Welcome
VintageAromatherapist.com was organized as an effort to stay true to our Aromatherapy Roots. The group was started by the main contributors of the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy, founded by Sylla Sheppard-Hanger. Sylla coined the term Vintage Aromatherapist to represent and shed light on the pioneers of Aromatherapy in the US, as it changes and expands as a widespread practice. Read more about the beginning of this adventure in Sylla’s paper “Confessions of a Vintage Aromatherapist.”
Sylla Sheppard-Hanger
Sylla Sheppard-Hanger is the Founder and Director of the Atlantic Institute of Aromatherapy in Tampa, Florida. She brings forty years of experience and personal research into the practice of aromatherapy and essential oils. Sylla is the author of The Aromatherapy Practitioner Correspondence Course and The Aromatherapy Practitioner Reference Manual, the latter of which is a complete reference book with over 350 aromatic plant extracts and phytochemical, clinical and botanical indexes. She also wrote and published the Aromatic Mind and Aromatic Spa books. Since 1996, Sylla has also been involved with an on-going research project called Psychosocial Aromatherapy Research Project (PARP) with Dr. Trevor Stokes from the University of South Florida. She formed the non- profit organization United Aromatherapy Effort which helped out after September 11th tragedy and continues today. Sylla set up and has maintained the Injury Reports database since 2014. In 2017 she received the Outstanding Contributor award from the Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA), where she also serves on the Board. She is a Board member for the Aromatherapy Registration Council (ARC). She volunteers her time and aromatic counseling skills to organizations within her community, and she continues to maintain her private aromatherapy practice in Tampa, Florida, where she resides with her husband and one cat.