As massage is becoming an increasingly popular career choice, massage schools are churning out new graduates through their programs every year and clinics of various styles and capacities are springing up in every city. Therefore, it's becoming ever more pertinent to create a practice that stands out among the crowd.

Adding Aromatherapy to Your Practice

Most massage therapists incorporate aromatherapy into their practice in to some degree at some point in their careers, and today it is typically assumed that essential oils will be used when you arrive at your massage. But those who have worked with a wide array therapists will notice that not all massage therapists have an even standing when it comes to aromatherapy education.

This gap in education is partly due to the belief that it is relatively easy to add aromatherapy as part of your offerings, and that the addition creates greater value for the session, but does it always? In this two-part series, we will explore what it takes to make aromatherapy become a valued addition to your practice by properly integrating informed aromatherapy techniques, and how to avoid the pitfalls that some therapists find when making their massage sessions scent-sational.

Step One — Find the Answers

The first step in adding aromatherapy to your practice may not be what you think. Before you go stock up on some oils and a diffuser, it is best to have some idea of what you are looking for. There are countless oils out there and available for use in massage treatments, so how does one decide?

Do you just add the oils in the air with a diffuser? Do you add them to your massage oil? Do you know what oils are safe and appropriate to these kinds of applications? Would you like to be able to offer more in-depth consultations? How does that look in your practice?

The answers to these questions may not be clear unless you've taken an aromatherapy class or workshop, a highly important and necessary step to successfully integrating aromatherapy into your practice. Educating yourself as much as possible is the first step to gaining an informed approach on the use of essential oils in massage.

Regulation: Pros & Cons

Unlike massage, aromatherapy is not regulated. There are no current laws that exist in the U.S. that would prevent any professional from using essential oils. Whether they are a massage therapist, a chiropractor, physical therapist, yoga instructor, doctor, nurse, nutritionist, hypnotist, or any other licensed profession, as long as they are working in their scope of practice they are able to add aromatherapy to their offerings.

With the exception of non-medical doctors making medical claims on a product, there is no restriction of how and why essential oils are used. This is both a blessing and a curse for massage therapists. The good part is that there is hardly any red tape to maneuver through once you've caught the aroma-bug and want to share your aromatic allies with your clients.

The down-side of this means that anyone can call themselves an aromatherapist, regardless of training level, or lack thereof. This has lead to a wide disparity of education and safety practices between people that work with these potent aromatic chemicals.

As the consciously-minded and ethical therapist that you are, you can see why it is important to have some awareness of how essential oils can both enhance a session or make it memorable in an unfortunate way. I shared in my article from earlier this year that even those with good intentions can unknowingly harm a client.

Though cases of injury during massage are few and far between, outnumbered largely by cases of overuse of undiluted oils and inadvisable oral applications, there are documented cases of clients who have been injured by a massage therapist because they had employed essential oils improperly.

Avoiding Injury

The Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy has an injury reporting database where individuals who have experienced adverse effects of essential oils can share their experience. The raw data as well as summaries of the collected cases can be found at aromatehrapyunited.org.

So how can one make sure their client's do not have an experience which leads them to submit an injury report from their session? Whether you are using essential oils currently or considering adding them as part of your practice, here are some points to consider.

Aromatherapy Education

What is your level of education in aromatherapy? Workshops and classes are offered by many schools, often for continuing education credits for massage therapists. But part of the disparity among those who practice aromatherapy comes from the inconsistency of teaching styles, topics covered, and safety guidelines presented by the schools out there.

Though many schools offer a variety of levels of education and certifications, individuals can choose to become a Registered Aromatherapist by attending a 200-hour program from an approved school and passing the exam given by the Aromatherapy Registration Council (aromatherapycouncil.org).

Though this level of education is not required to use essential oils under your massage license, most aromatherapists would recommend some formal training before using essential oils on the paying public.

Organized Professional Meetings

Have you joined an aromatherapy organization? Both the Alliance of International Aromatherapists and the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy have wonderful communities to offer for the growing aromatherapist.

You can learn about and connect with others who are striving to bring more essential oils and plant-based medicines into their lives. Just like with massage, continuing education is important to stay fresh, relevant, and safe in your practice.

Practice Makes Perfect

How much time have you spent with the oils you work with? Our relationships with the oils are less like memorizing a deck of cards and more like nurturing close friendships. We can only get so much from reading books and blogs, the best is to get direct, personal experience. I have found that the more I really take time with an oil, the more it speaks to me, and my sharing of the oil becomes more authentic.

How often do you use essential oils outside of your massage room? Continuing the last point, ideally we begin with home use of essential oils as we learn about aromatherapy. But once we bring our oils to our office, they need to continue to come home with us. This helps us not only build our relationships with the oils but also continue our own self healing, which might be the primary virtue that creates a most successful practice.

Continuing Education

Besides my own personal practice with oils, the quality of education that I have received from live classes in aromatherapy have been invaluable. When we can experience the essential oils in the presence of a live instructor, smelling the same fragrance while sharing in the teacher's history with the practice, then the oils come alive in a whole new way.

Being present for a distillation, when available, can give us an appreciation for these aromatic extracts that we forget when we only see them in the tiny bottles. Experiencing the richness and depth that so many teachers offer more fully colors my understanding of how, when, and why to work with the extracts from aromatic plants.

We encourage all of our students to continue to learn from other teachers because we all collectively add to the full picture of what aromatherapy has to offer. It is only through the continuous exploration of our own aromatic healing journey that we can continue to offer the same in guidance to our clients.

Even if you are still self-educated, having learned from books or online, you can practice with this same spirit. However, experiencing the journey alone can only get you so far, and I encourage you to connect with fellow aromatic practitioners in any way you can.

Growth happens not only on our own, but as we learn as connect with one another as well. Next time we will explore what it really looks like to have aromatherapy as a part of your practice.