What People Are Saying
The Teaching Team
Passionate, Authentic, and Knowledgable
Cathy Skipper
In 2015, I lost my mum, moved continents, was diagnosed with cancer and lost all the material belongings I owned in the world. My passion for working with aromatics for deep, soul healing enabled me to move through these difficulties and develop a powerful and transformative modality of healing with my husband Florian Birkmayer, MD.
My workshops and consultations here in New Mexico, internationally and online help clients learn how to use aromatics, depth psychology, journeying and much more to peel away the layers that are keeping them from living their best life.
I help individuals using the power of aromas, journeying, depth psychology and my gift of seeing the ‘real you’ to discover your soul’s purpose, heal the trauma you are carrying and become whole.
I am the author of the books “Aromatic Medicine” and “The Alchemy of Menopause Workbook”.
Florian Birkmayer, MD
Through my commitment to my own Wounded Healer’s journey, I share with our clients and students my deep understanding of what it is to be human and find your own personal myth or soul’s purpose.
After a career in mainstream academic psychiatry and addiction treatment, I became frustrated by the overemphasis on pharmaceuticals to cover up symptoms and decided to use my knowledge and experience to help people recover from pharmaceutical medications.
I received my bachelor’s degree in molecular biology at Princeton University, where I learned to question assumptions and discover the hidden gifts of the unseen side of life, the shadow. I received my medical doctorate from Columbia University, which taught me how to think critically about ‘business-as-usual’ medicine and inspired me to become an addiction psychiatrist, since I felt that all physical disease has its origins in imbalances in the psyche, especially trauma, an idea which had been shunned by most of medicine.
Selected Publications
Birkmayer F. (2022). Essential Oils for the Wounded Healer: PTSD, Post-Traumatic Resilience and the Wounded Healer’s Journey. International Journal of Professional Holistic Aromatherapy. 11(3), p. 37-41.
Birkmayer F. (2021). Using Essential Oils to Enhance the Effects of Ketamine Psychedelic Therapy in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Substance-Induced Psychosis (Two Case Reports). International Journal of Professional Holistic Aromatherapy. 9(4), p.15-22.
Birkmayer F. (2020). The Molecules of Connectedness. International Journal of Professional Holistic Aromatherapy. 8(4), p. 51-57.
Birkmayer F., Skipper C. (2018). “The Role of Aromatherapy in the Treatment of Substance Abuse and Co-Occurring Disorders”, chapter in Modir S. & Munuz G. (eds.) Integrative Addiction and Recovery, Weil Integrative Medicine Library, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780190275334.
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