08/20/2026
Where do you fit in aromatherapy? What kind of aromatherapist are you?
We're all familiar with the three schools of thought: English, French, and German aromatherapy. But as has been discussed over the years, these really aren't good representations of the field. If you're interested in learning more about why, the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy and Kayla Fioravanti - Ology Page have both written excellent pieces discussing the issue surrounding this perspective, and I would encourage you to read them.
But there is a kernel of truth represented within the concept. Aromatherapy is no stranger to debate. Aromatherapists have different perspectives, and the educational offerings, literature, and individual practices we find in aromatherapy testify to this. We frequently find ourselves at odds with each other, arguing about what we know about essential oils and how we know it. The questions are why do we have this conflict, and what truly separates these perspectives?
It's something I've spent a long time thinking about. I've written before about the fact that aromatherapy has a paradigm problem and one that leads to arguments about our epistemic rationale—how we know things. We have issues in broadly agreeing on how we know things, what we know, what constitutes evidence, etc.
Why? Aromatherapy actually operates between *multiple* paradigms.
And each one needs its own epistemology to account for what they are actually looking at because the simple reality is this: not all aromatherapists are answering the same questions about essential oils or humans' experiences with them.
That's okay. Aromatherapy is what we would refer to as "plural," and we can work with that from there.
This does not mean that our knowledge base is arbitrary. While we do run into those who are "flying blind," so to say, with how they understand what constitutes evidence, that is also arguably a result of the fact that we have not adequately labeled, defined, or developed the epistemologies and methodologies needed to account for these differing paradigms. In fact, it's nearly impossible to do so until we separate them and treat them as the unique perspectives they are because at times they naturally contradict each other.
Some aromatherapists even operate between multiple paradigms, depending on what questions they are seeking answers to. To a degree, this is necessary, but I'll have to write about that at a different time.
What are these paradigms though?
Based on years of personal experience in aromatherapy and observations, I would divide aromatherapy into the following three paradigms:
1) Physical aromatherapy, which centers observable and testable properties and effects of essential oils.
2) Humanistic aromatherapy, which centers human experience and accumulated knowledge of essential oils.
3) Metaphysical aromatherapy, which centers non-physical, spiritual, or cosmological understandings of essential oils.
Each has unique questions they attempt to answer, and each requires a different methodological focus to collect and evaluate the data relevant to those questions.
Where do you fit?
Hang with me a minute longer. I've written about this topic, how it impacts aromatherapy as a field, and defined the paradigms more in depth on Substack in the most recent essay "Epistemic Plurality & Professional Authority in Aromatherapy." While this is a subscription article, because the topic is so important, it is available to free subscribers to comp as their single-use free article. If you haven't used that yet, you can get the full article today.
If you're an aromatherapist and read just one article that I write, let it be this one.
I'm also working on a companion summary that will be up on Gumroad as soon as it's available if you want the key highlights without the denser research.
This is a critical conversation aromatherapy needs to be having. We compromise our own authority when we cannot agree on what we know and how we know it, and the public certainly takes notice of the disagreement.
Also, if you're an aromatherapist and have ever struggled with feeling like you don't know what your scope is and how to legally practice? Defining our paradigms and moving forward from there with methodological development is the first step in resolving that tension.
Without it, that uncertainty isn't going to go away. And aromatherapists deserve more than uncertainty when they invest in their careers.
So that's that. In the meantime, where do you think you fit within these paradigms?
Much love to you all. The link to the essay and more in depth analysis is in the comments. 💙
