By activating our emotional memory almost instantaneously, scents are invaluable therapeutic tools for those who know how to handle them. While olfactotherapy and aromatology use essential oils to promote well-being, some hypnosis practitioners go even further, combining trances and essences.
Soothing the unconscious with olfactotherapy
An olfactory hypnosis session gives you the opportunity to relax and breathe in essential oils in a state of altered consciousness. In this way, the aromatic molecules gently penetrate the nervous system and have a remarkable effect on the entire psycho-emotional sphere.
They calm and/or release and regulate emotions, untie knots and evoke memories, but they also anchor us and give us intuition, directly influencing our nervous system.
A scent floats through the air, familiar yet indefinable. Before you know what’s happening, you’re feeling nostalgic. The memory of the cake your grandmother baked comes to mind, her look, her cooking… How long do you think it took for this emotionally triggering smell to be transmitted to your brain? No more than 150 milliseconds!
“When we breathe in a scent, we stimulate the olfactory neurons. These then send an electrical current, a nerve impulse, to the brain,” explains Roland Salesse, an agricultural engineer who has directed a number of olfactory neurobiology research projects at INRA. This message is then processed by the limbic brain, which analyzes and recognizes the odor and reacts instinctively: to flee or to stay”.
Unlike visual and auditory inputs, the olfactory message reaches the brain unconsciously. “It doesn’t pass through the thalamus, but reaches the hippocampus and amygdala, our emergency and emotional management centers, without any brake. That’s why its impact is so powerful”, enthuses the researcher.
The sense of smell, long ignored in therapy
Western therapies showed little interest in the emotional power of olfactory memory until the birth of olfactotherapy, an approach created by therapist Gilles Fournil in the 1990s.
Olfactory therapy and hypnosis: this is my training program and certification as an olfactory therapy practitioner, delivered by Gilles in breathtaking Ardèche.
I invite you to let yourself be surprised by the magic of this energetic body-psychotherapy at my practice or at your company. It’s based on smells and their power over our unconscious. It uses the sense of smell, one of the five senses directly linked to the unconscious and memory, and the aromatic molecules of certain essential oils to bring to the surface emotions responsible for blockages or discomfort, and thus restore well-being in everyday life.
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