Originally Published February 17, 2016

Well, part of it any way;-) In continuation of the Essential Oil Education Theme this week, I want to share my story and education.

As far as holistic health is concerned, I lived like most Americans do for the first 20 years of my life. I ate the SADiet and looked and felt like it!! I was always struggling with weight and was very sick and tired most of the time. I also enjoyed to0 much alcohol and smoked.

When I was about 20, I had a major encounter with Jesus Christ and the relationship caused me to want to make changes in all parts of my life, even the way I looked at health. Prior to that, I spent a lot of time at the doctors office, mostly for bronchial and allergy issues.

Moving ahead….I had my first child. I became even more aware of how I wanted to use natural methods as a mother. I started questioning immunizations and started dealing with my daughter’s allergies. After repeated ear infections I decided “doctoring” wasn’t working for her either.

I sought out a holistic practitioner and talked to a lot of health store owners. They seemed to actually be healthy and all had “before and after” stories. The doctor I went to was and still is considered “a quack” to those in our area, but he is a researcher and truly wants to help people get well. This was 20 years ago, and he was all over gut health and gluten intolerance before it was in fashion.  He gave us a hands on education about allergies and diet. Changing our diet completely changed my daughters health. No more breathing treatments, no more ear infections. There was some thing very true to all of this!

Then comes the second child…the first child’s allergies completely paled in comparison to child #2- son #1! He was so intolerant of almost every food, he almost died when he was 10 months old of major leaky gut syndrome. He ended up on a diet of yams and venison for a year. I would spoon feed him olive oil as well, but that was it!! (Obviously I still had major health issues going on and passed many allergies through to him- our life was also extremely stress filled at the time.)

Through that journey, we had to completely rid our home of dust, dust collectors, and chemicals.  He slept in a linoleum floored room with no curtains, no stuffed animals, no detergents. He couldn’t use commercial diapers and no way, wipes! Home made diapers and wash clothes with him. We believe he was miraculously saved by God. So, in my new journey of not running to the store to buy cleaners, I started experimenting with natural cleaning elements and starting to use some essential oils.

Through the next 20 years I dealt with more of my own health issues and was ever researching supplements and holistic health. I had a lot of people ask me questions about health because they were aware of our journey and saw the changes we had made as a family. When the “Essential Oil Boom” came over the last few years, I had a lot of people asking me how to use them. I had my ideas and my understanding, but I felt compelled to become certified so that I could really know what I was talking about in order to help my self and others.

I started looking on line for training and found Aromatic Wisdom Institute in my great state of PA! I was looking for hands-on-training and after visiting the school and spending time with Liz Fulcher, I knew this was the place for me!

It was a challenging course, especially with many other things I had going on in my life, but I did it! I cannot express the confidence in the education I received. This is going to sound really harsh, but bear with me. My husband says; the difference between being an Aromatherapist versus some one who sells essential oil, is like the difference between a doctor’s prescription and a drug dealer.  Ouch! I have sold essential oils for a Multi Level Network,  I am not against it!  But some of that analogy fleshes out… we have to challenge our selves and each other to  higher standards. I encourage every one who sells essential oils, to get more personal education- preferably from a NAHA or AIA recognized school, like Aromatic Wisdom Institute or Aromahead Institute to name a few. I took my Physiology and Anatomy course on line at Aromahead. If we care about health and want to be helpful and taken seriously, we all have to do our part to be as professional as possible…it only helps our cause to do so.

So, this is my story, my journey into Aromatherapy Certification. What is yours? Has your interest been piqued to have more formal training in this area? We want to hear from you today!