Differing opinions

I was asked the other day why there is variance in the advice / information that professional aromatherapists give. The answer is simply level of education and personal ethics.

There is no world wide accepted level of education to become a professional aromatherapist. It varies from country to country. Even professional aromatherapy associations accept different levels of education. In Australia, we have a nationally recognised training qualification, however, even within that there is variance. Each training organisation can select the elective topics they teach their students.

All courses do however cover anatomy and physiology, aromatic chemistry, essential oil monographs, application methods and safety amongst other topics.

Personal ethics vary from person to person. Even aromatherapists who are members of professional associations who must adhere to the ethics of the association, they are still guided by personal ethics.

Add on top of all that experience.

Once people finish a course, most people immediately niche into an area they love or have other experience in. A niche might be working in aged care, product making and formulation, perfumery, medical aromatherapy to name but a few. This experience filters the lense in which they view topics.

As I’ve said many a time, very few things in aromatherapy are absolute. Guidelines yes, but very few absolutes. There is variance in most of the work we do. We work within the guidelines and apply our own ethics and experience to our responses.

So when you ask for advice or information, you will get a variance from practitioner to practitioner.

There is no worldwide accepted level of education to become a professional aromatherapist. It varies from country to country. Even professional aromatherapy associations accept different levels of education. In Australia, we have a nationally recognised training qualification, however, even within that, there is variance. Each training organisation can select the elective topics they teach their students.