British Versus French Aromatherapy
Two Schools of Thought on Essential Oils: Caution or Good Medicine
Are essential oils safe for internal use? That depends on whether you were trained in the British or French model of aromatherapy. The history of the 20th-century divide.
So you think you know how to use essential oils? Of the thousands of people currently working as aromatherapists, only a few know the differences in technique between the classic French model and the newer, more cautious British model of aromatherapy. A historical divide, begun in the 1950’s, marks a change in the usage of essential oils and the beginning of a controversy that continues to the present day.
The Modern Divide: British vs. French Model Aromatherapy
By the 20th century, much of the historical knowledge of aromatic medicine from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and later Arabia and European monasteries, had been discredited or lost. Despite extensive use of essential oils in the perfume industry, when it came to medicine, the stars of chemistry and pharmaceutical science were on the rise.
French Model Aromatherapy
In the early 1900s, a French chemist named Rene-Maurice Gattefossé rediscovered the power of essential oils when a severe burn, accidentally immersed in lavender oil instead of water, healed in days. Gattefossé became the father of the “French model” of aromatherapy, in which essential oils are used intensively in and on the body, like any medicine.
A World War II M.D., Dr. Jean Valnet, resorted to oils when he ran out of antibiotics and found them surprisingly effective. He continued to develop aromatherapy upon the foundation laid by Gattefossé.
British Model Aromatherapy
In the 1950s, a student of Valnet’s work named Marguerite Maury brought aromatherapy to England. Since (unlike most French aromatherapists of the time) she was not trained as a medical doctor, she established spa-like clinics focused on beauty and “rejuvenation.”
Her use of essential oils was considerably more intensive than the perfume use that was all most people knew; nevertheless, she diluted her oils, and taught others to dilute, probably mainly for cost’s sake. Most of the oils in Maury’s clinics were used sparingly, mixed in fatty oils and massaged all over the body.
The “British model” of aromatherapy was considered a complimentary modality and, as the pharmaceutical and medical industries began to feel threatened, they used Maury’s approach to fuel fears about using oils on the body “neat” or at full strength. A growing list of side effects and contraindications cited in the mainstream British model are not supported by any evidence in the hands-on, undiluted oils therapies still practiced by French M.D.s.
Aromatherapy and Essential Oils in the United States and Canada
North American aromatherapy is mainly based on the British model, although there are an increasing number of vocal aromatherapists who practice aromatherapy according to the French model, or the German, which lies between French and British in terms of dilution and caution. North American oils, however, are often adulterated with chemical fragrances that are not safe for topical or internal use.
Related reading:
- The Real Quality of Essential Oils
- Gary Young, a French model aromatherapist and N.D. in the United States
- Intelligent Chemistry: How Essential Oils Heal
Reference: Smith, Linda L. (RN, MS, HNC, CHTP/I). Sent to Heal and Anoint Student Notebook (2d ed.), Healing Touch Spiritual Ministry Program, January 2006.
