About – blossomwitch.com

ABOUT LAUREN

BIO

Since before the era of smart phones, Lauren Gilbert, MIFPA has been helping people land in their bodies and hearts, release their burdens and find a gentler and more empowered path. Lauren uses her skills a clinical aromatherapist, holistic massage therapist, Reiki master and spiritual guide to offer deeply personal and customised healing and coaching to clients, students and groups.

Drawing on her immersion experiences in nature, world travels and long-term mentorships from shamans, healers, witches and wise people, Lauren has developed a unique style that she calls Inner Alchemy. This encompasses a body-led approach to creating safe space so that the deeper transformational work can manifest in our lives with ease, grace and compassion.

As both a clinical aromatherapist and medium, Lauren incorporates the awesome power of essential oils and aromatics throughout her work. Connecting with the right smells and safely incorporating their chemistry into the 5-body system is not only ancient, but well-documented in the 21st century as a modality for health, healing, energy and well-being on all levels.

Lauren offers a safe, nurturing space for her clients, students and groups to explore holistic well-being. Her areas of expertise include religious deprogramming, healing from childhood abuse, overcoming co-dependency, and supporting individuals during and after cancer. She is particularly skilled in guiding clients through the complexities of their spiritual journeys, helping them uncover their higher calling and gifts.

MY STORY

ROOTS I was born in the suburbs of Virginia where my mother’s people are from. Just shy of my 5th birthday, we moved to a remote part of Upstate New York, where I was the first grandchild of 4 living generations on my father’s side.
Overnight, I inherited great aunts, uncles, cousins and both a nana and great grandmother. To this day, some of my best memories are my early childhood with the older generations. I feel so fortunate to have spent those years with them and their grounded approach to life.

The closest place to buy milk was a 20 minute drive and school took an hour by bus. If I wanted to walk in the woods, all I need do was step out my back door. I saw bears, heard coyotes and felt snakes slither over my feet in the tall grass. Regular snowstorms meant no power and impassable roads, while Autumn came like an explosion of colour that has to be seen to believed. Spring transformed the landscape from carpets of snow to trenches of mud, sliding into thick summers, heavy with berries and thunderstorms.

When you live this closely with the rhythms of nature, it becomes a part of you. As someone born with abilities in healing, clairvoyance, and mediumship, growing up here also meant that a bond formed between the unseen forces and the natural splendour around me.
Faeries were (are) real, the woods have actual power and it’s not only possible to smell rain coming, but feel a snowstorm the day before it lands. Early residents of the region, including the Dutch, Shakers, and Native Americans, left behind a wealth of relics and certain aesthetic woven into folklore, magic, handcrafted arts, and music. Although the circumstances of my life were often challenging, I found solace and strength in the land and the tight-knit communities that arose from it. Everyone has a mother, but I felt raised by nature Herself, my grandmothers and my rich inner world.

TUMBLEWEED

I left the nest of my mountain and valley home at 24 and moved to Australia, spending 6 years in a completely different but equally enthralling landscape. Over the course of my life, I have travelled and lived in a few far-flung places, including not only Australia, but Turkey and the UK. Since 2013, the fields and open sky of The Netherlands have been my home.

As a curious person, travel meant encountering different forms of nature, culture, beliefs and peoples. This further shaped my views on spirituality, life and what it means to be human.

I met my first spiritual mentor in Shamanic healing when I was 16, forming a life-long bond of learning and eventual friendship. Shamanistic beliefs, a spiritual connection to nature, witchcraft and holistic therapies all contain a shared thread. They recognise all life as interconnected, understanding that every action, thought, word and deed have a relationship to one another.

Maybe because I grew up in a place where nature was so alive, I felt something more than I had anticipated the first time I opened a bottle of essential oil. It wasn’t just a therapeutic liquid, it was magic, possibility and a voice that wanted to be heard. From the first moment I began experiencing essential oils, I understood that they were speaking to anyone interested to listen, just as nature, animals and the elements do.

I began pursuing qualifications in spiritual aromatherapy and Reiki in my 20’s and continued that path to qualify as a clinical aromatherapist and holistic massage therapist in my 30’s before opening my first private clinic in The Hague

RECLAIMING MY SPACE

Despite my deep connection with nature, and facilitating these connections for others, some part of me was not present. I walked through many years of my life coping and being sustained by my environment, but not fully in my own body or heart.

Years of therapy and self-development only got me so far, and it wasn’t until a divorce and finding myself suddenly alone and without income or access to my clinic during the covid pandemic that I decided it was time to get to the roots of me.

I spent the next years working with various forms of therapy and healing and deepening my knowledge of aromatherapy and energy healing with advanced clinical studies in cancer care. I came to recognise that I still considered myself a victim of my past experiences and was not fully living in my chosen roles as a woman, healer, teacher, friend, partner and step-mother.

By taking accountability for this belief, I was able to become more of the person I am here to be. Whether I had positive or negative experiences with my past, they are my roots, and I’m free to claim them and live them in the way that honours me.

BLOSSOMS

Today, I am working as a holistic aromatherapist and coach, supporting others to take the journey inwards and find out what else is there for them. As my childhood in nature taught me, it’s not who or what we are, but rather the connections we form that bring us peace and fulfilment, starting with the one we have to ourselves.

I also teach spiritual aromatherapy, energy healing, tarot for self-development and host regular ceremonies and gatherings for my students and other like-minded people.

I live with my Dutch partner and two step-children outside of Amsterdam. He works as a physical therapist and McKenzie therapist, but who I believe is really a modern-day shaman, (though he would never admit it). We have a lot to talk about, and often share our experiences both personally and professionally.

Our goal is to find land, claim it and settle in when the time is right.

In 2024, I honoured a life-long dream to work together with an animal and welcomed our Australian Shepherd, Beau into our hearts and lives. Beau is in training as a healer and often accompanies me in my work as we learn from each other.

I’m a native English speaker, but also manage in Dutch and welcome clients and students from both languages and all walks of life.

TRUE THINGS ABOUT ME

I used to be addicted to coffee, but I gave it up—a fact that still surprises me most days!
I started playing the violin at age 7 and even auditioned at Oberlin Conservatory when I was 15. Life had other plans for me, but classical violin and folk fiddling have always been part of my life.
I’ve struggled with endometriosis for decades, undergoing two surgeries. However, as I worked intensely on my relationship with my body, my last scans showed my cysts had disappeared, and I’ve been pain-free for nearly two years.
I love fantasy fiction, fairy tales, and myth. One of my favourite characters is Deborah Harkness’s Diana Bishop, a reluctant witch and historian. When self-doubt creeps in, I often check in with my imaginary Diana and ask what she would do.
In 2023, I started studying frontend software engineering at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences—in Dutch! People thought I was crazy, but I believe it’s never too late to learn new things. I build and design websites for select clientele, which is a lot of fun.
I’ve never understood the question, “chocolate or vanilla?” I refuse to choose!
At 42, I’ve had at least three mid-life crises that I can think of. Nature is an endless cycle of death and rebirth, so I consider it a privilege to have had so many myself.
I am a prophetic dreamer. Although it doesn’t happen often, when it does, it’s unmistakable and extremely accurate (sometimes I wish it weren’t). These dreams foretell changes that will alter the course of my life. A year before it happened, I dreamed I would meet and fall in love with someone, knew who it was, their life story, and many of the things that would follow. Bizarre, but true. I have a fair few of these stories in my pocket.
My two favourite essential oils are sweet marjoram and ravensara. If my spirit had a scent, it would be these two oils mixed with a bit of rose and the smell of a field in summer after a humid rain.