Aromatherapy: The Art and the Facts!

Aromatherapy was introduced to the UK in the 1950's by Madame Margeurite Maury. Her first assistant was Micheline Arcier; (her second assistant was Daniel Ryman). They opened the first Aromatherapy Clinic in the world in London. I had the preveledge to have been trained by Madame Micheline Arcier, both in my basic qualification and subsequently on two advanced courses.Madame Arcier worked closely with Dr. Jean Valnet - a French physician who combined the use of drugs with herbal medicines. Dr. Valnet together with a scientist called Mssr. Gattfosse together experimented with the anti-bacterial/fungal/viral effects of Essential Oils using double blind and other scientific methods. The results were impressive.An interesting historical point..... people used to use "strewing herbs" on the floors of hospitals. According to Valnet staff realised that those rooms strewn with Thyme had less infection set in than those strewn with say, Camomile. The treading of the herbs underfoot was releasing the Essential Oil from the herbs! And so the experiments commenced.Aromatherapy in the UK really took off in the early 1990's. I was lucky enough to have had some training back in 1980 while at Beauty Therapy College in Nottingham. So when it became popular, I had a head start! I trained with Madame Arcier and got qualified in 1990.Since the popularity of Aromatherapy as a practice has increased, so sadly has the training courses available been "dumbed down". A good private course will cover - to nursing standards - anatomy, physiology, chemistry and pathology as well as study around 60 E. Oils. Many college courses study just three out of the seven systems of the body (skeletal, muscular, nervous, lymphatic, digestive, cirularatory

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