Aromatherapy: A Holistic Guide to Natural Healing with Essential Oils is a practical reference that features easy-to-follow 'recipes', close to 250 in all, plus instructions and helpful tips for the reader who wants to know how to use aromatherapy in the safest, simplest, and most straightforward manner in their home, while at work, and while travelling. Covering more than 100 common ailments, it is one of the most complete resource texts on the subject today and is utilized as a classic textbook in aromatherapy training courses in the United States. Written for those individuals interested in natural medicine: parents who want to practice only safe and natural care for their family, avid athletes who need relief from their aching muscles, the environmentally-conscious person who wants to avoid harmful chemicals, or the stressed out business executive who needs to unwind. Among the most remarkable benefits of essential oils are their positive effects on relieving contemporary stress, a major contributing factor in illness today. Aromatherapy has been around for centuries, but only in the last decade has it become recognized as a proven mainstream healing technique. And while current trends show that nearly half of the acute conditions in America are being treated without direct physician intervention, this resource is indispensable. Embraced by a growing desire to take charge of our own health and to be connected to what is real and natural, more and more people are turning to holistic self-care, and seeking simple, safe, and natural alternatives to achieve optimal wellness - which is the heart of this book. Holistic Nurse and best-selling author Valerie Cooksley has researched the healing benefits of essential oils, trained with leading physicians' worldwide, taught hundreds of students, including fellow nurses, and helped start numerous hospital-based aromatherapy programs across the U.S. From more than thirty years of professional practice, Ms. Cooksley shares real life cases and offers a holistic guide to utilizing and blending essential oils for maximum benefit keeping you and your family healthy. Aromatherapy is a hands-on guidebook to preventative self-care offering the reader a holistic education and the tools to practice this integrative therapy first hand, knowing that the body, mind and emotions do affect health. Supporting an intimate connection to nature while providing restorative and potent healing solutions is an integral part of this complete and practical guide -from bath blends and steam treatments to massage lotions and body scrubs; room sprays and diffuser synergies to teas and tonics - all natural, pleasurable to use, inexpensive, self-care practices that work. A few examples of the holistic remedies you will find inside... -The ultimate flower-filled elixir for rejuvenating aging skin -A cooling mint oil blend that eliminates tension headaches -The warm bath soak that creates calm and reduces feelings of anxiety -An aromatic natural formula that promotes restful sleep -The uplifting herbal inhalation that eases depression Nature, in and of itself, has healing and restorative properties that contribute to wellness. Aromatherapy is connecting us to nature in a very intimate and natural way. Essential oils are as real and down-to-earth as the herbs in your kitchen pantry and the flowers growing in your garden and it is not necessary to have a graduate degree in biochemistry to use them correctly and to enjoy them. Aromatherapy has survived the ages and now is experiencing a reawakening for good reason. What better way to improve our health, appearance, and the environment around us, than through the benefits of essential oil therapy? We have come around full circle, from lab-created drugs and high-tech medicine to returning to our roots and embracing 'nature' medicine (once again) to experience health and wellness.