Welcome to COBHA
C OBHA is a ground-breaking educational institution providing training that focuses on the power of healing through the use of plant energy of herbs, essential oils, and nutrition. Essential oil therapy is an emerging medical field in the United States that requires a comprehensive educational background in the sciences, history, and clinical internship.
The power of healing through the use of plant energy of herbs, essential oils, and nutrition.
COBHA educates students to be independent and creative problem solvers. Students learn to look at health issues in unique, profound, and compassionate ways. Our goal is to qualify students as professional Essential Oil Therapists and educators to assume responsibilities in the healthcare field, working with other health practitioners within the community.
Essential Oil therapy is an ancient healing art used around the world for centuries to fight infection, reduce mental and emotional stress, relieve pain, and detoxify the body.
Essential Oil therapy is an ancient healing art, utilizing the distillation process of plant materials to extract powerful, concentrated essential oils. These oils have been effectively used around the world for centuries to fight infection, reduce mental and emotional stress, to relieve pain, and to detoxify the body. They are the basis for preventative medicine. The aromatherapy and herbal fields are recognized and practiced in Europe, Australia, and Japan by physicians, nurses, and hospitals.
Our Accreditation
COBHA is a pioneer in creating high standards for Holistic Health Essential Oil therapists. Our school’s regulations, 456 hours of live classes, and 501(C)(3) Non-Profit status were developed by an enthusiastic group of aromatic devotees as the first Board of Directors. COBHA became state certified by the California Bureau of Private Post Secondary for Vocational Education in 2003. As of January 1, 2010, the Bureau is operated under the Council of Consumer Affairs in Sacramento, California. Our curriculum exceeds the standards set by NAHA and AIA, two national Aromatherapy social networking organizations. We are a CEU provider through the CA Board of Registered Nursing.
Our Mission
T he College of Botanical Healing Arts is a non-profit institution dedicated to providing education, healing services, and research in the art and science of essential oils, plants, nutrition and herbal healing.
Education and research in the art and science of essential oils, plants, nutrition and herbal healing.
Our mission is providing a college with a course of study based on plant energy that exceeds the national standards and has a curriculum dedicated to excellence. Our goal is to build a college that contributes well trained, dedicated, holistic practitioners with a specialty based in aromatherapy. We offer a program that seeks to illuminate the innate wisdom within each student. We continuously instill in students a commitment to ethical practices good work habits, and safety.
We seek to illuminate the innate wisdom within each student and instill a commitment to ethical practices.
We nourish the concept of offering healing services at a College Clinic and beyond graduation that addresses the whole person: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. We conduct research on the therapeutic actions of essential oils. We qualify students to assume professional responsibilities in the health care field, working in conjunction with other health practitioners.
Provide a deep understanding of therapeutic plants and their oils and to apply in preventative and supportive health care practices
The Goals of the Holistic Health Certification Program are to provide a deep and thorough understanding of therapeutic plants and their oils and to foster the application of that knowledge in a clinical setting of preventative and supportive health care practices
Our Faculty
Christine Hassler
Workshop Instructor
Alice Duvernell
Workshop Instructor
Kaysi Contreras
Instructor
Susan Clingingsmith
CEOT, EOT
Elizabeth Jones
Founder, Director, and Instructor
Peggy Black
Instructor
Our Vision
National Standard EO College
Develop an Essential Oil Therapy College based on national standards with a curriculum dedicated to excellence.
CEOT Certification
Qualify and certify students in the therapeutic and safe use of essentials oils.
Illuminate Wisdom
Offer a program that seeks to illuminate the innate wisdom of each student.
Strong Ethics
Instill in students a commitment to ethical practices and good work habits.
Holistic Healing
Nourish the ideal of healing services that address the whole person: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects.
Health Care
Qualify students to assume professional responsibilities in the health care field, working in conjunction with other health practitioners.
Our Happy Students
"As a natural health practitioner I believe our bodies contain the wisdom needed to restore and maintain health and wellbeing. Aromatherapy and Reflexology allow healing to take place by causing physiological changes within the body. I am privileged to witness the stories of people's lives through the soles of their feet. The College of Botanical Healing Arts gave me a foundation to build a practice. I opened a wellness center for integrative health, which was a vision I had while schooling at COBHA. Studying at COBHA was transformative for me. There were so many opportunities and possibilities available to start a new career. Each student can go through the program and graduate with a different direction to apply their knowledge. I am grateful to have found COBHA."
"Jane began her love affair with the magical scents and healing properties of pure and precious plants as a child playing in front of her neighbor's aromatic lilacs on warm summer evenings. These plants and their scent captured her imagination and drew her to the world of beauty where she worked as a Vice President for a major beauty product company. Jane loved organic ingredients like lavender and cedar. Yet, she dreamed of creating formulas from far more precious organic ingredients ~ some reputed to possess powerful healing effects. And with that, her life's work became clear. Inspired to pursue her passion, Jane followed her nose on a 12 year quest, immersing herself in self-study and attending accredited institutions and teachers of plant alchemy and distillation. Today, she is a certified Master Essential Oil Therapist and Herbalist.Jane is also recognized as a gifted natural, organic perfumer and product formulator. She and her husband combine ancient alchemy with the latest technology to grow, source and distill the world's most breathtaking plant oils into the finest, safest, natural and organic perfume, skin care, body care and ambient fragrance systems."
"
In the New Year of 1998 I was a registered nurse fresh from British NHS hospitals, newly landed in Santa Clara County, and desperate to find an aromatherapy course. My nurse training had sparked my initial interest in aromatherapy and my mother had for many years being using essential oils for home remedies. In my early twenties I’d sat on a deserted Malaysian island dreaming up a plan to leave nursing and open up my own aromatherapy business. With a move to California due to my husband’s job, I was determined to start my aromatherapy career. I found Elizabeth’s Santa Cruz college and was eager to delve into her classes.It is thanks to Elizabeth that I eventually got into aromatherapy for childbirth. Elizabeth, knowing I was interested in aromatherapy for children, gave me a photocopied newspaper article about the Oxford study of essential oils in labor.My on-going passion for using aromatherapy in childbirth has resulted in my products being sold in hospital stores and being used in a clinical study at El Camino hospital, which demonstrated aromatherapy is effective for promoting relaxation and reducing anxiety during labor. I taught infant massage classes and designed and taught aromatherapy workshops in massage schools in the SFO Bay Area. More recently, I now have a publishing date for my aromatherapy book and my products are being re-launched via a private label with EVB.Over the past twenty years the English National Health Service (NHS) have incorporated aromatherapy into nursing and midwifery. There are national courses to allow midwives and nurses to become certified in clinical aromatherapy and both the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Midwives have accepted aromatherapy as one of the most regular used alternative therapies used in NHS hospitals. Possibly the most regular use of essential oils in British hospitals is in midwifery. The Oxford Brookes study into essential oil use in intra-partum care initiated the practice of aromatherapy in childbirth. Hospital protocols enable British midwives to use essential oil blends in childbirth and postpartum care. Researching for my book, I found some British hospitals allow midwives to send women home with essential blends to help progress slow labors.My biggest regret from my times at COBHA is that I was away the days Elizabeth scheduled workshops by Dr. Jane Buckle and Dr. Kurt Schnaubelt. Alongside Elizabeth, Jane and Kurt have had significant roles in propelling aromatherapy into US hospitals. I was thankful when Jane kindly returned an email to help with information I required at the start of up of my business. In 2009, the San Francisco Examiner wrote an article highlighting Kurt’s scientific research and my own hospital work, and it is now a privilege to have Elizabeth agree to endorse my writing.For all the current and future students of COBHA I recommend you keep your passion for aromatherapy burning and no matter how hard you have to work and how long it takes, you’ll reach your goal in the end. I had to close my budding aromatherapy business due to moving back across the Atlantic. I have been back in England for over seven years and most of my time has been dealing with remodeling a Victorian cottage, helping my children with their school lives, giving voluntary infant massage classes for underprivileged young mothers, and taking years rather than months to write my manuscript! To help pay the bills I also work as a healthcare recruitment consultant.
As a COBHA student I admired Elizabeth’s passion for essential oils, her foresight for seeing essential oils had the potential for being incorporated into hospitals, and her growing plans for both COBHA and the EVB store. I’m extremely thankful that I was one of Elizabeth’s students and I’m exhilarated to be a part of the move forward with aromatherapy into U.S clinical settings. With my book and re-introduction of sales of my products I look forward to getting the word out on a big scale that aromatherapy is a safe, effective, and easy to use therapy for childbirth"
Interested in learning more about our happy students?
Volunteers
We are always looking to fill volunteer and internship positions in our office, garden, grant writing, and high school programs!
We are very appreciative of the time and energy our community members or students offer to help us create a better school and community.
More information about volunteering can be found here.
Our Facility
The College was established in September of 1997.
The building, land and garden site south of Santa Cruz near Highway 1 were purchased for the purpose of establishing a College dedicated to the botanical healing arts with a focus on essential oils.
The main classroom has a large wall of library books on one side and French doors opening to the garden on the other. The tables and chairs face a large screen for power point presentations.
The botanical garden is one third of an acre with plants and trees that provide a source of aromatic materials for distillation such as Angelica plant, Vitex tree, Lemon tree, many different Salvias, Rosemary, Licorice, and Fennel.
A small teacher/student ratio provides a supportive environment for healing and professional development.
