MEET ROBERT TISSERAND

An interview by Creezy Courtoy, Founder IPF

Robert Tisserand is considered as a Legend in Aromatherapy. Today Aromatherapy and the use of essential oils are taught worldwide.
I had the chance to meet him in California during our IPF Scent of Healing event.
​
When did you started talking about aromatherapy? What made you start?
My mother went to Paris in 1967 to hear a presentation by Dr Jean Valnet, and she came back home with a copy of his book Aromathérapie. I was 18 and about to go to university, but I became fascinated by that book! I started selling essential oils in 1974 and in about 1977 I began giving one-day introductory seminars.

Can you tell us about the education your parents gave you? Were they in relation with nature?
My mother was a believer in alternative medicine (I don’t really know why!) so she would visit her doctor, but she would also go for acupuncture, herbal medicine, homeopathy etc. She also introduced me to aromatherapy, as she did a training course in London with Micheline Arcier, who learned from Marguerite Maury.

Since you are now living in California, can you tell us the reason you left Europe? Is California more open to essential oils and nature?
I moved from Brighton to California in 2000 because at the time I was married to an American citizen. Ann wanted to move back to the USA, and I was fine with that. Now I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

You wrote so many books about aromatherapy, is it something more we can still write, or have you said everything?
I wrote only three books! I’m not sure if there will be more, but I am revising Essential Oil Safety right now.

Everyone has a mission in life, do you think you’ve reached your objective or do you think the path is much longer?
I don’t see an end, and I’m glad that essential oils still excite me!

Can you tell us about the difficulties you encountered to reach your objectives and what made you continue your mission?
Initially the greatest challenge was that people in the UK did not know much about essential oils and aromatherapy, so I realized that education was needed, and that’s why I wrote The Art of Aromatherapy in 1977. I was advised by my accountant in 1978 that I was “flogging a dead horse” trying to make a living from selling essential oils, and he was right at the time. Another challenge was simply finding good information, but something wonderful happened in June 1993 - PubMed went public! (This is where we can find all the medical and essential oil research.)

In your extensive career, what has been the most surprising or unexpected use of essential oils that you have discovered?
Using tangerine oil as a fuel for motor vehicles. I was equally surprised to learn that there is a tangerine-scented bird in Alaska!

How do you see the future of aromatherapy evolving in the next decade, especially with "advancements in technology and science"?
There are really several aromatherapies. There is the multi-level marketing basket, the aromatherapist basket, the (new) wellness trend in perfumery and cosmetics, which largely involves essential oils, and the pharmaceutical basket. I cannot predict what will happen, but I’m encouraged to see that researchers and aromatherapists are communicating with each other.