This year each workshop will be a two day weekend event.

The Level I Aromatherapy Workshop will be presented over two days, then the same for the Level II Workshop a month later and then the Level III workshop a month after that.

Students may elect to take just one workshop or two or all three. Level I is available to all Healing Arts Practitioners (or with special permission). Level II is open only to graduates of Level I and, Level III is only open to graduates of Level II.

Since our online/correspondence course for Level I will be available by mid-summer, some students may opt to take some aromatherapy classes live and some by correspondence.

Level I: Foundations of Aromatherapy for Healing Arts Practitioners - August 3 & 4 (Sat./Sun.)

Level II: Creating Essential Oil Blends for use in Clinical Settings - September 7 & 8 (Sat./Sun.)

Level III: Clinical Practice in Healthcare Settings - October 5 & 6.

Cost for the live 2013 two-day workshops is $350.00 Early / $400.00 Late (less than 60 days prior to the class).
     $150.00 reserves your seat for each level.
Register for all three Levels (I, II & III and save and additional $50.00 $1000.00 Early / $1100.00 Late.
     $400.00 reserves your seat for all three classes.
Note: Classes usually begin to fill early so be sure to Reserve your Seat EARLY, since there will be only one series of live workshops this year.

All of the above workshops will be at Wyldhaven, Dr. Power's Farm near Asheville - Quite a beautiful spot in the North Carolina mountains about 30 min SE of Asheville / 20-25 min. S. of Black Mountain / 15 min. N. of Bat Cave / 40-45 min. NE of Hendersonville

• Level I - Available by mid-summer 2013
• Level II - Available by fall 2013
• Level III - Available by winter 2013

Aromatherapy for Healing Arts Practitioners

This series of aromatherapy courses (mainly correspondence with some online activies) offers sequential levels of aromatherapy training and is designed for massage therapists, nurses and other healing arts practitioners who wish to integrate aromatherapy into their professional practice. It is assumed that students enrolling in these aromatherapy distance learning courses have a foundation in basic anatomy and physiology. After registering for the Online / Correspondence Aromatherapy Course, students will receive an extensive workbook divided into multiple lessons. Aromatherapy students will be expected to complete each lesson in sequence, do all required reading and take a test for each lesson. These aromatherapy courses are not easy and will require a sincere commitment from each student; the lessons are "in-depth" but written to be easily understandable by anyone willing to make the effort.

The Aromatherapy School will be offering three levels of online aromatherapy classes (I, II & III)

• Aromatherapy classes are sequential, i.e., you must take Level I before Level II, etc.
• Students can choose to take the online/correspondence aromatherapy courses or live courses.
• Students may mix and match between live and online/correspondence courses.
• Both live and online aromatherapy classes follow the same format though the online course is more extensive
• Students are presented with an Aromatherapy Certificate of Completion for attending both days of the workshop.
• Students may choose to take exam at end of workshop. Students who pass receive an Aromatherapy Certificate of Achievement.
• Classes are geared toward Healing Arts Practitioners (Nurses, Massage Therapists, MDs, etc.)
• All students are expected to have an understanding of basic physiology and anatomy.
• Levels I & II are open to non-practitioners (must have working knowledge of physiology and anatomy).
• Students completing all Levels will receive a Certificate in Clinical Aromatherapy.
• Each live aromatherapy class is offered at least once per year (several times most years).
• All live classes are taught by Dr. Joie Power, director of The Aromatherapy School.
• Each level of the live classes is presented as a two-day weekend workshop.
• Live classes are offered at Dr. Power's farm, Wyldhaven, near Asheville North Carolina.

For more info on each Level, click on the links below:

• Level I Aromatherapy Workshop: "Foundations of Aromatherapy for Healing Arts Practitioners" - 15 CE hours
• Level II Aromatherapy Workshop: "Creating Esssential Oil Blends for use in Clinical Settings" - 15 CE hours
• Level III Aromatherapy Workshop: "Clinical Practice in Healthcare Settings" - 15 CE hours

Next Aromatherapy Workshop / Aromatherapy Workshop Schedule

Article: How Does Aromatherapy Work?

Part One: (exerpt from Level I Online/Correspondence Course)
Absorption of Essential Oils into the Blood Following Topical Application

For some reason, there is a persistent myth appearing repeatedly in popular aromatherapy books and articles stating that essential oils are not absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream. This may be due to a misunderstanding of both the nature of essential oils and the way in which they penetrate the skin. It's important to understand that an essential oil is not a thing - it is a mixture of many things, many individual volatile compounds, such as linalool and camphor. When lavender essential oil is applied to the skin, it is not "lavender essential oil" that is absorbed; rather, it is the individual molecular compounds that make up that oil that are absorbed - to different degrees and at different rates. From this perspective it may be technically correct to say that essential oils, per se, are not absorbed through the skin but it is very misleading.

When applied topically, the combination of the very small size and lipophilic nature of most essential oil components enables them to penetrate the skin fairly rapidly and quickly, a fact which has been repeatedly demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo, in both human and animal experiments. For example, Cal and Sopala sum up the results of their 2008 investigation of the skin absorption of terpenes by stating that "these compounds easily penetrate and permeate the stratum corneum and in vivo they may easily penetrate into the blood circulation" (Medical Science Monitor, 2008, Vol. 8, pp 119-23). Because many essential oil constituents penetrate the skin readily and their presence on the skin alters the permeability of the stratum corneum there has been, in recent years, a huge amount of research on the use of essential oil constituents as agents to enhance dermal absorption of many types of pharmaceutical drugs which are not as readily absorbed on their own.

The real issue for aromatherapists is not whether essential oil constituents penetrate the skin and enter the bloodstream when applied topically - since it is well established that they do - but whether or not the blood levels of volatile components that can be achieved with topical application are sufficient to cause physiological effects in the body.

In a well-known study carried out by Jaeger, et. al, in 1992, it was shown that components of lavender essential oil could be detected in the blood of test subjects following massage with that essential oil but the observed peak plasma levels were low - 100ng/ml for linalyl acetate and 121ng/ml for linalool. Some authors have opined that these very low levels argue against the possibility of any systemic physiological effects from topically applied essential oil constituents. However, it should be noted that peak plasma levels for some pharmaceutical drugs are also in a similarly low range; for example, the ED50 dose (the dose at which a drug has effective actions in 50% of animals tested) for carfentanil (an opiate) has been shown to be 340 ng/ml) in rats (9). That dose is still a bit larger than the ng/ml doses reported for lavender constituents but the point to be made here is that until we know what effective dose levels are for essential oil components it is hard to draw any conclusions about the possible actions of those components when they are carried to the organs and tissues of the body through the blood following topical application.

In everyday practice, when clients receive a topical application of essential oil the vapors of that oil will be inhaled and in addition to absorption through the skin there will be absorption of essential oil components through the respiratory tract as well. There will also be activation of the olfactory nerve which provides another pathway - other than the blood - through which therapeutic effects may occur. There are various methods that may be used to significantly increase the extent of absorption of essential oil components through the skin, such as covering the application site, warming the skin prior to application, or slightly warming the carrier oil and the therapeutic results achieved with topical application may be expected to vary with the procedures used.

©Copyright 2013 Joie Power, Ph.D. / The Aromatherapy School

The above is part of one lesson in the Level I Online / Correspondence Course written by Joie Power, Ph.D., Director of the Aromatherapy School.

More articles on website: Aromatherapy Articles  |  Newsletter Archive on website: Newsletter Archive

To sign-up, click: Register for Aromatherapy Workshops

Artisan Aromatics (www.artisanaromatics.com) carries a complete line of over 100 Essential Oils that are available online including over 35 organic or wildcrafted essential oils, Artisan Aromatics has many new Aromatherapy Blends as well as quite a few "ready-to-use" massage blends.

New for this month is a new All Natural Perfume designed by Joie. "Summer Mist" is the name we gave this Eau de Toilette - our first venture into the very interesting field of natural perfumery. Summer Mist contains over 10 pure essential oils in a base of perfumers' alcohol - all neatly packaged in a 1/2 oz. frosted spray bottle for only $15 bucks.

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