Extraordinary Health Magazine EH Magazine VOl 33_Final | Page 20

Amy Galper
Essential to Your Good Health
Ancient Oils Take Center Stage
by Kelly Merritt
Compared to essential oils used in aromatherapy and other healing arts, modern medicine
is in its infancy. For thousands of years, humans have benefited from essential oils in everyday
and critical health. An educator, Certified Aromatherapist for nearly two decades and wellness consultant,
Amy Galper loves to share how essential oils offer preventative attributes and improve quality of life.
Galper’s book, Plant-Powered
Beauty, The Essential Guide to Using
Natural Ingredients for Health,
Wellness and Personal Care, with
co-author Christina Daigneault
of Orchard Aromatherapy,
showcases the healing and
beautifying qualities of plant-
based ingredients. Intended
as a roadmap to wellness,
the book is a handy companion
to natural skincare and as a DIY resource for
blending healthy products. Famous faces including beauty
legend Bobbi Brown and green beauty icon Sophie Uliano have
both expressed early support for the title.
Galper trained with a master, Jade Shutes, who established one
of the first aromatherapy schools in North America. The visionary
women recently joined forces, sharing their passion for essential
oils through The School for Aromatic Studies, offering online
courses and Aromatherapy certification. These enterprising
business partners serve a higher calling: helping teach people
how to connect the body through the senses.
“Essential oils have a profound ability to affect our mind and
body simultaneously, and while most practitioners look just
at the physical bodies, essential oil work is physiological and
spiritual, comprising an authentic, holistic experience,” says
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Galper. “The Western approach is looking at the symptoms rather
than looking at the core and cause, so using essential oils safely
and respectfully helps people live happier and healthier lives.”
This shift in perspective toward a different way of responding to
stress and illness is part of why essential oil use has exploded in
recent years. For educators Galper and Shutes, it’s also about the
ability to get in touch with oneself internally and connecting with
each other—going deeper than just what the naked eye sees on
the skin or in lab results.
“Modern medicine, as we know it, is a very new science and many
of the drugs manufactured didn’t come into existence until the
late part of the 19th century. But prior to that, people used plants
as medicine,” says Galper. “We stopped trusting ourselves along
the way, but we have this capacity to heal ourselves and now we
have the research to back up the fact that essential oils can play a
role in that as well.”