I’ve been getting a lot of that question lately, since I fairly abruptly changed paths and started studying aromatherapy seriously several months ago. The question generally goes, “Oh, you’re an aromatherapist now! That’s … great. So, why?”
There are a lot of reasons. Personal reasons, like the feeling that I had been on the wrong path and that I’m meant to be a healer. Intellectual reasons, like a long-standing interest in science and medicine. Practical reasons, like the increasing demand for ‘all natural’ products and therapeutic treatments, and the career potential involved with meeting that demand.
But this blog. The Scientific Holistic. This is because of emotional reasons. This is because I spent so much time on the Internet before I got any formal training, learning all I could about essential oils. This is because during my training I would turn to the Internet for ideas and inspiration, for new products and combinations of scents.
This is because the Internet is TERRIBLE and finding out how awful it is made me MAD.
In my first few days studying aromatherapy, I had a lot of come-to-Jesus moments.
In those first few days, I learned that the essential oil industry is 100%, completely and utterly unregulated and that companies can put whatever they please into that little bottle and label it “pure”.
In those first few days, I threw away the vast majority of my essential oils and replaced them, since the ones that I had bought over the years may have been labelled “therapeutic grade” but, in fact, they had no documentation to back up the claim.
And in those first few days (probably least surprising but certainly disappointing), I found that 90% of the information I had read on the Internet about essential oils is just outright wrong. And boy, once you see that you cannot unsee it. Misinformation left, right, and center, a lot of it simply dumb but some of it wrong in ways that are actually unsafe.
So, “The Scientific Holistic. Why, though?” What happened is the universe took one woo energy healer who is fascinated with the science of plants, added a healthy dose of mad, stirred it around with a bit of snark, and this here blog was born.
My goal with this blog is to debunk as much of the misinformation surrounding the use of essential oils (and other non-Western healing modalities) as I can. To give my readers good resources and information, backed with whatever science can be found to support it. To help casual users of essential oils to make good purchases and good decisions, to keep their families safe and healthy.
It’s a work in progress, obviously. You can look forward to a reading list with books and resources that are grounded in solid science. There will be a page with links to trustworthy online retailers of essential oils. And there will be blog posts tearing apart sources of misinformation that I find on the Internet.
I’m still mad, after all.
The Scientific Holistic 