Beginning with Essential Oils

I’m passionate about essential oils for myself and for my clients – they augment the Reiki energy healing extremely well, and support us in our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies.  In just the past week I’ve been asked three times to share some resources I use for Essential Oils – from people wanting to add them to their healing practices:  a child psychiatrist, a Reiki practitioner specializing in Elder Care, and a therapist working in a stressful workplace counseling people in crisis, as well as clients wanting to use them for themselves.  I realized many have these same questions, so I’m sharing some of my personal recommendations here for books I love, brands of essential oils I use, and how I use EO’s on myself and clients.  Please let me know in the comments below or by email if you have specific questions and I’ll try to help.  If you’d like to know more about how I use essential oils in my Reiki Healing sessions, you can read more here.

Rain Lilies in bloom in Tucson

Books

I have a few books I love.  My favorite one that is always close at hand is  the “Reference Guide for Essential Oils” (12th Edition) by Connie and Alan Higley, around $30. It is full of easily accessible information, organized by issue/symptoms/illness, as well as single oil information, and all the Young Living blends, which I have had excellent results with.
You can find it here: Abundant Health for You, along with a great selection of books and other EO related products.

Another similar one is called “Essential Oils Desk Reference”, by Essential Science Publishing. It is also aimed at buyers of Young Living oils, and has a lot of the science and research on EO’s as well.  I don’t find it as useful and accessible as the Reference Guide, above, but it is very thorough!

One of the first books I read that got me hooked, which I still love is “Aromatherapy for Women, a Practical Guide to Essential Oils for Health and Beauty”, by Maggie Tisserand. This is quite different than the others, written in the first person by a British aromatherapist, and I love her personal stories, especially about her own children, her philosophy, and her humor!  Very accessible and enjoyable, it has great usefulness, with sections such as “Getting Through the Day”, “Aromatherapy and the Immune System” and pregnancy, childbirth and parenting chapters as well.  This author will give you a great feel for working with the oils, on a more personal level.

Brand

As for brand, I love the Young Living brand of oils for blends.  They are very high quality, truly therapeutic grade which is of primary importance. When I buy single oils, I like to buy from Nature’s Oils, a small company in Arizona, whose owner does energy work to amplify the oils before sending them, and they are extremely high quality as well and  much less expensive.  I’ve been happy with every order.  I also recommend Floracopeia – with excellent quality as well. These are all online, but if you need something quickly, look in Whole Foods (or similar) for Aura Cacia or an organic EO brand.  They are good as well.  Use your nose and intuition to determine if it smells and feels just right to you!

Much of what is labeled as essential oils are not truly that, and many of the cheaper ones have been distilled using chemicals which have a negative effect on the plant essences.  The highest quality EO’s are made with low heat steam distillation and the plants are grown without chemicals and sustainably harvested.  These brands I trust to do this.I love to make my own blends and sprays when i have time!

How to Use

As far as using them in a clinical setting (or home, for that matter), I’d recommend getting a good diffuser – a nice quiet one is easily available called an Aromatic Mist diffuser, (an example here on Abundant Health For You’s site, which you put distilled water in and then add drops of EO’s and it diffuses them in a fine mist, very quietly.  I have  a noisier one that is more powerful, but too loud to use around other people…

You might want a blend that is calming and lessens anxiety, for example (Peace and Calming by Young Living), and that is uplifting to the mood (Joy by YL)… You may also want to make sprays (I sell my own blends of this) that help to clear the space, so if you have a particularly challenging session, with a lot having been released, you can clear the space and yourself.  I use basil, lemongrass, lavender, and a few other oils for this in my blend called Clearessence.

If you do want to buy the Young Living oils,  you have to become a member through someone else who is a member.  When you do this, you can become a member for free and pay retail, or you can sign up as a distributor, pay $40, and then get about 25% off retail…To order see the Young Living website here, and use this number 553228 to sign up.  If you decide to become a distributor, there are financial benefits, as you can then decide to sell them yourself!

I always use the oils on my hands while doing energy work, usually using 3-5 different blends on different areas of the body as I work.  For example I begin with Valor, for grounding and balance, then use White Angelica on the shoulders for protection and calling in their guides, Peace and Calming if they’re dealing with anxiety, stress and busy mind, etc…Release I use on almost everyone! People love them, and I find they complement the hands-on energy work extremely well!

For more on how I use Essential Oils in my work, see my page on Reiki and Intuitive Coaching Sessions.

This is a very basic beginning, just touching on some things to help you get started.  Perhaps it’s time for me to offer another Essential Oils class!  Enjoy exploring these powerful and transformative essences of the plants – they can change your life!