@Jane Lawson Her book is definetely one that should be on every aromatherapists shelf. I personally believe that fixed oils don't get the recognition that they deserve in Aromatherapy. Too often they are just lumped as carriers or one vehicle to dermally apply essential oils. Fixed oils have amazing therapeutics on their own and I def wish more books and teachers would mention to carefully select their fixed oils, not just as an afterthought.

@Tania Cottew You def wont regret her book. I actually plan to eventually when I have enough $$$ saved to do some of her online classes. Susan is considered the Fixed Oil Queen or THE Expert in Fixed Oils.

For me, ANY book by Salvatore Battaglia. The reason is that I appreciate how he approaches Aesthetic, Subtle, and Therapeutic Aromatherapy equally, without one overshadowing the other. Heck I am desperately waiting on his Third Edition The Complete Guide to Aromatherapy Volume II: Science and Therapeutics to come out. I also love how he distinguishes between traditional aromatherapy therapeutic properties vs clinical therapeutics vs scientifically supported. What do I mean by this? Traditional Therapeutics is what you typically find in an Aromatherapy book, such as this: essential oils are known to be antiviral, anti-inflammatory, etc. However, this information can be shoddy, as often when that oil is used for that therapeutic property within Clinical Consultation, it bares no results, indicating the traditional claim is false. Clinical Therapeutics uses the Therapist's knowledge, skills, and personal experiences to indicate if an essential oil therapeutics is effective or not based on both scientifically supported data and their own anecdotal personal experience. Scientifically Supported Therapeutics is as the name indicates, essential oils, constituents, etc which have gone through vigorous scientific testing, clinical trials, etc to determine effectiveness, dosage, safety, etc. I also love the fact that Salvatore provides references for everything within his book, and his references are not just from other Aromatherapy books, journals, etc but also from scientific papers, medical journals, etc. The other author I am a big fan of is Jade Shutes. I love how she puts her books together, also providing references/source material and combining both the scientific and the practical together without going overboard on jargon or unnecessary information.

@Tania Cottew Herbal Medicine also ties is nicely with Aromatic Medicine. Infact a lot of associations won't allow practitioners to practice Aromatic Medicine unless they have an internal medicine qualification such as Herbalism or Naturopathy from what I understand.

@Tania Cottew Lol, Im Melbourne based. Yeah Australia is very funny. We were leading the Aromatherapy Industry with Government recognized HLT52315 Diploma of Clinical of Aromatherapy which Practitioners and Clients could get Health Insurance/Rebates for. Health Insurance/Rebates was sadly taken away from us as apparently there is no 'supporting evidence of efficacy and usefullness,' in Aromatherapy. Also the only Aromatherapy Association in Australia IAAMA has shut it doors, so we no longer have an association.