Vanilla pods don’t just smell good, they can also be a soothing treatment with aromatherapy. Photo courtesy of AromaHead.com
Aromatherapy is a fascinating and growing form of alternative medicine that has the added benefit of bringing the best-smelling fragrances of nature into your own home in a myriad of ways. Whether you are looking to improve your health or just find a more natural way to add fragrance to your life, aromatherapy and essential oils can be a simple and amazing way to enrich your life.
There is a lot of information around the Internet about aromatherapy, so it is best to find a knowledgeable guide to get you started.
Andrea Butje runs an online aromatherapy institute at AromaHead.com. She took some time to answer a few of our questions about aromatherapy for the uninitiated. Andrea’s courses are approved by the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy and the Alliance of International Aromatherapists.
Goedekers: How did you get started in aromatherapy?
Andrea Butje of Aromahead.com
Andrea Butje: It’s been such a journey! I’ve always been interested in essential oils, and I got a chance to use them professionally while running one of our first businesses—the Finger Lakes School of Massage. We used essential oils to create therapeutic massage blends, and it was very important to me that our oils were as pure, organic and nourishing as possible. I saw some amazing results with our students from using essential oils.
One day, I saw this beautiful essential oil catalog sitting on my desk, half-buried in a big pile of incoming mail. It turned out to be a wonderful essential oil company in California. I looked at the catalog, and decided to order some of their oils and make them available for our students to purchase.
When the oils arrived, I was impressed by their quality. So were our students—the oils all sold out on the first day. I knew I was onto something really special, and decided to study aromatherapy more seriously. I went to London for 4 months and began my studies. It didn’t take long for me to realize I wanted to open my own school. It’s really an amazing industry, full of great people. I’m so fortunate to work with these people every day thanks to Aromahead Institute.
Goedeker’s: There’s a lot of information on your site and around the Internet. How does one get started using aromatherapy in their life?
Andrea Butje: One simple and therapeutic way is by diffusing the oils. You can get a really beautiful electric diffuser. All you do is fill it with water and about 10 to 20 drops of essential oil, and the diffuser fills the room with scent.
Depending on which oils you choose, you can create different effects. Orange is bright and uplifting and Lavender is soothing. Eucalyptus is a great oil to diffuse during cold and flu season. It smells bright, open and fresh, and helps disinfect the air as it diffuses.
You can also clean with essential oils. That’s right—they are strong enough to replace the chemical-based cleaners in your home! I make a great bathroom sink spray with 8 oz. of water, a dash of white vinegar and 30 drops of Lemon essential oil.
If you feel like you want to learn more before getting started, Aromahead offers a free online class—the Introduction to Essential Oils.
N.B. – One of Goedeker’s employees stumbled onto Andrea’s site when she posted how to make your own washer and dryer sheets with essential oils.
Goedeker’s: What are some common misconceptions about aromatherapy that you encounter?
Andrea Butje: Good question! Aromatherapy is now being taken more seriously as a complementary therapy by institutions like hospitals. Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils to support health. Essential oils are created by plants, which have to protect themselves against disease just like people do, and when we inhale the oils or apply them to our skin, the essential oil molecules are absorbed into the bloodstream. They have a direct effect on the limbic system—which is the center of our emotions—and they can even boost the immune system.
One misconception I encounter is the belief that perfumes and fragrances are aromatherapy. They’re not. Yes, perfumes and fragrances you get from the beauty store—and even many from health food stores—can have appealing aromas, but they’re often created with synthetic substances. They’re not therapeutic. In fact, many synthetics can actually cause allergies.
One more thing I want to mention is that essential oils come with their own sets of cautions and guidelines. That’s why it’s important to understand which oils to use for specific situations, how much to use, and most importantly, to purchase true essential oils extracted from plants.
Goedeker’s: You offer a lot of courses on aromatherapy. What are some of the amazing things your graduates have used their knowledge to do?
Andrea Butje: Graduates of Aromahead Institute are all literally all over the world—we have students in over 20 countries.
Many of our graduates are running their own aromatherapy businesses, creating body care products, green cleaning lines, or incorporating aromatherapy into existing practices—like nursing or massage therapy. Some are consultants, sharing their knowledge with institutions or businesses who want to include aromatherapy in their services. We have estheticians, herbalists, pharmacists, holistic practitioners, reflexologists, doctors, moms, and computer programmers (the list goes on). Some graduates are publishing about aromatherapy, and others are teaching their own workshops or classes.
Goedeker’s: Anything else that someone just getting interested in aromatherapy should know?
Andrea Butje: One thing I think is really important, is that if you’re going to be buying essential oils, make sure you get them from a trustworthy source. The lack of industry regulations means that many distributors sell perfume or synthetic oils and call them pure essential oils. I recommend going with a company that will provide the appropriate testing of their oils, a GC/MS report for each oil—a report that breaks down the various components, so you can see exactly what’s in your oil. Three great companies are Aromatics International, Essential Elements and Stillpoint Aromatics.
I already mentioned Aromahead’s free class—the Introduction to Aromatherapy. We also have a blog where we share recipes and information, and that’s a great resource for the newcomer. You can really learn a lot just from those two cost-free resources.
Keep up with Andrea on her blog at www.AromaHead.com/blog/.
