Cathy Skipper

AROMATHERAPY & MEDICINE OF THE SOUL: “THE WOUNDED HEALER, THE ALCHEMICAL JOURNEY AND THE SACRED UNION”

So what is all this about, you may well ask. Well first to fill you in on a little bit of background:

Dr. Florian Birkmayer is a psychiatrist who has spent the past years offering holistic person-centered psychiatry and addiction medicine to patients from his private practice in New Mexico. Steering away from conventional drugs, he works with essential oils and other plant based medicines as well as equine therapy. He also holds seminars and workshops on a wide range of holistic topics to facilitate self transformation and continued self development. His approach has been inspired by C.G Jung’s ideas about Individuation, which is the journey of the limited ego to the higher self.

Cathy Skipper is a French-trained herbalist and aromatherapist and practicing member of the Association of Master Herbalists in the UK. She spent the last ten years teaching a wide range of plant related classes such as field botany and wild crafting, healing plants with plants, practical herbalism, aromatherapy and healing the healer in both France, the UK and the States. All her work stems from the importance of reconnecting with the natural world, the healer healing themselves and reestablishing balance and vitality through alignment with the self.

Florian and Cathy have a very strong bond and their approach to life and ‘the healing arts’ is both similar and complimentary.

Says Cathy: ‘I had always been intrigued by alchemy, although I knew absolutely nothing about it until I met Florian who inspired me to explore it within the context of my own personal path. As I began to learn, I loved the freedom from religion and doctrine that it offered and the way it helped me to understand and structure my inner world. Gradually the combination of alchemy and aromatic medicine helped me develop a stronger vessel with which to explore deeper within myself. A feeling of fully living my journey towards individuation emerged, the synergy of aromatics and alchemy provided the tools I needed. I am not saying I am anywhere near arriving at a destination but I have definitely embarked on a voyage’.

 Florian says: ‘My interests in both aromatherapy and Jungian Depth Psychology are longstanding, but I only started exploring their synergy recently. Aromatherapy has been a portal for me to explore the themes of plant intelligence and human-plant communication. Jung’s Red Book and his other works, especially his last great work ‘Mysterium Conjunctionis’ have profoundly shaped my view of reality and the metaphysical realms. To me essential oils and hydrosols are the unseen forces that communicate within and between our souls, a class of archetypes and a realm of the collective unconscious. I consider bridge-building one of the main themes of my work and life and this class is the culmination of many bridgebuldings, between aromatherapy and Jung, between me and Cathy, between the soul and the world and in this way another alchemical mystical marriage.’

We are both excited about sharing our passion for essential oils within the context of the alchemical journey. During the course we will explore the seven alchemical steps using exercises with essential oils and hydrosols to find our way. We will cover the following principal steps

• Looking at how each alchemical stage relates to a different part of the healing cycle.
• Identifying the different emotional/energetic states that arise in each stage and the essential oils and hydrosols that may help work through them.
• Exercises and experiential work to deepen the understanding of each stage and the action of certain essential oils and hydrosols.
• Looking at ways this work can be used with clients in an aromatherapy or psychotherapy practice.

 This workshop is intended to:

• Help develop a deeper and more personal relationship to essential oils and hydrosols.
• Offer a model that can be used to assist healers on their own journeys and those of their clients.
• Highlight the importance of soul healing in achieving a state of ‘vitality’ and optimum health.

We are teaching this class in May 2016 in New York and Detroit, September in Ireland and October in Utah. We are happy to teach it all over the world. Please contact me for information about already scheduled classes or hosting a class.