While at the Ayurvedic Institute studying with Dr. Lad, I had the opportunity to take a couple of workshops with Sonia Elisa Masocco...an expert Ayurvedic Bodyworker, Phytotherapist and Essential Oil afficionado.

An ITEC qualified practitioner in Aromatherapy, Reflexology as well as Massage Therapy, she enhanced her training with the completion of the Ayurvedic Studies Program and participation in the Gurukula program in Pune, India. Having been in private practice in Hong Kong and Albuquerque, Sonia combines her clinical experience with her passion for plants and plant medicine, to create a vibratory vehicle for transformation.

“Phytotherapy is the study of the use of extracts from natural origin as medicines of health-promoting agents. Even though phytotherapy is usually regarded as 'alternative medicine' in the Western countries, it is as well, when critically carried out, an essential part of modern pharmacognosy.” (Wikepedia)

Ms. Masocco and Dr. Lad shared the wisdom of Ayurveda’s use of essential oils for healing and stressed the point that less and even sometimes none is more.

Those of you who have known me for a while, may know that I am highly sensitive to the power of essential oils, and have intuitively experienced and understood their ability to help or harm; I have also always advocated that they are highly personal. One man’s gold is another man’s poison and they should be treated with up most respect and used with proper knowledge, care and integrity. Unfortunately due to their trendy misuse, and the over stimulation we are accustomed to as a culture, we are becoming insensitive to their appropriate medicinal uses, and find them causing toxic reactions that some people are unaware they are even having or causing to others. Sort of like second hand cigarette smoke, essential oils can affect the endocrine and limbic systems and create a strain or toxic over load to the kidneys and liver which produce various maladies of symptoms such as severe skin reactions, irritability, nervousness, dizziness, trembling, headache, insomnia, profuse perspiration, dehydration, itchy scalp and skin, vomiting, hyperthermia, irregular heartbeat, seizures, heart attack, stroke, or death. Some oils are photo sensitive, meaning they react with sun exposure. They can interact with medications, allopathic and homeopathic, and foods, and can cause an eventual breakdown of internal communications. Rather than the desired elevation of consciousness, they can actually be doing the opposite.

Essential oils are more potent than the herbs we ingest and yet there are people who will put them on themselves or others without fully understanding their energetics, or what or where they came from.

Sonia advocates that therapists choose one client per day to whom they offer oils (in order to protect them from toxic overload) and perhaps offer a second client the oil to apply to themselves at home. The therapists themselves should only use essential oils when absolutely necessary. They need not and should not be prescribed to everyone, nor should any therapist in any institution be breathing in an assortment of them all day every day. When using essential oils, proper ventilation (such as an open window) is necessary to ensure safety.

I know people who believe their essential oil applications to be their “spiritual practice,” however in truth, it is only a trendy substitute for the true essence of spirit to which we connect through quiet and stillness. The limbic system remembers scent and we do not need to apply them once the system has this memory in place, as that could cause toxic overload and be a strain to our system thus causing confusion in the flow of sensory stimulation and messages to our body, mind and spirit.

I work with many people who suffer from auto-immune disorders, and as their systems are already compromised, I encourage them (in particular) to avoid using any scented products, except those which are carefully and specifically recommended to them. Commercially prepared scents such as fabric softeners, detergents, lotions, soaps, etc. could be adding to the toxic overload your body is already working so hard to process. Even so-called "natural products" can be culprits for inappropriate stimulation and over load to our systems.

When it has been determined that a specific essential oil is good for you to use, do so sparingly and make sure that it has first been diluted in a carrier oil or water. Use only the purest of products from companies known for their manufacturing ethics and practices such as White Lotus Aromatics and Floracopia. The essential oils you choose are as important as the food you eat as they are more potent than the herbs you ingest.

There are various grades of oil available: