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The S.E.E.D. Institute

Aromatherapy, Ayurveda, Diploma & Post-graduate/CPD Training

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Emotional Release Through Aromatherapy Massage

Edited: November 13, 2022

Hurting minds create hurting bodies.

The strong link between our emotions and our physical bodies has been recognised and acknowledged for centuries.

When we are happy we feel uplifted, light, relaxed. We are ready to dance and sing, our bodies open and prepared to embrace the world.

When we feel depressed or angry our bodies close and retreat, the muscles tighten, and we withdraw into ourselves. We are alert but defensive.

What hasn’t been recognised until more recently is the long-term effect of trauma (including PTSD) on our physical bodies.  Loss, anger, resentment, loneliness, even jealousy and rejection: they hurt. We feel it deeply in the very tissues of our bodies and we react instinctively by withdrawing physically and emotionally. And because it hurts us to remember, we suppress those feelings by excluding and trapping them in our minds and in our physical bodies.

Perhaps you have experienced an overwhelming sense of relaxation and peace after massage therapy. Some people are filled with grief or intense feelings of loss or love. It is as though our musculature itself holds memories for us – massage enables us to release those memories and to acknowledge and work with them in a safe space. This is known as emotional release.

Most of us are aware of the powerful effect of fragrance on our brains. The merest whiff of a certain perfume or a cooking aroma can ignite an explosion of emotions and memories.

The signals sent by the unique molecular structure of every oil directly to the limbic system which controls our emotions and memory, combined with our own olfactory memory – this is a powerful combination. Learning to work with it is an important part of our work as clinical massage therapists.

(This post was first published on our Facebook page on 21/6/2018)