Greenleaves Aromatherapy Workshops and Therapies

01/09/2026

It’s September- time to book your place for Aromaclub, the groups are starting to fill up 🌸🌸

Two dates available :
Weds 23 re 7-9 pm. West Auckland memorial hall
Sat 26th 10-12 am in Spennymoor

Suitable for complete beginners.

Please message to book your place 🙏🌹🙏

29/08/2026

I love this - I have always combined art and science in my use of essential oils ❤️

There is a profound lesson in natural medicine: it is both an art and a science.

Nowhere is this more evident than with essential oils.

For centuries, people have observed, experimented with, and passed down practical knowledge about the therapeutic uses of plants. Modern science has now begun to investigate many of those traditional applications, but in many cases, we have only validated a fraction of what generations before us already recognized.

Science is incredibly valuable. It gives us mechanisms, clinical evidence, safety parameters, and a way to distinguish what works from what doesn't.

But science also has a limitation: it moves at the pace of research. Sometimes it takes decades for science to catch up with what human experience has been telling us for centuries.

That doesn't mean we should abandon evidence. Quite the opposite. I deeply value scientific evidence. But I also believe that an overreliance on what has already been studied, and a dismissal of what has not yet been studied, can be a mistake.

The wisest approach, in my view, is not art versus science. It is art informed by science, and science informed by centuries of human experience. That intersection is where natural medicine becomes especially powerful.

It is also the philosophy behind the way I use essential oils, and it is infused throughout everything I write. I seek to honor the wisdom accumulated through generations while continually asking what modern research can teach us about why these natural substances work, how they work, and how they can be used responsibly.

Because sometimes the most important discoveries aren't found by choosing between tradition and science. They're found by bringing the two together.

That is the philosophy I have carried into my books, and I am deeply grateful that tens of thousands of people who have found greater wellness through the knowledge and counsel within them.

Perhaps the future of natural medicine isn't about proving that tradition was right or that science is right. Perhaps it's about having the humility to recognize that each has something the other desperately needs.

28/08/2026

Beautiful crystal info for the full moon is Pisces from the lovely Ange in Bideford 🌺🌸♥️

27/08/2026

My news email for September has been mailed out. Please be in touch if you’d like to receive this ☀️🌸🪻🌹

27/08/2026

Time to get those Crystals, cards and magikal tools out for their full moon bathe 🌸🌺

19/08/2026

I know sweet marjoram is one that many of you who attend my regular Aromatherapy groups enjoy. Here’s some further info courtesy of Jonathon Hinde :

Sweet Marjoram: a complete all-rounder

For some people it is warming and comforting, others find it enlivening and clearing. Sweet Marjoram is one of those oils that seems to offer you what you need, when you need it.

It often finds its way into blends for trauma. Like Roman Camomile it's great in a massage blend for tight muscles or cramping. It has clear similarities with Lavender with its calming and sleep-supportive effects, and with Clary Sage in easing mental tension. It's a real all-rounder.

Sweet Marjoram belongs to the Lamiaceae (mint) family and shares several of its key therapeutic traits, including calming, antispasmodic, and mild antimicrobial actions. It expresses these in a softer, more gentle way than some of its relatives.

Put alongside more stimulating herbs such as rosemary or thyme, sweet marjoram sits firmly on the calming side of the family, offering a steadier, more soothing approach to both emotional and muscular tension.

Sweet marjoram essential oil works especially well when paired with oils that support relaxation and emotional ease. On its own it is already calming, but blending helps to guide its effects more clearly towards rest, comfort, emotional balance, or physical ease.

When blended with calming floral and herbaceous oils, its relaxing qualities become more pronounced. These combinations are often used for winding down, easing mental tension, and supporting sleep.

With citrus oils, sweet marjoram becomes lighter in character, helping to soften stress while adding a gentle lift in mood.

For physical comfort, combining it with warming or spicy oils enhances its traditional use for muscular tension, creating blends that feel both soothing and more active.

When blended with grounding or woody oils, it encourages a slower, more settled state, helping to steady both mind and body.

Blend suggestions

• Muscle relaxation: Combine with spicy oils such as Black Pepper, Cardamom or Ginger for a warming muscle rub, or with Clary Sage or Roman Camomile for calming relaxation.

• Evening diffuser: Use in a diffuser with Lavender to prepare for a good night's rest.

• Ease troublesome emotions: Use in a diffuser or inhaler stick with Bergamot, Neroli or Vetiver to feel settled and comforted.

11/08/2026

New Moon , eclipse, time to manifest your dreams ❤️♥️

11/08/2026

This is well worth a read if you use essential oils. Essential oil safety is a priority. I cover this at each of my regular Aromatherapy groups and also at my workshops.
A key factor in essential oil use is BE SAFE ♥️♥️♥️

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1684043366531394&set=a.594689235466818&type=3

After years of writing about essential oil misinformation, particularly essential oil safety, I think we need to firmly contextualize what we see too often in aromatherapy spaces.

Misinformation spreads in the name of safety all the time.

Sit with that a minute but keep an open mind to what I'm about to share. Chances are likely that you've come across this yourself. And due to this prevalence, you may currently have certain beliefs about essential oil safety that are actually misinformation.

That's not your fault. Like any field, aromatherapy suffers from flaws in research communication, a process by which evidence is pushed out into the public and shared. But to understand the issues, you need to also understand the chain of evidence.

Today, the majority of essential oils safety is predicated on Tisserand & Young's work, Essential Oil Safety (2nd edition). This is for a good reason. The authors put dedicated effort and time into synthesizing the available research on essential oils and translating that evidence into practical information that aromatherapists and other professionals can utilize in applied practice to ensure appropriate precautions are observed.

But sometimes aromatherapists and others draw conclusions beyond the boundaries Tisserand & Young established as evidence in their work.

This is called overextrapolation.

We'll go back to carcinogenic essential oils as an example. Often, when a potentially carcinogenic substance is present as a constituent for an essential oil, we'll find a few things recommended in their safety information:

1) Specific dermal limits to prevent a dangerous dose.
2) Recommendations about which route of use (oral, topical, inhaled) is or is not okay to mitigate problems.
3) Outright avoidance of the essential oil's use—sometimes, not all the time.

As stated, not all of these are automatically recommended. What comes recommended depends entirely on the essential oil being examined. But what we sometimes see in essential oil safety recommendations today is that a "better safe than sorry" approach is taken and gets translated into these essential oils not being able to be used at all.

In the case of essential oils with dermal and route limits, jumping from those to "don't use" is a leap in logic. The often offered rationale is the slippery slope fallacy in action, folks. And it is often the mechanism by which overextrapolation occurs. That being said, this overextrapolation of evidence is usually well-meaning—but still misinformation at the end of the day. And I will argue that it does nothing to actually teach aromatherapists and essential oil users to understand and critically apply reasoning to how they use essential oils.

This is especially concerning for aromatherapists who should be domain experts in this kind of nuance and mitigative understanding.

But I want to return to Tisserand & Young for a moment and point something out that I think people need to focus on more closely. Remember how I said they synthesized the available evidence. They did the knowledge translation work to establish the guidelines we largely rely on today.

So when you see conflict over what it is they said? You always need to return to their work. And if the claims you are coming across assert ideas beyond what they actually said?

Remember that safety only goes as far as the evidence does. Anything beyond that is an assumption, and assumptions are not evidence.

By all means, challenge what researchers say. But do it with evidence, not speculation or opinion you present as fact. 💙

10/08/2026

A beautiful day up at Dilston Physic gardens, for our retreat with ECCarter Art. A day of coming together in community, connecting with the magical plants and essential oils, creating aromatic blends, a beautiful shared lunch, and an afternoon of spiritual art ❤️♥️