| Abstract: | In the aromatherapy industry in Taiwan, due to the confusing professional
certification system and nationals’ misunderstanding of this profession, there have
been some misconceptions and misapprehension about the social status and role of
aromatherapists. As a result, it is common for aromatherapy business practitioners to
encounter a lot of work pressure and profession-related frustrations. Thus, this study
adopted the in-depth interview method, a qualitative research method, with 7
aromatherapists as the interviewees, to explore aromatherapists’ professional
environment, service obstructions, achievements, and professional adjustments.
This study found that in Taiwan the professional environment for
aromatherapists is a working environment with a short history of industrial
development, a vague professional system, a low professional status, and some
cultural prejudices about this profession from the general public. Thus, in the process
of the professional development of an aromatherapist, the most commonly
encountered setbacks include: professional exhaustion, insufficient professionalism,
sexual harassment, and job discrimination. Aromatherapists’ achievements can be
summarized into 3 aspects, customers’ recognition and feedbacks, benefitting families
and friends around, and personal improvements in body, mind, and soul. And in the
face of frustration, the interviewees’ ways of adjustments can be summarized into 6
categories: physical and psychological relief, support from community, dependence
on vision of the future, professional upgrade, value reconstruction and changing. |
