natural products, and I have a large inventory of a five- flower essence blend that can be merged with your product line.

Consultations
As an intuitive teacher, plant, and energy guide, I offer various services in nature and/or on zoom that encourage those who are on a path of personal transformation and want the support of plant guidance.

If you had a 1 $million to invest right now, how would you use that capitol?

I would invest in myself and my business to expand more product line and to reach a greater number of people in the world. Remember that my intention is to help people heal with the power of plants.

People Who have Supported me on my path

I am profoundly and deeply grateful to my loving husband, Curt PallasDowney who has and continues to support me on this grand journey of life.  His insights, love, and devotion to me, to our family, friends, and community, holds a deep place of love in my heart.  We have spent many wonderful and reflective times in nature, exploring, discovering, engaging in all that earth’s bounty offers us.

I’ve been blessed with many teachers and friends of the green world, and especially the green world itself including especially Rosemary Gladstar and Matthew Wood,   Robbie Nelson, my dear herbalist and flower essence friend pioneered along with me in the mid-late 1980’s exploring plants and flowers.   In later years we integrated her herd of horses with our healing retreats called “The Wisdom of Horses and Flowers” using heart math and trauma healing as a key focus in our work together.

I give a big thank you to my dear friend Sandi O’Connor. We have shared many life stories, plant journey’s, writing journey’s, making essences and herbal products for nearly 20 years.  There are not enough words to express my deep appreciation, love, commitment, and gratitude for our friendship.

If I had a friend visiting, some local spots that I would choose are:

We live in the beautiful Verde Valley, near Sedona, AZ.  Some of our favorite local restaurants here in Cottonwood, AZ are Old Town Red Rooster Café, and the Belfry Brewery.  Sycamore Canyon is a beautiful place to hike to with swimming holes and astounding pristine nature.  Tuzigoot National Monument and the Verde Canyon Railroad Clarkdale, Az, and Dead Horse State Park, Cottonwood, AZ are also remarkable to experience.

Of course, the picturesque and magnificence of the red rocks of Sedona will help you connect with yourself, inspire you, capture your spirit, take you in, help you to release and let go, and to discover and re-discover the essence of your soul.

My very favorite red rock vortex is Cathedral Rock, known for its mystic union, sacred inner marriage, popular for weddings and engagements with expansive views and the bubbling Oak Creek below.  Swimming holes, trails, nature, picnic tables, a lovely family or solo setting.

Bell Rock, Doe Mountain, Bear Mountain, Secret Mountain, Dead Man’s Pass, Devil’s Bridge, are all stunning places to hike and explore.

Introduce them to Spirit Quest Retreats, Sedona AZ for life transforming experiences.

Website: www.centerpsha.com

Facebook: Center for Plant Studies & Healing Arts

Instagram: pallasdowney, center for plant studies

Youtube: Rhonda PallasDowney YouTube

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