How many aromatherapists check if their clients are using essential oils at home?
I’m pretty certain most of us do. However, yesterday, one of my students asked me a very pertinent question. She had just found out that one of her clients had signed up to an MLM company and that she was using them on all her family and ingesting them. She was asking me what she should do. This was my reply:
” Harsh but simple….you can’t treat her with essential oils while she is to all intents and purposes ‘self medicating’ at home. It’s as simple as that. If something goes wrong…you don’t want her blaming you. Just tell her you will do hands on, but you WILL NOT be using essential oils on her. Simple. I always ask new clients if they are using Essential Oils at home. They are often shocked when I explain why they can’t use such and such oil. Don’t flap about it, rise above it and keep your professionalism. You could draw up a list of oils she shouldn’t be using based on her client assessment and give/post it to her. If she has children, add the oils at which age are safe to use. Finally just add the usual safety as in no ingestion, dilution etc. But add that while she is using the oils randomly you cannot in all professional integrity be overloading her system with more oils when you don’t know what she is doing at home. Words to that effect. Her choice at end of day, but at least you will have kept your professionalism and safe guarded your practice.”
So, when I first qualified 30 years ago, there was no such thing as the Internet we had to hunt down suppliers via magazine adverts for example. When Aromatherapists had to order their supplies they would be asked to provide a copy of their certificate to practice. When the Internet came along, suppliers would have ‘general’ oils available for the public, but to access more complex oils, again you would have to supply your certification so you could access the therapist area on a website. Much like the behind the counter restricted medications at a chemist/pharmacist. But by today there are no such restrictions, it’s a free for all. Most EO suppliers will have a therapist area but this is for discounted/cost prices. Now we have the rise of the MLMs and all that entails.
It was second nature to me all those years ago to ask my new clients if they were using Essential Oils and why they had chosen to come to me for Aromatherapy. You see, way back then Aromatherapy had been around for a while, but it had just started to become very popular with magazine articles and books. I would check which oils they had at home and advise accordingly depending on the answers in their Client Assessment/consultation. I would often suggest that they did not use any of their oils at home without checking with me first as either they would a) be sent home with a prescription to use on what ailed them or b) to check if an oil they had at home would be appropriate for maybe a mild cold or sprained muscle before they could see me next.
Just like doctors checking and cross referencing any medication you might already be on, so an Aromatherapist needs to know not just your medications etc, but also if you are using essential oils at home. With the rise in people ‘self medicating’ with essential oils, it is more important than ever that as therapists we check this out. As a client, you need to follow your therapist’s advice and guidance, if you don’t you could be overloading your system and eventually poisoning yourself, just as you would if you misused your medication from your doctor. If you use essential oils at home on yourself or your family without consulting an Aromatherapist., well, best of luck with that. You might as well be raiding the pharmacy and throwing any old pill down your throat willy nilly.