The Scentuous Hypnotist: Integrating Essential Oils With Hypnosis

by Deborah Yaffee

A Rose by any other Name…

My love affair with olfaction began when I was a young college student with an afternoon job in the Taste and Smell research center at US Army Natick Laboratories. With all the seriousness of a mad scientist, I would set up the “olfactometers” with the different odorants. These were pure chemicals to be diffused in varying concentrations through 8 sniffing ports. The human subjects would arrive, smile, and then begin nosing their way around the ports and then go on to the next booth for another set. Their job was to report their subjective sense of the intensity of the odor in each port, and its pleasantness or unpleasantness. The data was eventually tallied and made into pretty graphs that went into papers written for journals with exotic titles like Psychophysical Scaling of Chemical Senses.

As you might imagine, it was difficult to keep the subjects from bursting out laughing or blurting out their associations with the odors. My mother, whom I recruited as a subject, proved to have the most sophisticated schnozz in the bunch. Remember, she was only smelling single chemical odorants in 8 concentrations each, yet she was able to distinguish the particular smell of the 34th street subway station from the smell of the Times Square station from the smell of the station at Rockerfeller Center. With each new odor, she was transported to distant memories that she now called up as clearly as if she were there.

This ability of smell to evoke memories that are particularly vivid, emotional, and autobiographical is called the Proust Phenomenon. It is named after the writer, Marcel Proust, whose autobiographical tome, Remembrance of Things Past, is a train of memories triggered by an encounter between the author’s nose and the scent-dominated flavor of a tea-soaked madeleine.

About 15 years after my days in the olfaction laboratory, the Sense of Smell Insititute (SOSI) coined the term Aroma-chology® to define this developing field of controlled experiments to “scientifically study the interrelationship of psychology and fragrance technology.” Aroma-chology® research focuses on specific feelings (like self-confidence, happiness, sensuality, mental alertness, relaxation, etc) as they are elicited in the limbic system of the brain by stimulating olfactory pathways.

SOSI has already begun to draw sharp distinctions between its discipline of Aroma-chology® and traditional Aromatherapy. In reality, the two fields overlap each other considerably. Perhaps the most prominent true distinction is that Aroma-chology® is specifically concerned with the effect of odors on human behavior. Research in this field has a variety of applications in medicine, psychology, and business.

With aroma-engineers currently designing electronic “smart noses” and odorant-release fittings, it may not be long before our computers can detect when we have passed a critical threshold of fatigue, and proceed to emit aroma-suggestions, fragrant cues for us to wake up and smell the coffee. Sadly, aroma-chology research has demonstrated that a rose by any other name would, in fact, not smell as sweet.

The Art and Science of Olfaction

How our brain processes aromas in the environment is a potent influence on our perceptions and how we create our world. No one really knows how this works but there are some intriguing theories. What we do know is that smell is involved with emotion, learning, memory, eating, and our sexuality. The process by which this happens lies deep within the brain, in a group of structures collectively known as the limbic system. Included in this system are the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the hypothalamus. The olfactory bulb connects directly to this area of the brain. Giving our limbic system a whiff of a particular scent can send a message to our muscles to relax, precipitate an emotionally charged memory, affect a rise in blood sugar, lift our mood, or facilitate our attraction to a potential mate. Women, by the way, have a more accurate and sensitive sense of smell than men.

Many of the Aroma-chology® experiments being carried out today will make the reader go: Eeeeeuuuuu!! For example, in one unusual experiment, the subjects were asked to smell swabs taken from the underarms of moviegoers just leaving the theater. In one sniff, women were able to identify with great accuracy whether the moviegoer had seen a comedy, horror film, or drama. Interesting, but Eeeeeuuuu!!

The learning that occurs in the presence of a certain smell can be encoded into our personal database in such a way that the smell becomes a cue for the retrieval of the memory or the context of the event. Odors in general elicit more affective reactions than visual and verbal modalities.

While many aromatherapists employ essential oils and other fragrances to elicit emotion, the actual research demonstrates that what is evoked is a memory with a strong emotional tone. Whether cognitively or physiologically mediated, the hypnotist will find that aromas in and of themselves function as hypnotic suggestions and hidden magicians of communication in our lives.

The Scentuous Hypnotist: Using The Aromatic Art in Hypnosis

From Induction to Emergence essential oils are a delightful, and powerful, way to enhance any hypnosis session. Most of the oils and their use in hypnosis pose no problem for the client and practitioner. However, proper attention to safety is expected and it is recommended that you thoroughly familiarize yourself with all the safety precautions regarding their use. Care should be taken to obtain only hypnotic grade, pure essential oils. Women who are pregnant or nursing, and persons with a diagnosed medical condition need to consult with their doctor and a qualified clinical aromatherapist before using essential oils.

During the client intake, one may mentally choose an oil to use during the session. However, it is not uncommon that oils so chosen are often set aside in the first few minutes of the session proper, when the practitioner now intuits an oil or blend that “feels right.”

Delivery of the oil will depend on personal preference and style, and on the nature of the oil itself. Some practitioners diffuse the oil throughout the room to create a psycho-olfactory ambience. Others will have the client simply smell a bottle containing oil-saturated cotton. My personal preference is to place a single drop of the oil on the palm of the client’s dominant hand. Using the index and middle finger of their other hand, they are instructed to “activate” the oil by rubbing it three times in a clockwise fashion. Then, holding their cupped hands up to their nose, they are instructed to take a few deep breaths. Many essential oils have components that bring oxygen into the cells, enhancing the natural relaxation created from breathing deeply.

Induction and Deepening:

Lavender is a sensible choice for the first session with a new client and with clients who very much want a predictable way to begin each session. Most of my clients enjoy our ritual of “tuning in” to pick out a single oil or blend that just “feels right”. This ritualized time presents many cues for rapidly deepening rapport for the session. Cupping your hands and taking gentle deep breaths of the scent, as they do, provides an easy opportunity to pace and lead. Partaking of the same oil with the client often seals the rapport.

Pure essential oil of Lavender itself is a great rapport builder. Its scent is reassuring, calming, familiar, and, for most people, pleasant and welcome. While Lavender is perhaps the most obvious scent to use for assisting with induction, it can be a bit of an energizing stimulant for some people. A lovely alternative for those who are especially nervous and anxious is bergamot, or a light blend of patchouli, tangerine, orange, and ylang ylang.

Waking suggestions to associate the fragrance with deepening relaxation can be given at the outset. As you and the client both deeply inhale the aroma, use a soft and gentle running patter to suggest that the client experience the feelings of calm, relaxation, and letting go with each breath, with the soothing scent of the Lavender. As you deepen the client’s state of hypnosis, the scent can be drawn gently beneath the client’s nose and the suggestion given that whenever she smells this fragrance, she will feel even more calm and relaxed than she does now. For self hypnosis, offer a post hypnotic suggestion that, as she decides, smelling (or imagining smelling) this fragrance will gently take her back into hypnosis when she wishes.

Age Regression:

The oil used during induction or deepening, or any other pre-selected oil, may be compounded and used to anchor in the sense of “safe place” for use in Age Regression.

Although the association between specific memories and their emotions and a particular odor is highly individualized, essential oils can be chosen for their general ability to release or access certain classes of experience and emotion. Cypress, Lemon and Juniper are scents that readily facilitate release of the past. Regression to the Initial Sensitizing Event can happen quite rapidly with the assistance of an oil blend that combines oils for letting go of the past and oils that bolster courage and strengthen self esteem. If necessary, the oil that anchored “safe place” can be subtlely introduced.

In 2003, the research team of Vermetten and Bremner investigated olfactory flashbacks in patients with PTSD. They discovered that hallucinated smells alone elicited the traumatic memory along with its associated affect. Perhaps in an Age Regression session, the Proustian phenomenon might be better dubbed an Olfactory Affect Bridge. We might simply ask the question, “What does it smell like?”

Oils that help heal trauma and oils that especially awaken Inner Child/ Little One can be added to accelerate resolution and to access the resources of Grown Up.

FOO and FOS:

Scents like Bergamot and Black Pepper are helpful in releasing repressed or unexpressed anger and can therefore be quite useful in those cases where the client is not making progress in Forgiveness Of Others or Self (FOO and FOS) due to a seeming inability to connect with appropriate feelings that have been long buried. If the client is amenable, a drop of oil can be placed on the palm of the hand, “activated” and then deeply inhaled from cupped hands at the nose while the client is in hypnosis. Typically, the client will experience a release of bodily tension that in turn releases any resistance there might be to the “idea” that they are not angry. That release is quite visible and gives the hypnotist a nice opportunity to interject suggestions to encourage the client to now allow the feelings to show themselves. As usual, care must be taken to not lead the client.

Emerging:

Before emerging the client, we give them Direct Suggestions for the issue they came in for along with any Post Hypnotic Suggestions to boost their results. This is a great time to enlist friendly fragrances to reinforce all the good work that was done during the session. You might choose an every day aroma that has a given aromachology track record. Scents like vanilla and cinnamon are especially well suited to this because, like the color red, red, red, the client is quite likely to encounter them in the course of their week. These two scents have been found to support confidence and self-esteem. A natural vanilla bean or a cinnamon stick are inexpensive, safe, and easy to carry and sniff throughout the day.

Post Session Homework:

So much of the healing process is facilitated by engaging in simple rituals of self-care. Using the scents that were used in session very effectively makes the client aware that she is now gifting herself the sacred self-care time and space that will enhance her ability to make and experience the changes she has chosen. There is something almost palpable about these fragrant messengers from the plant world that brings the person back to himself in a way that connects him to something deeper and truly nourishing. Essential oils are plant spirits that both soothe and quicken us, connecting us to Nature’s soul.

Aromas give us the opportunity to add fragrant pleasure to hypno-homework. Keeping a single rose to smell on one’s desk at work, scattering lavender sachets in one’s drawers, a cup of Earl Grey tea (bergamot),a vanilla candle during self hypnosis time, a sage bath before bedtime, the joyful scent when we cut open that fresh lemon in the morning to put in a big glass of water- yes, there are so many ways for a lovely partnership between everyday aromas and hypnosis.

For those who are naturally meditative, a lovely exercise is to sit with an essential oil and reflect upon it while repeating a particular affirmation that is associated with the character of the oil. This is an enjoyable and productive activity to add to the 1-2-3 plan suggestions outlined in Cal Banyan’s Secret Language of Feelings (SOL). For example, when the treatment for feeling sad is to develop a new perspective, the essential oil of Melissa Officinalis can be called in as an ally to open the heart and facilitate gratitude.

Aromatic Anchors and Other Applications of Essential Oils for Specific Issues

Here are a few essential oils and fragrances that can be used as aromatic anchors, or simply diffused to assist with some of the more common issues treated with hypnosis. Use singly or in combination.

• Weight Healing: Orange, spearmint, apple, banana. (Apple and banana are single chemical odorants recognized as safe by IFRA).

• Smoking Cessation: Grapefruit, lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus. (Suggest the client take a “drag” of lavender if the thought of smoking or cigarettes should arise).

• Concentration and Memory: Rosemary, Lemon, Sage.

• Feeling Low: Ylang Ylang and grapefruit scents have been clinically shown to brighten mood. Geranium, ginger and orange, vanilla.

• Self-esteem: A blend of Sandalwood, Vetiver, Bergamot and Ylang Ylang.

• Pain Management: Essential oils of Lavender and Roman Chamomile contain analgesic and anti-inflammatory compounds. Peppermint, frankincense..

• Alertness /energy: Lemon, peppermint. All the benefits of coffee, without the caffeine!

• Sleep Concerns: Recent studies showed jasmine to produce deeper, more restful sleep than lavender and with better mental recall during the following afternoon. Lavender and Roman Chamomile make a fragrant and tasty tea.

• Stress Management: Vanilla is so successful as a mental relaxant that it has been used for nervous MRI patients. Lavender, sandalwood,”Labrador tea”.

• Feeling Anxious: Vetiver, known in India as “the oil of tranquility”. Cedarwood, Geranium, Melissa.

• Romantic Issues: Researcher Alan Hirsch discovered that the scents of lavender and pumpkin pie, doughnut and black licorice, pumpkin pie and doughnut, orange, lavender and doughnut, black licorice, and doughnut and cola caused significant increases in penile blood flow. Hirsch said that these will be used “not only to arouse sexual partners, but also to treat impotence.” As we knew all along, food is the way to a man’s heart… or the scent of it anyway. Don’t try these at home, or in session! I just found it fascinating.

Conclusion: Stop and Smell the Roses

There are many ways to employ specific essential oils and oil blends as an adjunct to one’s practice. They can be recruited as hypnotic anchors, used to facilitate various phases of a hypnosis program, or they can be used by themselves in traditional ways to support and enhance the client’s efforts.

The smell of warm apple pie and chocolate chip cookies can still bring most of today’s clients back to pleasant memories of home. But the ruby red slippers of tomorrow’s clients might be the smell of movie popcorn and shopping malls. My psyche has been hard-wired to Red! Red! Red! so I will allow myself to be gently caressed with every Whiff! Whiff! Whiff! when I remember to stop and smell the red, red, red roses!

© 2006 Deborah Yaffee