Your Instructors

Andrea Butje, LMT, Clinical Aromatherapist

Andrea Butje

About Andrea and the Aromahead Institute

Andrea is changing the Aromatherapy educational paradigm through her inspired approach to teaching and creating community.

After Andrea taught her first Aromatherapy Certification Program in 1998, she continued to grow the Aromahead Institute into a premier resource for aromatherapy information and instruction. As a leader in online Aromatherapy education, Aromahead Institute utilizes the latest web tools to offer you a dynamic online course experience.

The Institute offers exclusive online and in-person educational resources including Andrea's scientifically based, 200-hour Aromatherapy Certification Program approved by the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy, and her Scholars Program, a 400-hour Program approved by the Alliance of International Aromatherapists. 

What Makes Aromahead Institute Unique?

  • Staying Involved

As a part of her commitment to high quality essential oils and education, Andrea travels internationally to work directly with distillers and small-scale organic farmers. She has visited and worked with distillers in England, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Morocco, Italy, Corsica, Canada and the United States.

In 2004, she published the online International Directory of Essential Oil Distillers – a valuable resource database for those who want to import their own essential oils directly from organic, artesian distillers.

Andrea is also the author of the Book Essential Living: Aromatherapy Recipes for Health and Home (also available as an eBook) and a contributing writer for several Aromatherapy journals, blogs, newsletters and eBooks.

  • Cutting-edge Resources

In addition to writing course materials and working with distillers, Andrea developed a clinical component database with Robert Tisserand. The Component Database compiles current scientific research on the chemical constituents of essential oils and is an indispensable tool for the advanced practitioner of clinical aromatherapy.

  • Growing the Aromatherapy Community

Community is a big part of the Aromahead Institute's message. Andrea creates and fosters in-person and online community via:

Before the Aromahead Institute

Previously, Andrea co-founded the successful Finger Lakes School of Massage in Ithaca, NY with her partner Cindy Black, founder of Meridian Massage Institute.

Cindy Black, L.Ac., LMT

Cindy Black

Cindy Black, L.Ac., NCCAOM Diplomate Chinese Herbology and Acupuncture.

I have explored my interest in health through formal education (BS Health Education, MS Oriental Medicine) and personal practice and study for over twenty years. The brilliance of the human body is revealed in both western and eastern medicine. My work is an integration of western Anatomy and Physiology, Massage Therapy and Chinese Medicine.

After creating a successful Massage Therapy practice, I co-founded the Finger Lakes School of Massage (FLSM) with Andrea Butje. At FLSM, I taught Anatomy, Sports Massage, and Shiatsu Theory. In 2004 I began my training in Chinese Medicine.  Since 2007 I have integrating Chinese Medical Theory with Massage Therapy. In 2010 I founded Meridian Massage Institute where I teach Chinese Medicine to Massage Therapists and Massage Therapy to Acupuncturists.

Alternative medicine offers every individual reliable tools for maintaining health and well-being. The medicinal benefits of essential oils are many and still being discovered. I am excited to be a part of Aromahead Institute, a school that empowers students with concrete scientific knowledge practically applied to daily life.  

Visit Cindy's blog at Meridian Massage Institute Blog


© 2013 Black and Butje, Inc.