It may be surprising to you to know that even though Aromatherapy is a Natural Health Alternative or considered Complimentary Alternative Therapy (CAM) it can actually harm you!

There are many aromatherapy warnings and contraindications which are found on the Internet and yet there are so many people who are using aromatherapy in the wrong manner. This can lead to very serious issues.

Do you know that ingesting Eucalyptus oil can KILL you! Yet there are people on the internet that tell you that it is fine to ingest essential oils. They state that their essential oils are so pure that they will not harm you. Don't believe them. If that is true then that simply proves that their essential oils are not pure essential oils or they would be much more potent than that.

Although the Internet is a great place to learn about different things, we have to remember that we can't believe everything we read. This is true whether we are talking about information from books or the Internet. Even some Aromatherapy Books are riddled with errors.

How is a person supposed to know what is truth, what is correct and safe?

The only way to know how to use aromatherapy properly is to take a good aromatherapy course. If a person is interested in aromatherapy they should, for the sake of their health and that of their families, take a proper aromatherapy course. There are many aromatherapy courses available so, in a sense we have no excuse for ignorance.

That brings us to another important point though. How do we know that the aromatherapy course we are about to embark on is valid?  How do we know that they are not just passing on the erroneous information that is prevalent on the Internet?

Here are some tips to help you find a good aromatherapy course:

• 1) Find out for certain that the person giving the course is a Certified Aromatherapist.
• 2) Check out their site and see if they are actually giving you a real course or just asking you to read one of the many Aromatherapy Books out there and then just giving you a workbook to go along with the book.  This is not an aromatherapy course, even though they may be passing it off as such.
• 3) Does the person giving the aromatherapy course have any credentials. Have they written articles, or been published in any trade journals?
• 4) Check out the curriculum. Does it meet the standards set forth by the Aromatherapy Associations such as the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy.
• 5) Is the course being offered by a multi-level marketing company?  Be careful to be sure it's not. Many of these so called "'MLM's" have set up training for their sellers but much of the information is clearly taught in such a way as to make the sellers sell more essential oils for the company :(
• 6) Try and contact the teacher of the course and see where he/she stands. Why are they offering the aromatherapy course? What standards are they basing their information on? Are they certified themselves?  These are important questions.
• 7) Be careful. Just because an aromatherapy course is expensive doesn't mean that it's good. Find out what is included in the course. What is their syllabus?
• 8) Be careful. Just because they come up number 1 on the google page doesn't mean they are great, it just means they know how to use Search Engine Optimization well. If you want a course from them in Search Engine Optimization then I would say, "Hey, Find out all you can from them on this subject, but don't think that they are the best ones to offer you an aromatherapy course" :)

So there you have a few areas to check into when trying to decide what aromatherapy course you wish to take.

Remember that Aromatherapy can be dangerous and therefore you do need to take an aromatherapy course if you want to use Essential oils safely and effectively. Believe me, there are some aromatherapy courses that are full of great quality information, just beware of those which aren't. But DO take an aromatherapy course! You and your family deserve to know how to use Essential oils properly.