When should you seek help from an aromatherapist?

With essential oils gaining a large following and massive popularity, you might find yourself asking a few questions. Why do we need aromatherapists? When should I seek an aromatherapists help? Why can’t I just use essential oils in my own home by myself? I realize that a lot of the time it can be confusing so I am here to help. I’ll answer some basic questions, give some insight on what an aromatherapists purpose is and how we can help out. If you have any other questions feel free to ask me or find me through my various social media’s and reach out to me there.

To start off, what is an aromatherapist, and why would you need to consult one?

Aromatherapists are those specially trained in the use of essential oils. There are several different levels, and many areas of focus an aromatherapist can have. For example I am a level 1 aromatherapist, my area of focus is with pregnancy/childbirth and children. I have knowledge on several essential oils, how to blend them, creating products and what oils to use to best suit someone’s specific need. And while I am certified, I still make sure to keep pursing education on how to effectively use oils and be safe. So why would you need an aromatherapist? Aromatherapists can help find oils targeted for your specific needs, we can curate special products and blend oils tailored to what you are looking for. Creating products can be tricky, especially if you don’t know how to properly make a product with essential oils. We can also help to avoid oils that might not be great for you to use, provide safety information and inform you of any contradictions or safety warnings an oil has. While essential oils are certainly popular and readily available to just about anyone, a lot of the guidelines and safety that goes along with them just isn’t as easily available. Especially with misinformation circling around, it’s hard to be sure what is correct information and what is something made up to sell more oils to people. For example, when buying from a company they might recommend ingesting essential oils. But are they informing you on how to do so properly? Are they letting you know the risks involved in doing so, and are they telling you which oils are safe for ingestion and which aren’t? I have seen companies recommend ingesting blends with eucalyptus but you should never ingest eucalyptus oils as it can cause liver failure. There are also some oils that shouldn’t be used with certain medications, some oils you shouldn’t use if pregnant or with babies/kids. If you have an aromatherapist that you can contact, you can easily find out the safety information that you need to know. We will let you know what’s safe and what’s not.

So this leads into the next question, when should we seek the help of an aromatherapist?

With essential oils so easily purchased at just about any store and even online, it can be easy to assume we don’t ever need to contact outside help. However, there are a few reasons that you should seek a little extra help. Are you wanting something specific? If you’re looking for something to help with muscle pain, you can buy a premade blend online but you can also get something that is specific to YOU through an aromatherapist. And you can get a product that is properly mixed, which can be helpful to avoid using a product that doesn’t have the oils fully mixed in. If you aren’t 100% sure in what you are hoping to accomplish using certain oils, talking to an aromatherapist can help. Do you want something calming but you don’t like the scent of lavender? You can find several options and be sure that they are going to be calming by talking to someone who is trained. If an oil isn’t working for you or not doing what you expected an aromatherapist can help you troubleshoot the issue as well. But how do you know if you can trust someone? I personally always share my certification and am honest about my credentials, but I cant say that is a standard. Some people might not want to share that blatantly all over the internet. Some people might just know a lot about oils and don’t have proof they know what they are talking about. I wish I could give a better answer to how to be sure, but I can share some tips. It doesn’t hurt to ask. In my experience if asked someone is more than willing to prove their credibility. Trust your gut as well, if something feels off than don’t work with that person. And learn to recognize bad advice, things like using neat oils without diluting, using too many at once, using too much of an oil and even recommendations on ingestion are things you are wanting to avoid. An aromatherapist can also help you to know that the oils you are getting are the real deal and not just unnamed fragrance. Some oils you can buy are not essential oils at all and just fragrance in a bottle, and while it’s not super complicated to figure out what is real it can really benefit someone to reach out to an expert. Especially someone who has used several different brands and knows for sure.

So why can’t we just use essential oils at home instead of feeling like we need to contact someone to help?

There are several reasons for this as well. Essential oils are a finite tool, and over harvesting is a problem. If you know you’re going to buy an oil (or 10) and only use a little bit before they go bad (oxidize) you might want to consider seeking out an aromatherapist and getting a product made for you rather than buying and entire bottle only to waste resources and money. Some oils require greater care when being used as well, like wintergreen for example. This can be a toxic oil and is not safe to be around pets or children at all. This is one to use sparingly and to respect topical maxes on. It would probably be more beneficial to seek help when using toxic oils like this, you might discover there is a better oil that isn’t toxic just by asking. Also, a lot of the time there is just bad advice floating around regarding essential oils, like making products that involve adding oils to water. Water and oils don’t mix, yet we see so many DIYs using water and water based products to make something that you then are told to ingest or use topically. This can be extremely dangerous, someone who is trained can help guide you in the appropriate uses or even formulate products properly for you to ensure they are made correctly and are safe to use.

Ultimately, the choice is really up to you wether or not you want to seek help. If you feel confident you may not feel like you need help and that’s fine, but if you want help or just feel like it would be more beneficial to be absolutely certain than reaching out to an aromatherapist can really help a lot. For me personally, it costs nothing to reach out and ask questions. And I love to provide free safety information about essential oils as well. I want people to be safe, so I am always happy to share in that. You can also find a lot of other free safety content online from other aromatherapists, they will usually specify in their bio if they are certified or if they are in training. Getting the information that you need to use essential oils effectively and safely doesn’t have to cost anything. There are many books that are valuable to look over as well that are written by amazing aromatherapists, my faves being the ones written by Robert Tisserand and Lea Jacobson. And honestly it all boils down to knowing when you need a little help, and how to ask for it.

If you have any interest in seeking out some aromatherapy help or booking a consultation (online consultations are absolutely possible!) feel free to use my email contact form or reach out to me on my various social media’s that are linked at the top of the page. As always, happy oiling and stay safe!