Abstract

Different from other recognized Complimentary and Alternative Practices, Flower Therapy was excluded from the National Policy elaborated by the Ministry of Health in 2003. Instead, it was recognized by the Ministry of Education as a separate field of knowledge. As a result, graduate courses in Flower Therapy have produced a significant amount of academic and scientific research results. This paper covers three distinct components of this research, investigating the core issues to be developed and improved to gear Flower Therapy to be included as a mode of therapy in the National Council of Health: (i) the outline of the criteria and guidelines employed by the government to recognize five modes of Integrative and Complementary Practices, (ii) research of the academic production of knowledge in Flower Therapy and analysis constitutes a coherent research-based body of knowledge that fulfills the requisites for its inclusion, (iii) to identify research trends and indicate problematic aspects, in order to improve the standing of Flower Therapy from scientific perspective. Academic research in this field of therapy produced a vast amount of results using both quantitative and qualitative research. Research instruments imported from other disciplines were applied in all cases, where qualitative research has obtained better results than quantitative research. None of the research explored the theoretical framework of Flower Therapy, neither was there a common ground of protocols for the therapeutic process, neither were guidelines for therapy established. In order for Flower Therapy to be recognized by the National Council of Health it requires an outline of its theoretical framework, a uniform body of protocols for its therapeutic process, and empirical research respecting the particular internal structure of this mode of therapy. Such core issues would also improve the quality of research and produce more satisfactory results.