How to Prepare for Your First Aromatherapy Consult
Write the meds, the smells you already hate, and a goal you can check next week.
[ wellness ]
The first consult goes better if you show up with a page, not a mood. I write things down because ADHD will edit the story in the chair. The practitioner cannot smell your week from a smile.
Start with the medication list. Prescriptions, OTC, supplements, the inhaler in the bag, the cream you only use on flare weeks. Include doses if you know them. Note pregnancy, trying, nursing, or a condition that already limits what you put on skin or into the air. This is not you diagnosing yourself. This is you refusing to make someone guess. Allergies and scent aversions go on the same page. If eucalyptus makes you feel trapped, say so. If a coworker’s diffuser already gives you a migraine, that is data. Preference is not rudeness.
Write who shares the space. Cat, dog, toddler, partner who works nights in the same studio. Room size in honest terms: a hotel room, a spare bedroom office, an open plan you do not control. Ventilation. I have tried to “just diffuse a little” in a box that had no window and a cat. That was a bad experiment. If you split time between Louisiana humidity and a dry Auckland rental, write both. The protocol has to survive the room you actually have.
Goals need a next-week test. Not “fix my nervous system.” Try “I want a shutdown cue I will run four nights” or “I want something for the 3 p.m. slump that is not another coffee.” Sleep, focus, travel recovery, and stress ritual are all fair if you can observe them. Miracle language is how you get sold a kit. Ask what they will not do: ingesting oils at home, treating a diagnosis, working around a pet they have not asked about.
Bring questions about training and scope. Ask how they dilute, how they patch-test, what happens if you hate the first blend. Red flag: anyone who promises to clear a chronic disease with bottles alone, or who gets impatient when you mention meds. You are hiring complementary support. You already have, or you should have, medical care for the rest.
I leave the page in my notes app so I can paste it. Ten minutes of writing saves an hour of polite vagueness. Then you can listen.
— JV · Dark Heart Labs.