Enhancing Reiki With Aromatherapy

How did I start using aromatherapy in my Reiki sessions?
I actually came across Essential Oils before I started Reiki. I saw my friend using Essential Oils on her dog and it caught my attention. I started to do some research and eventually used Essential Oils on myself. As I started to study Essential Oils, it became an integral part of my life. Now my medicine cabinet contains mostly Essential Oils. When I have a headache, I use peppermint. When I have a rash or burn, I use lavender. When I am congested, I use eucalyptus. Since I had such a positive experience using Essential Oils for myself, friends and family, I put it to use on my clients during Reiki sessions. I use Essential Oils in my Reiki sessions 90% of the time. I find the two work really well together. For example, I found that Essential Oils help put clients in a more receptive state before the Reiki session. When they walk into my office from the busy New York City street, a drop or two of Essential Oils help calm down my clients instantaneously, whereas Reiki alone could have taken a few minutes longer to get to that place. Essential Oils work very quickly. If a client has a sinus problem, eucalyptus can help clear out the nose before they get on the table. At this point the Reiki can work its magic and get to the core of the problem.

What are Essential Oils?
Essential Oils are aromatic liquids that are extracted from shrubs, flowers, trees, roots, bushes, rind and seeds. Just like the blood in our bodies, the oil or resin carries nutrients throughout the plant and protects against infections and other diseases.

How it works
Essential Oils promote healing, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. When the oil’s aroma enter the nose, it goes into the blood stream and every part of the body. Chemical interaction can occur between the oils and our bodies. For example, when I accidentally burned my hand while cooking, lavender oil helped reduce the pain and inflammation. At the same time it calmed my mind, so it helped ease my body and my mind from the trauma of the burn. Our bodies can become sedated, stimulated or relaxed by the action of certain oils. Pain could be reduced; cuts and scrapes could heal quicker; and inflammations and spasms could be reduced. For the most part Essential Oils will always affect more than one system so many times I find there are beneficial bonuses that are unplanned.

Some more benefits of Essential Oils
-Many of the Essential Oils have a high frequency vibration and help to bring our frequency up.
-Many Essential Oils have a high antioxidant rating.
-Many Essential Oils help relaxation and more restful sleep.
-Many Essential Oils help relieve physical discomfort and pain.
-Many Essential Oils are known to improve immunity to ailments such as cold and flu.
-Many of the Essential Oils help emotional traumas by accessing the Amygdala (the part of the brain that retains memories from emotional trauma) through the olfactory nerves.
-Science has confirmed that many individual Essential Oils are anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic.

The different methods of applying Essential Oils during Reiki sessions
There are many different ways you can use Essential Oils in your Reiki session. I use them very gently as a supplement to the Reiki session. It’s very important that you stay within your scope as a Reiki practitioner. Unless you are licensed massage therapist you are not allowed to rub oils or massage the client with Essential Oils. (In the state of N.Y. and many other states in the U.S.)

1.Diffuser: I normally diffuse Essential Oils in the foyer area only, so that each client can pick their oil and not be forced to be in a room filled with Essential Oils diffused by the previous client. (A cold press diffuser is highly recommended.)
2.Spray Mist: Place a few drops of the Essential Oil of your choice in a spray bottle filled with distilled water. Shake and spray in the room and/or mist the client’s head.
3.Paper towel/tissue: Put a drop of the Essential Oil of your choice on a paper towel/tissue and place the tissue on a pillow when laying face up or on a face cradle when facing down.
4.Your Hand: Put a drop of Essential Oil on your hand before the session. (Please avoid sharp oils like peppermint, basil, or oregano, etc if you are going to place your hand on a client’s face.)
5.On client’s hands, wrist or crowns: Place a drop of Essential Oils on the client’s hand, wrist or crown before the session.

How to decide what oil to work with
I normally have 10 to 15 minutes of checking in and verbal counseling with the client before I start the physical part of the Reiki session. Based on the information from the verbal part of the session, I choose three oils and let them smell one by one. I ask my client which one resonates with them the most. I don’t normally tell them what each oil is until they pick one. It normally it turns out to be the one that was calling me the most, but I want my client to be part of the process. Here are four things you could do to help you decide which essential oil to work with.

1.Talk: While you are talking to your client about how they are doing and what support they need, you can decide which oil to use. Based on what challenges they have or what intentions they have for the session. You can also decide on which oil to work with based on which chakra your client may need help in. There is more information about chakras and essential oils in the Aromatherapy Essential Oil Information section of my website. (purplefishhealing.com)
2.Reiki Scan/Intuitive Guidance: You can scan your client’s body or place a hand on your client’s head and ask for guidance to decide which oil to use.
3.Pendulum: You can use a Pendulum alone, or use it to vertify the information you got from Reiki scan/Intuitive guidance. If you are new to the Pendulum, all you need to know is “to and fro” (towards and away from) means YES, left and right means NO and circle means “may be”.
4.Kinesiology: I use this for a conformation of the information from Reiki scan/Intuitive guidance. It’s very easy. Hold the bottle at the client’s chest and ask them to hold the arm at the shoulder level. When you try to press the arm down, if the arm goes down, that means the client could use that particular oil. If the arm is strong and stays up, try different oil.

Important information about Essential oils

Quality: It’s very important to know the source. Do the research on the company you are buying the oils from. Check on the standards of the company, how they grow, harvest and distill. It’s a very expensive and time consuming process to produce good quality oils. There are many inexpensive adulterated oils on a market. When it comes to essential oils, you get what you pay for. If you are interested in purchasing oils from me, please visit my website. (http://purplefish.younglivingworld.com)

When using oils with a client
-ALWAYS ask your client about skin sensitivity and allergies before applying essential oils on your client.

-Keep vegetable oil near by: If your client has an allergic reaction to the oil, DO NOT flush with water. Essential oils will spread when you flush with water and make things worse. Please use vegetable oil. It can be olive oil from your kitchen. I never needed to use this, but it’s kind of like having a fire extinguisher in the kitchen.

-Tell your client not to rub their eyes when they get a drop of a sharp oil like peppermint, oregano, basil and etc on their hands.

Safe oils for different individuals
Below is the list of what is generally considered safe oils for particular individual. However, everyone has a different reaction, please use caution and test them before use.
Babies: Chamomile Roman, Lavender, and Rose: 1 drop each per ounce of vegetable oil.
Children: Chamomile Roman, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Mandarin, Rose and Rosewood: 25% dilution with vegetable oil.
Pregnancy: Orange, Grapefruit, Lemon, Lime, Neroli, Mandarin, Patchouli, Rosewood, and Ylang Ylang: 50% dilution with vegetable oil.
Elderly: Any oil: 25% dilution with vegetable oil.

Oils recommended to avoid with particular individuals
Below is the list of what is generally recommended to avoid when using oils with particular individuals. I only included the most common essential oils. Just because it’s not listed below does not mean they are safe, please use caution.

High blood pressure: AVOID Clove, Cypress, Hyssop, Juniper, Lavender, Spike, Peppermint, Rosemary, Sage, and Thyme.
Ragweed allergies: AVOID Chamomile or Yarrow.

Legality
This is the tricky part. As a Reiki practitioner or an aromatherapist, you CANNOT diagnose or prescribe. Remember you are not a medical doctor. You may know how wonderful essential oils are and how much it will help your client, but you cannot prescribe essential oil to your client. (This applies to N.Y. State in the U.S. I know that Reiki Digest now has readers from over 40 different countries, please check your local laws.) You cannot use word like CURE.

What you can say is “Promotes good health” “Makes you feel good” “Mood elevating” and/or “relaxing”. What you can also do is share your experience or quote an essential oils book.

Exercise
My recommendation is to start by doing some more research. Then start practicing using essential oils with yourself, your friends and family until you feel comfortable offering it to your client.

1.Check with your friend/family/client about their sensitivity and allergies. If they don’t have any, proceed to step 2.
2.Place your hands on your client head and do a reiki scan and intuitive guidance to see what oil may be good for the session. If you are Reiki 2 or Reiki master, you can use the 3rd symbol to help connect to your client.
3.Once you have an oil chosen. Let your client sniff the bottle to see if they like it. Then put a drop of oil in your hand and rub your hands together to activate the oil.* Then start the Reiki session as usual.
4.After the session make a note of your experience and your clients comments.

* After you practice a few times, you can start to offer the oils to your friends/family/clients on their hands, crown or wrists on step 3.

Enjoy! I hope this will help you to explore the wonderful world of Aromatherapy.

Information gathered from:
Essential oils Desk Reference by Essential Science Pub.
Foundation Level Training for Aromatherapy Industry by Katharine Graf