Jane Buckle, PhD, RN

Jane Buckle, Ph.D., RN, has a background in critical care nursing and is UK certified in massage therapy, clinical aromatherapy, herbal and aromatic medicine and adult education. She obtained her bachelor's degree (BPhil, Exeter Univ.) in Complementary Medicine after carrying out one of the earliest clinical trials using aromatherapy in critical care. She has an MA in Clinical Aromatherapy (Middlesex Univ., London) a Ph.D. in Health Service Management (Columbus Univ., USA) and was awarded a Post-Doctoral Research Scholarship to the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB) in the School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA as an NIH-funded Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Fellow in 2004. While there she studied and was awarded a post-doctoral certificate in Biostatistics and Epidemiology.

Dr. Buckle was faculty at University of Minnesota, and adjunct faculty at New York University NY, Bastyr University WA and The College of New Rochelle NY, before joining the CCEB. Her first book, Clinical Aromatherapy in Nursing, was published by Arnold, London, 1997 and has been accepted as the text in nursing. Her second book, Clinical Aromatherapy: Essential Oils in Practice was published by Churchill Livingstone in 2003. It has been reprinted 8 times and has been called "the evidence-based text for clinical aromatherapy". (The foreward is by Dr Mehmet Oz MD).

Now retired, Dr. Buckle is the founder of R J Buckle Associates, an educational consultancy dedicated to integration of clinical aromatherapy and the 'M' Technique into mainstream medicine. She created a certification course, Clinical Aromatherapy for Health Professionals that was the first aromatherapy course to be endorsed by a national nursing organization (the American Holistic Nurses Association) in 1997. The course is also approved by NAHA and NCBMTB. The course has been taught in 22 States and over 2,000 nurses have taken the program.  Many graduates have successfully integrated aromatherapy as part of holistic nursing care into their hospital. 27 certified RJBA instructors teach the course.

Dr. Buckle also pioneered a method of touch for the critically ill or fragile called the 'M' Technique®. It is a registered method of gentle touch suitable when the giver is not trained in massage. Simple to do and quick and easy to learn, the 'M' Technique® has been used in hospitals, hospices and long-term care facilities in the USA since the early 1990s. It has also been taught for university credit. The 'M' Technique course accrues nursing and massage therapy continuing education contact hours. Over 32 certified RJBA instructors teach the course in the USA, 10 in the UK, 6 in The Netherlands and one in South Africa. Dr Buckle conducted research into the effects of the 'M' Technique on the brain using SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) published in 2004 in JCAM, and she is involved in research into the 'M' Technique in several countries. 

Dr. Buckle is published widely in medical and nursing journals. She lectures and presents internationally on both the 'M' Technique and the clinical use of aromatherapy and was a guest speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 1999. She is actively involved in clinical research and consults to hospitals in Europe and USA. She was a board member of ARC (Aromatherapy Registration Council), an advisor to NAHA's education committee and on the editorial board of The International Aromatherapy Journal Of Aromatherapy. Currently, she is on the advisory board of Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine and is a reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals. She is also a grant reviewer for National Institutes of Health (USA) and National Health Service (UK). She relocated back to UK in 2004 and was the Programmes Manager/Principal Lecturer: Complementary Medicine at Thames Valley University, London until November 2009. During this time she was elected to the steering committee of the Royal College of Nursing for Complementary Therapies and was the Accreditation Chair for the International Federation of Aromatherapists. She is now happily retired in London.