About the CSC

The Case Study Collaborative (CSC) is the brainchild of Jessie Hawkins, PhD and Lora Cantele, RA, APCA. Dr Hawkins is the founder and president of Nutraceuticals Research Institute, one of the world's leading integrative health research organizations, and Lora Cantele is the founder and chief editor of the International Journal of Professional Holistic Aromatherapy (IJPHA), one of the world's leading peer-reviewed professional aromatherapy journals.

The purpose of the CSC is to capture and publish practitioner case studies while collating data for further research. Data collected through this portal will be combined for advanced analysis by Nutraceuticals Research Institute.

The field of Aromatherapy has long relied on traditional evidence passed down by experienced experts in the field for common clinical practice. There are many different ways to guide, educate, and lead clients toward healing, and each school of thought informs a holistic practice. While there are multiple approaches to aromatherapy practice, there is one common thread that ties the Aromatherapy field together – the desire to have confidence that a protocol or plan of treatment can successfully lead most people to health. This confidence can come from decades of professional experience but leaps in practice can be made when we combine experiences and create a collective body of knowledge.

Case studies are a whole class of research and contribute to a larger set of data. The results you obtain with every client – whether “positive” or “negative” – comprise valuable research data. When combined with contributions from countless other professionals, this creates a body of evidence that can be used to create the next big leaps in practice and instill confidence, both in your skills and the skills of those who follow in your footsteps.

A case study falls somewhere between case notes and a clinical case study. The value of a simple case study is often overlooked. If, in looking through your old case notes, you notice that one of your clients returned saying your Aromatherapy protocol “really helped them,” you have an answer to an unasked question. In other words, you are one step away from turning your client’s case notes into a publishable case study. And that single case study, when published in a journal, may lead to someone else carrying out a clinical case study based on your findings, the first step in clinical research. - Dr Jane Buckle

By contributing your experiences to this collaboration, you gain not only professional experience but give back to the community and the practice as a whole.