Aromatherapy Safety and Massages: How do you set expectations with a client (and keep them safe) with aromatherapy services?

If alternative medicine is your jam, then you’ve probably offered aromatherapy services or used them, yourself. With a global market of $8.6 billion in 2023 and an estimated 8.7 percent growth by 2030, the massage and wellness industries see profound demand for essential oils. But with this spiking demand comes an equal need for aromatherapy safety.

Because essential oils come from plants, consumers rarely worry about aromatherapy safety. They assume anything natural and organic must be safe. But the health claims regarding essential oils tell a very different story. 

One TikTok creator, for example, started diffusing oils by her face at night to help treat her nocturnal panic attacks. When eucalyptus oil showed promise, she diffused it several nights in a row. One morning, she woke up with intense sluggishness, sweating, nosebleeds, and flu-like symptoms. Struggling to breathe, she went to the hospital, where the medical staff reached a shocking conclusion: Inhaling large amounts of eucalyptus oil was poisoning her.

This isn’t meant to scare you from aromatherapy services altogether. On the contrary, if you use them carefully, there are many benefits of aromatherapy. 

Wondering how to provide an amazing aromatherapy session while being careful with essential oils? How do you set expectations with a client about aromatherapy safety and realistic outcomes? Let’s dive in.

What are aromatherapy services?

Aromatherapy uses the healing and therapeutic properties of concentrated plant extracts to treat symptoms, explains the Mount Sinai Health System in their article. Ancient civilizations integrated these extracts, also known as essential oils, into their medicines, perfumes, cosmetics, and rituals, the Mount Sinai article says. Gaining heightened popularity over the last 100 years, aromatherapy service providers today diffuse oils into the air or massage them directly into the skin.

Who is the target audience for aromatherapy?

Who is aromatherapy recommended for? 

Clients often seek the benefits of aromatherapy and the aromatherapy experience to improve their mental and emotional wellbeing. Aromatherapy services are not meant to replace medical treatments. As a supplemental treatment, however, the benefits of aromatherapy may provide temporary relief from poor sleep quality, stress, anxiety, depression, pain, and nausea, says Camille Noe Pagán of WebMD. 

What are the key features of aromatherapy? 

What happens in an aromatherapy session?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to essential oil consultations. For repeat aromatherapy consultation clients, expect to adjust your services based on the client’s unique needs. You might diffuse diluted oils for your clients to smell, integrate them into massages or reflexology, or give them oils to use at home. Swedish, deep tissue, scalp, and hot stone massage techniques are popular matches for essential oils, says Tobias Nervik of Volant Aroma.

What are the psychological effects of aromatherapy? These treatments work by stimulating the parts of the brain that manage emotions and memories, Pagán writes. Studies record common psychological and neurophysiological outcomes, including decreased cortisol, boosted melatonin production, and anti-inflammatory effects. 

What health and safety considerations must you be aware of with aromatherapy?

As a practice dating back over 3500 years BCE, aromatherapy services have been part of recorded human history about as long as the domestication of horses. Yet even with all that history, not all the health claims regarding essential oils are positive ones. 

According to the American Lung Association, essential oils and breathing problems (or even heart problems) can walk hand in hand. In a study of 200 participants, those who inhaled essential oils one or more hours each day experienced increased heart rates, higher blood pressure, and decreased lung function, the Association’s Editorial Team wrote. Additionally, highly concentrated oils can emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs); when combined, VOCs may produce secondary pollutants like formaldehyde, which is known to irritate the nose, throat, and lungs. 

And yet, with no regulation in the U.S. and limited research about how oils interact with chemicals, medicines, and each other, tracking aromatherapy guidelines, quality, reactions, and possible contamination is nearly impossible, the Association said. That’s why every massage therapist or wellness provider should consider aromatherapy safety and weigh the pros and cons of aromatherapy carefully.

What are the safety precautions for aromatherapy you should know about? Here are eight aromatherapy safety tips.

1. Know which clients are more prone to risks.

To prevent aromatherapy claims, be prepared to make accommodations for (or even decline) higher-risk customers. Also, encourage your clients to consult a medical professional before receiving aromatherapy services.

Who should not use aromatherapy? Clients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other respiratory chronic diseases should tread carefully with aromatherapy services, the American Lung Association writes. 

Furthermore, essential oils may act as endocrine disruptors and can cause hormone-related complications, Amanda Capritto writes for CNET. For this reason, some doctors suggest avoiding certain oils on or near babies, children, teens, pregnant women, and people with hormonal medical conditions, like diabetes. 

Anyone with essential oil allergies should avoid them, too, Capritto said. Warn your clients about allergy symptoms and advise them to get emergency attention if any symptoms arise after your treatment. 

And don’t forget your clients’ furry friends! If you send oils home with clients, warn them that inhaling or ingesting certain oils can be toxic for their pets. Refer to the Pet Poison Helpline for more information about aromatherapy dog safety and toxicity to animals. 

2. Schedule an aromatherapy consultation.

How do you set expectations with a client? Before offering aromatherapy services, set up an aromatherapy consultation. 

What is the importance of consultation and preparation for aromatherapy? It gives you the opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of aromatherapy, if they’re a good fit for your aromatherapy services, which oils to avoid, and realistic expectations.

What is most important in a client consultation? As part of your aromatherapy intake interview, ask your clients to complete an aromatherapy massage consultation form. Ask about their skin sensitivities, allergies, lifestyle, diet, damaged skin, favorite or least favorite scents, and general health, Christine Fisk MSc of Base Formula advises. Get to know their preferences and learn how to provide an amazing aromatherapy session that addresses their needs and pain points. 

And remember, your aromatherapy client questionnaire is your resource for not only protecting your client but also your business. Therefore, the form should ask clients to acknowledge the possible risks and limitations of aromatherapy services. Aromatherapy intake forms disclaim things like the regulation for essential oils and your inability to guarantee results. 

Whatever aromatherapy safety information you want them to know, put it in writing. If a client ever accuses you of failing to warn them about the risks and limitations, a signed copy for your personal records can prove the expectations you set on day one.

See the Power of Hands’s aromatherapy massage consultation form for an example. Always consult local legal counsel before drafting your own waivers and other legal documentation for your business.

3. Dilute for aromatherapy safety.

In their guide to the top 10 worst essential oil injuries of 2014, the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy shares that seven of these injuries resulted from undiluted oil on the wrong areas of the body. For example:

• A six-month-old baby suffered two seizures after his mother applied undiluted oil to his chest. His symptoms resolved shortly after she washed the oil from his skin.
• A nurse dropped undiluted oil into a patient’s ear as an alternative infection treatment. The oil damaged the patient’s ear canal.
• Undiluted oils caused itching, red splotches, and blisters. Symptoms cleared after they stopped using oil.

Essential oils are intensely concentrated. To protect clients and yourself from irritation and burns, always dilute your oils, especially before applying them to the skin, suggests the Connecticut Poison Control Center. Also, document your dilution percentages so you’re consistent for each aromatherapy service.

4. Patch tests are essential.

It’s good to ask clients about allergies and skin sensitivities on their aromatherapy massage consultation form. But even if they mark “no” on their aromatherapy health intake forms, clients may have sensitivities they aren’t aware of.

During your essential oil consultations, consider a patch test before applying oils to larger areas of skin, the Connecticut Poison Control Center advises. 

5. Warn clients not to ingest oils.

For aromatherapy safety, remind yourself and your clients that essential oils are not for drinking.

According to the Government of Western Australia’s Department of Health, even a small amount of ingested oils can pose a serious poison risk. Eucalyptus, for example, can be soothing in proper quantities—but can cause seizures if consumed, Capritto reported. The risk is especially real for children who ingest essential oils accidentally. 

Oils rarely have child safety caps. So prevent accidental ingestion and store them away from small children. Also, remember to toss expired or spoiled oils, Paul Frysh wrote for WebMD. Label your inventory by date and strength to make organizing a breeze, the Connecticut Poison Control Center recommends.

6. Send clients home carefully.

You never know how someone will react to an aromatherapy service. As a safety precaution, consider following up with the client to ask how they’re feeling. They might walk away perfectly fine. But if they do have a bad reaction, you can be a helpful point of contact and advise them to see a doctor. (Just avoid providing medical advice, as this may violate your insurance policy.)

Send them home with any aftercare instructions, too. For example, depending on the oils you use on their skin, they may need to avoid sunlight or UV rays. Clients who aren’t aware of these instructions may experience nasty reactions, like one consumer who developed second and third degree burns.

7. Don’t mix your own oils.

After conducting an aromatherapy consultation, you might discover that your client needs a blend of essential oils for their specific treatment. In navigating how to provide an amazing aromatherapy session, you might decide to blend the oils yourself.

Before doing so, pause and check the exclusions in your insurance policy. Some policies, like ours at WellnessPro, do not offer product liability coverage for products you’ve personally manufactured, repackaged, or relabeled. 

Read about the specialties and techniques we do and don’t cover here.

8. Have a game plan for complaints.

You could perform a perfect service. Your employees could take every aromatherapy safety precaution in the book. At the end of the day, some clients just like to complain. They might expect a miracle cure from your massage aromatherapy services and take to social media with pitchforks if the peppermint doesn’t put the pep back in their step.

Long before you get any negative health claims regarding essential oils, have a plan for difficult massage clients. Decide how you and your team will “diffuse” the conflict for the best possible outcome. 

We share tips for handling difficult massage clients in our article.

WellnessPro: Protection That Makes “Scents”

After a long and exhausting day of pampering clients with top-tier massage and aromatherapy experiences, your insurance coverage should leave you feeling pampered, too.

Whether you provide massage aromatherapy services, acupuncture, facials, or a combination of wellness specialties, our team at WellnessPro excels at “sniffing out” the protection you deserve. 

Learn more about our massage and bodywork coverage and start your journey today.