As we head towards the one-year anniversary of Covid lockdown in the United States, I am happy to report that in spite of the pandemic, it is still possible – and legal – to give and receive massage safely and effectively, using some added precautions. For so many of us, the isolation, worry, loss, and grief have been stressful and traumatic, and one way to help reduce the resulting aches and pains is by getting a massage. Human therapeutic touch cannot be replaced by any other modality, nor can it be delivered by Zoom – although if necessary, I can teach you to massage your own belly remotely! However, I love to expand the ways I can help clients, and over this last year I have embarked on two big new kinds of training: aromatherapy and talk therapy. Lately I'm seeing the parallels and overlaps in all the different kinds of work I pursue. The common thread is trauma.
One of the most direct ways we can access the non-cognitive, non-rational, limbic part of our brain is through aromas. The sense of smell is directly wired to our brain, unlike any other of the senses. "A scent is a chemical particle that floats in through the nose and in the brain's olfactory bulbs, where the sensation is first processed into a form that's readable by the brain. Brain cells then carry that information to a tiny area of the brain called the amygdala, where emotions are processed, and then to the adjoining hippocampus, where learning and memory formation take place."[1]
For years I've enjoyed making tonics, liniments, and hydrosol sprays, and it seemed like a fun idea to get some professional training. In March 2020, I began an aromatherapy course at the New York School for Aromatic Studies, and I'm now a Certified Aromatherapist. What is aromatherapy? Well, obviously, it's therapy that smells really good. To be precise, it's the study and use of the beneficial properties and applications of essential oils and hydrosols made from herbs and flowers. Both result from a process of distillation, but while essential oils are super-concentrated – they're like a bushel of plant matter concentrated into a drop – hydrosols are more subtle, diffuse and mild, so much so that you can spray them directly on your face or use them on a baby, yet they still contain the water-loving healing elements of the original plant and are very valuable. Currently, I'm working on developing massage oils for various conditions as well as creams to reduce muscle soreness and some new hydrosol products. See my earlier blog, below, about my first hydrosol product, which continues to be very popular.
So emotions can be created or memories awakened by aromas – even pain reduced – and that is one of the many ways aromatherapy can affect the mind/body/mood continuum.
Which brings us to another long-time interest of mine, the relationship of childhood trauma to pain, disease, and mental disturbances. This dates back at least to 2001, when my own extreme, year-long bout with debilitating sciatica was cured – and has stayed cured – by reading Dr. John Sarno's Healing Back Pain (about how suppressed "infantile narcissistic rage" causes our bodily pain due to muscle tension, which we release by becoming conscious of it).
In September 2020, I began a course of study in Compassionate Inquiry, a way of talk therapy for trauma based on the work of Dr. Gabor Maté. I highly recommend his books Scattered Minds (on ADD), In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts (on addiction), and When the Body Says No (the stress-disease connection).
How do we define trauma in terms of mind/body wellbeing? It's not necessarily caused by big-T traumatic events (deaths, abuse, natural disasters); it's an internal event in reaction to external events that results in an unconscious limitation on our own ability to respond flexibly to life situations going forward, and this most often takes place in early childhood. When you as a child were subject to a strong emotion like fear or anger, was there a caregiver there who could allow you to feel your feelings as well as assure you that things would be ok? Then you're a lucky one! Was the adult able to regulate their own feelings and model that skill for you, or did they make it clear those feelings weren't acceptable? If the latter, you might have buried that strong feeling as having no welcome place in your environment, or as being unbearable.
Something as seemingly small as not being picked up when you cried as an infant can also result in trauma. When a baby is allowed to "cry it out," they eventually stop crying, but what they've learned is that their needs will not be met, no matter how urgently they communicate. They lock this pain deep inside, and a part of them may believe they will stay in this cold, lonely place forever, and this part lives on in the adult they grow into. As an infant massage instructor, I know how touch, holding, and attention are among Baby's most urgent needs, and how their nervous system and muscular coordination develop as a direct result of loving touch. Now, as a student of trauma therapy, I am doubly aware of how infant massage creates an emotional bond with the parents that will serve the child and the family as they grow.
The work of therapy is to approach those feelings we have buried with friendly curiosity (not blaming, demonizing, or pushing away), restoring our ability to respond in a wide variety of ways to whatever life presents. Eventually I plan to offer talk sessions to my clients as a way of addressing pain and dysfunction. I'll expand on all these topics in future writings. May we all become freer and happier day by day.