Ericka Clinton [00:00:00]:
And edit whatever needs to be done. Alrighty. Thank you, Ashley. Good day, everyone. Welcome to another episode of collaborative connections, a space for sharing and learning sponsored by the Society For Oncology Massage and the Society For Oncology Aesthetics. My name is Erica Clinton, and I will be your host for this episode. On today’s podcast, we have Rhiannon Lewis. Rhiannon is the director of Essential Oil Resource Consultants.

Ericka Clinton [00:00:39]:
She is a practicing aromatherapist, educator, author, conference organizer, and host of the Professional Online International Clinical Aromatherapy Network. Rhiannon’s passion for making an aromatic difference at the bedside of 6 patients has taken her all over the world as a speaker at conferences and as a facilitator of numerous advanced clinical aromatherapy programs. She is also an initiator of several important advances in the clinical aromatherapy world, including the introduction of personalized aromatherapy inhalers in settings such as cancer and palliative care. Thank you, Rhiannon, for taking the time to join us today.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:01:33]:
Oh, thank you so much for your invitation, Erica. I’m I’m delighted to be back. And, first time as a pod on a podcast with you, but not the first time with the Society For Oncology Massage because I visited you on 2 occasions to lecture at your brilliant in person events. So Wonderful. I’m thrilled to reconnect.

Ericka Clinton [00:01:57]:
Wonderful. It’s so glad to have you back. And I’ve I I was looking over things from those healing summits where you spoke, and people were so clearly, really interested in what you were talking about and and found the topic fascinating. So I’m so glad we could reconnect, and you could join us today. So in looking at your bio, which is absolutely amazing, I wanna start off by helping our listeners find out what inspired you to become an aroma therapist.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:02:34]:
Oh, boy. That goes back away, Erica. You know, we’re we’re we’re stepping back more than 30 years now. But my in my initial career path, I trained as a nurse. So, I moved quickly into intensive care nursing, which became my specialty Because I really knew from an early age that I I needed to be at the bedside of sick patients. That was really a drive for me. And so, I ended up working at the bedside of the sickest patients in intensive care, but I still I found that there was still something missing. I still had some extra needs that needed to be to be fulfilled.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:03:16]:
And what I realized when I was in intensive care was that, yes, we were good with heroic measures, and we were great at tubes and machines and keeping people alive and fixing things and, you know, really working at the sharp end of acute of of acute care. But I became very aware that the person in the bed there as as an individual was in great suffering, you know, with distress, with anxiety, with fear, and with unmet needs because we were taking care of keeping their physical body going. But, you know, their mind and their emotions were not necessarily being addressed as fully as they could be. So that took me down a sort of another path where I thought, well, you know, my I want to be beside the person who’s suffering. It’s not about the medications. It’s not about the tubing and the machinery and the politics of nursing for me. I wanted to be with the person and accompany them in their journey with their disease, whatever disease or what stage of that disease they were in. So that was the turning point for me.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:04:26]:
And so in 1989, I trained as an aromatherapist. It wasn’t one of those, you know, big I had a dream moments. I’d love to say there was a big story behind it, but it wasn’t. I just knew. I’ve been using essential oils myself as a nurse for my own, you know, care for helping me sleep with shift work and, you know, time changes and the stresses of workings in such an acute setting. So I’d already seen them working on myself. And I started to wonder then, you know, could not this be also beneficial for patients in acute distress? So my decision was then to step away from nursing and take a full time training in aromatherapy which I did in the UK. I live in France now, but I was living in the UK at the time.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:05:18]:
And that’s really where it all began because what happened then was I I equipped myself with the knowledge and skills of aromatherapy, but my determination was to go back and still be at the bedside of sick patients. So I went back wearing a different hat and using different skills, but still able to really help people that were suffering. So, that’s really the start of the journey. And it’s taken me on this amazing adventure. It’s aromatic adventure that’s lasted, you know, 34, 35 years and, still fills me with passion to this day.

Ericka Clinton [00:05:57]:
That’s amazing. That’s amazing. So full time training as an aromatherapist. Can you give our listeners a little understanding of kind of what that looks like? What did you study? What, you know, what were what were the necessary skills that you had to obtain to become an aromatherapist?

Rhiannon Lewis [00:06:16]:
Right. Well, of course, you know, 34 years ago, things were quite different to what they are today. But and things in the aromatherapy world have evolved since. But, basically, if you’re setting stepping out, say, as I was all those years ago, my initial training, equipped me with skills of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and some hands on techniques as well, including massage and also optional, add ons such as reflexology or other other manual techniques, as well as the study of the chemistry and the science of essential oils, of course, and their properties and how to use them, and then the practical applications of different modalities, the different ways that essential oils could be used. Now things have evolved over the years. Since then, you know, the training has improved, the hours have increased, and the subject areas, include now counseling in most courses or at least basic counseling skills, holistic approach, holistic assessment, but still, of course, grounded with anatomy, physiology, pathology, chemistry, and the biosciences really because we have to understand the chemical cocktails that essential oils represent.

Ericka Clinton [00:07:35]:
Yeah. They’re

Rhiannon Lewis [00:07:36]:
not they’re not just smelly things in a bottle. You know? They these are really powerful tools that can be used for benefit, but it can also, be, hazardous if they’re not, correctly and appropriately used. So nowadays, you know, if you would if you’re setting out on a career as an aromatherapist, you’re looking at a training of upwards of 200 hours for a basic foundation course. Of course, that depends on which country you’re in around the world and which schools you attend. But, really, you know, your starting point is around 200 or so hours, and then it goes upwards from there. So most of the big professional programs are a minimum of 450 hours, and there, you can be accredited with different aromatherapy organizations, around the world. So, basically, the the basic curriculum is is really revolving not just about essential oils, but also including health and the holistic approach to patient care.

Ericka Clinton [00:08:49]:
That’s amazing. That’s amazing. That training feels so well rounded as well because you are basically administering this as a treatment strategy or a complimentary therapeutic intervention. And that obviously requires a lot of knowledge, a great foundation in science, and an important skill set, in the application of touch. So very, very interesting and very similar to what we do as massage therapists.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:09:21]:
So thank you. I think there is quite an overlap on some levels, with massage therapists because the way aromatherapy in at least the Anglo Saxon world or the English speaking world, or the English style, the British style of aromatherapy. How it really evolved was hand in hand with touch and really, using touch as a main modality for delivering aromatherapy care. But there are different styles of aromatherapy around the world. So the French style, for example, didn’t evolve in the same way. It didn’t evolve with touch. And so it became really from the medical side. And so, essentially, we’re also used quite differently.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:10:06]:
And there, the training is different too. So they don’t have, necessarily the same holistic approach. They don’t have hands on practical experience, you know, such as working with patients, case studies, mentoring, you know, the full the full package. If you were studying on the French medical style, it’s very much down to do with the aromatic pharmacology of oils, and the training may be shorter and just limited only to essential oils. Interesting. Because they are so because they are they are such versatile tools, You know, we can use aromatherapy for its aroma alone benefit without touch. Mhmm. And or we can choose to use the iris essential oils combined with other modalities such as shiatsu or, body massage or reflexology or even, you know, guided meditation, hip hypnosis.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:11:09]:
There are it can be it can be sort of attached to other modalities in very simple effective ways. And that’s what’s, I think, so exciting about aromatherapy is that it can be a standalone treatment modality or it can be an adjunctive, modality that just adds that extra boost to what you’re already doing and what you’re already trained in.

Ericka Clinton [00:11:35]:
Wonderful. So that that’s a good lead into my next question. So why is aromatherapy so effective? I guess, in in either perspective, keeping people well, or when they are, let’s say, ill or affected by disease?

Rhiannon Lewis [00:11:57]:
It’s a good question, Erica, because, I think, you know, a lot of a lot of people these days are disconnected from nature. And there is a hunger to connect with nature. That’s it it’s a I think it’s a hunger that perhaps we’re not even conscious of. But when you meet a fragrance and you inhale an aroma that takes you to a forest or it takes you to your childhood or its familiarity reassures you or if the therapist has used that aroma to deliberately set up a positive odor association that you can then use to therapeutic benefit on your own subsequently. These are very, very powerful tools because the aroma part of aromatherapy takes us to a place immediately of like or dislike. It takes us to a place of comfort and positivity, and I think we need that. And especially in in these current times, which, you know, we’re dealing with high levels of stress, high levels of distress, the aromas are able to take people into a place of balance because there’s security there, there’s familiarity and if you like a smell it’s a reward. You have that whole neuroendocrine cascade, which really does does you a lot of good to your mind and your emotions and your mood and your behaviour.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:13:43]:
So just just working on its own, just as a fragrant modality. When we re when we connect with fragrance, we’re connecting with the natural world. You know? Our essential oils are all derived from aromatic and they take us to on on all sorts of journeys. And one what aroma is meaningful to me is not necessarily the same aroma that’s meaningful to you. So you have to enter into communication with the smell. And that entering into the communication just on its own is sufficient to slow your breath Because inhaling an aroma and becoming aware of an aroma, you automatically adjust your breathing pattern. And so, you know, you it takes people to a place of calm and centeredness even without them realizing it. So that’s on one level, you know, using pleasant aromas.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:14:44]:
And, of course, aromatherapy is always about something that the person likes and that they identify with and that they find pleasant. It’s a it’s a huge precept of what we do. We go for the aromas that are meaningful in a positive way for the person. But then you’ve got the other side of it because we have, you know, in a in a single essential oil, it’s like a chemical cocktail. So you have different chemical constituents that the plant has made, and some of them have been made through the process of also of extraction, whether they were distilled or the different roots by which essential oils can be, extracted from plants. And that chemical cocktail also can have pharmacological benefit. So we have mind, emotional, and mood benefit largely through the sense of smell, largely through our positive associations or our recognition or our liking of an aroma, and that takes us to a very special place in terms of body mind balance. But we’ve also got the pharmacological potential of essential oils where we can actively choose certain constituents or certain essential oils to address very physical issues such as pain or nausea or infection, or a skin issue for example.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:16:13]:
There we may be relying on the actual physical properties of the essential oil to repair a wound or to help with scarring or, you know, work work in a in a in a physical dimension. So they’re so versatile that really, they have a place in both going back to your question, they have a place in both wellness and disease because helping maintain our what we call in French, our capital sante, which is, you know, our core health, your essential oils are really good for that because they take you to that place of homeostasis and balance. So as a result of that stress reducing, response that you have with a pleasant aroma, you’re strengthening your own constitution. So as a preventative regular treatment, especially if it’s combined with touch, because we know then, you know, massage and all the psycho psychophysiological benefits of touch, If you combine that with essential oils and the aromatic part, you’ve got this double whammy effect that is really nurturing for keeping people well. And then when people are unwell, your essential oils as well as with touch, of course, as you as you as all of your your members know, they can help people come back as well and find a place of balance. On a physical level, if we’re talking about the physical qualities of the essential oils, their pharmacological properties, but also on a mind emotional level when we’re applying them through touch and through our nurturing approach And when the person’s almost embalmed in this scented, experience it is really extraordinary, and that builds odor memory. So what happens that is that if you’re giving a massage and it’s fragrant, the person is associating, not consciously, but they’re associating the positive impact of your hands on them and all the positive benefits they’re getting with treatment. They are associating it with the fragrance that you chose.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:18:33]:
So then what happens is after your treatment has ended, you can just give them the fragrance. They don’t have to wait a week or 2 to get another massage. If they have the fragrance of what you used in that treatment and they inhale it, they relive the pause the positive benefits of your hands on therapy. And it’s not just, you know, remembering, oh, that was nice. It takes me back. It helps me remember my massage. You actually, physiologically relive. You actually have that whole neuroendocrine cascade occurring again at the same level just through smelling and taking you back in time in your in your memory, your lived memory, to your treatment.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:19:24]:
And that that’s work that’s been confirmed over the years by amazing people like Rachel Hertz, the great neuroscientist, where she says, you know, you relive your treatment. You relive the experience when you were presented with an odor and you had a strong positive experience and the odor was present when then you smell that smell again in the future you then go back to that positive experience in all of its in all of its form. It’s truly incredible.

Ericka Clinton [00:19:57]:
That’s amazing. Just even thinking about that making that powerful physiological connection through smell. Justice

Rhiannon Lewis [00:20:07]:
yep. It’s it’s an odor conditioned response. And a lot a lot of what we do, is is exactly that as aromatherapist. We deliberately create an odor association. So it might take 1 or 2 treatments, maybe more, and it’s always you know, the treatment is given in the same way, with the same aromas, in the same you know, control the conditions as much so that you’re reinforcing the experience. And then all you need to do is give the person a stick or an inhaler stick or a a, the same blend on a tissue that they then use in self care. And I think that’s the other thing about aromatherapy is that it’s empowering the patient. With massage, you have to wait till the person comes back to massage you again.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:21:01]:
Mhmm. Whereas with aromatherapy, you can self administer your care. And just knowing that you can do that, this is what’s awesome, is that just we we know this now through experience is that just knowing that the person has something they can do when they are anxious or they’re breathless or they’re nauseated or perhaps they have procedural anxiety and they’re sitting there waiting for their next scan, for example, having scan scansiety. They know that that stick or that bottle or that fragrance strip or that patch with those aromatic, they have it at their disposal if they need it. And sometimes it doesn’t even come out of the bag or the pocket. But the fact that the person knows that they have it actually reduces their experience of those symptoms. And that’s really awesome too. It’s really powerful, especially in oncology care.

Ericka Clinton [00:22:04]:
That’s amazing. That’s amazing. So, would you say with oncology patients, a lot of the aromatherapy usage is really about dealing with the myriad of negative side effects or symptoms like anxiety or sleeplessness that they go through?

Rhiannon Lewis [00:22:24]:
I think the the the main contribution of aromatherapy in oncology care is psychosocial support. It’s about helping that person along that trajectory, which, you know, is such a roller coaster of their disease from diagnosis right through to survivorship or, through to end of life. That that whole disease trajectory is has such, heightened emotional experience, a lot of which is negative, but not always. But, the fact that essentials can be used to accompany the person in that journey But as a psychosocial support measure, that makes absolutely all the difference. And then the next level is that we can use essential oils to directly address symptoms. So I would say that symptom management is secondary to psychosocial support. Because in fact, when we help the person cope better and increase their resiliency in their disease trajectory, they often are able to self manage a lot of those symptoms and the actual experience of those symptoms automatically when they are less anxious, for example, or they feel that they have more control. And then, you can come in and look at how you can address specific symptoms such as chemo induced peripheral neuropathy.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:24:02]:
That’s a big one for me. That’s one of the areas I’ve in, or nausea related to chemo or other medications or their disease itself, through to skin breakdown, through wound care, infections, then you can really go down and use your oils in clinical ways to address directly physical symptoms. But the main thing is really working with helping resiliency, helping with psychosocial support is absolutely fundamental.

Ericka Clinton [00:24:39]:
Yes. The concept of resiliency is something that I think people don’t focus enough on in care. And now, particularly, I think in cancer care, the realization is that the more resilient we can help people to be, the more likely they are to manage their disease process better even if it doesn’t lead to a cure. But, yeah, it it it helps tremendously.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:25:11]:
I think it makes sense. You know, I think that empowering is important. You know? It’s important. You know? It’s it’s about helping them take the reins because that roller coaster journey, so much is out of their control, and so much is negative or painful or uncomfortable. They didn’t choose this. So, you know, by using a modality that offers them choice, that offers them something pleasant and really nurturing and something they can then do themselves to control their symptoms and to manage. It’s helping regain a bit of control. And I think, you know, whether it’s touch or whether it’s aromatherapy or whether it’s both, I think that’s why massage and aromatherapy have such a strong place in oncology care.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:26:03]:
It’s really, really, really essential.

Ericka Clinton [00:26:07]:
So the benefit’s huge. Are there any

Rhiannon Lewis [00:26:11]:
risks? Yes. I think there are. First first of all, the just just to explain, when we use essential oils in in oncology care, if you if we have specialized training in as as a specialty delivering aromatherapy in clinical settings and with oncology care. So that’s usually an additional training to that foundation that we were talking about earlier on. It may be in house. It may be in a hospital or a hospice or in a clinical setting. But there, the, and this is where I’ve been educating since 2003 at a at a Royal Mail and Hospital in London. There, we have specific training of how to use essential oils safely and effectively in the cancer care world.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:27:02]:
And what you you we found, over the years is that generally speaking when we use essential oils topically for patients we’re working at very low concentrations. So we’re working at half of the normal concentration that we would be doing for an a general aromatherapy massage, for example. We take the dose right down. And when we’re working in those very low dose, scenarios, the risk to the patient is really negligible because we we there’s just not sufficient components of those oils even if they were potentially hazardous to even really make a difference to that patient in a negative or, in another way. Having said that, of course, we also only use essential oils with a very long track record of safety. So we’re not using challenging or potentially toxic oils in oncology care. There’s a a kit of maybe, say, 2025 essential oils that have been used for more than 30 years in the oncology setting that have been tried and tested, and, you know, their benefits far outweigh any potential risk. Where I would say there is a risk, is really that odor and aroma reactions are so unique to the person.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:28:35]:
And when we’re working in an oncology setting, it’s a high stress environment. So when there is heightened, attention and heightened distress, any aroma that is presented to the patient can become negatively associated with that person’s experience. So for example, I’ll give you a concrete example, otherwise you might not get, you know, not be maybe I was I haven’t been clear. But say you’re in a chemo suite, so you have patients that are receiving chemotherapy and aromatherapy is being delivered in that setting. If the essential oils were diffused into that space, even with the intent of making it a nice, quiet, calm space to relax people whilst they’re having their chemotherapy delivered, If that person doesn’t like the smell, if, you know, their odor preference is not that particular oil that is being diffused, They don’t have a choice. They have that aroma or in that space around them, and they can’t get away from it. And if that chemo experience was very negative, perhaps it provoked vomiting, or perhaps there was extravasation and it was painful, or they had chills, or they had, you know, negative physical experience to the chemo delivery, that strong distressing experience is now being anchored with the aroma in the room. And so now the next time that person smells that smell again, what is it going to remind them of? You know, we talked about positive odor association a little bit a little few minutes ago, but this is an example of negative association.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:30:32]:
So now that aroma that was being diffused with the intent to make things, you know, more pleasant for people might actually now be the trigger for taking them back into a negative odor memory with all of the physiological experiences that could happen. So, that’s an example of where you could say could be argued as a negative bit, of the aromatherapy puzzle. And that’s why in a in a chemo delivery, for example, if there’s a chemo suite and people are receiving massage and aromatherapy, it’s not done through diffusion. If the person had is having essential oils, it’s usually for self control, self management, maybe in a stick, maybe in a patch that they can choose when and if they smell it, and that it is just for 1 person and the person next to them isn’t aware of the aroma. So we can get around the possible negative experiences. However, even that is unlikely because most times, aromatherapy is perceived to be positive for the person. So what they will remember about that aroma is that that aroma helped me get through my chemo. That aroma calmed my nausea.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:31:57]:
So even if it’s in a situation such as, oncology, 9 times out of 10 the aroma associations would be positive ones, but that is an area that we’d need to consider. And then, of course, you know, you need training. You need skills. You need you need to know when it’s appropriate, when it’s not appropriate to use essential oils. And, you know, with people who have intense skin reactions, for example, to medications or to, an intervention they’ve received, there may be times where essentials are absolutely not indicated and, you know, totally not appropriate. So we need to know when it’s appropriate and when it’s not. But one thing I would say is what I’ve seen over the years and why aromatherapy is so widely embraced, I think, is that the cancer journey is so terrifying, and people are on a journey into the unknown. So they’ve lost sent their back their, I don’t know what the word is in English.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:33:06]:
Sorry. They’ve lost their way. They don’t have the familiar beacons to cling on to because they’ve stepped into this unknown journey. And so when people are cast adrift and they’re on this roller coaster with no control because the treatments are undergoing and they’ve got all these protocols and they’ve, you know, been, been bombarded by different, different people in different directions, all focused on the cancer, and then you have your aromatherapy and your massage focused on the person, what the aromatherapy does is very simply give them something to hold on to because it brings familiarity. So you can bring the aroma from home into the hospital or into the clinical setting. You can bring the aroma of granny’s apple tart into the, you know, into this setting where everything is unfamiliar and new and scary. You’re actually bringing something in that helps anchor people. It gives them a sense of security because that’s something at least they know it.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:34:18]:
They recognize it. They like it, and they can hold on to it to help them through.

Ericka Clinton [00:34:25]:
Wonderful. Wonderful. So of course, as we were as you were talking, that just made me think about, our aestheticians and skin care. And, obviously, when people are in treatment for cancer, the skin Yeah. Can so reflect the imbalances that are going on in the body as it’s coping with the kind of chemical regimens that they have to endure. But, I guess, if we think about the skin as the organ of intake for the aromatherapy, obviously, skin integrity is important. But are there ways that aromatherapy can benefit the skin?

Rhiannon Lewis [00:35:10]:
There are. In terms of the physical properties of the essential oils and pharmacological actions, yes, there are certain oils that you could say are anti inflammatory or antioxidant or cicatricent that can be used very specifically to help skin repair. But I would also draw your attention to another annex of aromatherapy or another part of the aromatherapist toolkit, which is really exciting for skin issues to do with cancer care, and that is the use of hydrolates. So what your essential oils are those concentrated extracts, the of the aromatic plant that you were usually getting through distillation, or expression if it’s a citrus fruit. But you also, through distillation, obtain a distilled water. It comes across at the same time as you’re extracting the essential oil, and that distilled water we call a hydrolat or a hydrosol. I think you have you may be in the States, you’re more familiar with that term. And those waters are aromatic, but extremely dilute in terms of the aromatic components that are in solution in that water.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:36:29]:
But my goodness are they amazing for inflammation and for taking the heat out of, skin, for example, post radiotherapy, and also for general skin management. There is huge potential for hydrolats and hydrosols in in our environment in cancer care. So it’s the essentials are concentrated, so you have to be very careful of how to use them, and there will be times that you cannot. You know, we don’t advise essential oils being used on the skin immediately, for example, prior to radiotherapy. And there are, you know, there are protocols in place, and there are safety guidelines, of course, with the essential oil use. But your waters, the hydro lats, really have a place which is extremely exciting, and has been growing over the years to to to make a a big difference at the bedside.

Ericka Clinton [00:37:27]:
That’s wonderful. That’s really, really wonderful. Thank you. I just took some notes because I have to teach a class where I include a room therapy. So I was like, alright. Look this up so I can talk a bit about it with my students in terms of, you know, giving them some guidance, but also some interest in the area of aromatherapy and what they can do. Both my massage students and my oncology massage students would love this information, so thank you for that. So I guess the last thing I wanna ask you is I read that you came up with this concept for using inhalers in oncology and palliative care.

Ericka Clinton [00:38:06]:
Can you talk to us a little bit about how you came up with that approach? Did you have to do research and trials? Are they now kind of standard, I guess, methods of care in certain places?

Rhiannon Lewis [00:38:21]:
Yeah. It’s an inter it’s interesting because, you know, it’s almost like aroma therapies come full circle because, you know, aroma therapy in the beginning, people would say, oh, that’s, you know, the smelly things, and that’s the therapeutic part of what we do. And then we’ve gotten all all serious over the years and, you know, we’ve gone into the pharmacology and the chemistry and the research behind essential oils and how they work on the body. And a lot of the aromatherapy training over the years has gone deeper in that direction, but left off this important part of the aroma impact of the oils. So they’re putting that to one side saying, oh, that’s not as important now as the chemistry and the research. But now what we’ve seen is that we’re coming full circle, and we’re putting the aroma back into aromatherapy as an aroma alone strategy. So before we were, you know, putting them on the skin, and we were combining them with massage, and we were really thinking of applying them to the body, and that the aroma part was sort of secondary almost. But now we’re actually saying these are potent tools on their own if they’re used just for their aroma, just through inhalation, they still are really, really potent.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:39:45]:
And how this came about was I was living in Singapore at the time, and, that was back in 96. And I came across, blank inhalers. You know, like the Vicks Vapo inhalers that, you know, peep many people are familiar with. But I actually came across blank ones with a wick inside that I could add essential oils to. And my very first patient that I used, was a man with liver cancer. So, very quickly, you know, I’m I’ve started to see the benefits of a simple tool of giving somebody a pre blended stick that was made just for them according to their odor preferences and to create together that that would become then their tool for self care in between treatments. Because I think if you look back in, aromatherapy research and massage research, it shows that, yes, you get benefits. You get psychophysiological benefits of your treatment, but they are short lived.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:41:01]:
And so they have to be repeated frequently for you to get longer lasting benefit. And that always bothered me. And I was always asking myself, how can we make the bridge between the treatments the person is receiving and helping them manage in between? How do we connect that? And this is where the aromasticks came in, really, because what they do is they help prolong the treatment. For the reasons that I mentioned earlier on that if you can anchor the the your physical experience of your treatment with the aroma and then you can give that person the aroma to use, they will still get benefit even if the therapist is not physically present, and that’s made all the difference. So what then happened was I started teaching in cancer care at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. I was teaching, at their request. They have a very long established program for complimentary therapy delivery, but they brought me in because they said, you know, we’re doing great things, with aromatherapy, but we wanna go an extra mile. We we there are certain areas where we just don’t feel we’re being effective enough.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:42:19]:
And it was in the very first class, and I think that was in 2,002, 2,003, maybe. I can’t remember the exact date now, but it it was there that I showed them the blank inhaler. And I said, what do you think about this? Could we, you know, could we do something with this? Would this not be beneficial because this is individual patient delivery. It’s not diffusion. It’s we’re getting around problems of using aroma in in large spaces. Could this be personalized self management tools? And that’s that’s how it began. And from there, from that first course, then people found where to get hold of them and then started to use them. The Royal Marsden Hospital, I think, was the first hospital to integrate them in their unit, for cal for for complimentary therapy.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:43:13]:
Then the Christie Hospital in Manchester picked that up, and they ran with it. They’re a specialist cancer center as well. And now in all of the active cancer treatment centers in the UK, as well as most of the hospices, this has just been rolled out and aromasticks are now used extensively. Not just for patients, but for staff, for carers, for you know, they’ve they’ve been used for all sorts of things now. So it’s really cool. I’m very excited about it because just something so simple and something so cheap. Mhmm. You know? It was as actually cost effective as well-to-do.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:43:56]:
Because once the stick is made, you have several months of use. So the sticks themselves have evolved with time because the main type of stick is plastic, and, of course, we don’t want we wanna get away from plastics, and, you know, maybe centrals interact with plastic over time. So we’re trying to find ways now of how to have different types of inhalers that are more friendly to the environment, but also, you know, gen but still cost effective. But what it also did was it opened the door to aroma alone strategies. It reopened that door to the fact that we can just use aromatherapy for inhalation. And so now, we have not only aroma sticks, but we also have all sorts of other gadgets that are aroma alone devices. For example, in the States, you have the amazing bio s, aroma patches, which are these little discs that can be stuck on the skin, and they are like a mini diffuser disc that the person can be inhaling, or it could be put on their wrist so they can smell it as and when they need to. The aroma patches have really taken off as well, and there are other aroma alone devices now, that are on the market.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:45:21]:
So if they came in at the at the right time and got us thinking once again about the power of smell and really the the profound impact that that has on our health and well-being.

Ericka Clinton [00:45:35]:
That’s wonderful. So as as an aromatherapist, have you found that the conventional medical community has really been ready to collaborate with you about the benefit that aromatherapy brings to patients?

Rhiannon Lewis [00:45:51]:
I think yeah. It’s a good question that I’d say yes and no. You know, it’s it’s a bit of a mixed bag, but, really, what we need is an increased evidence base. And so the more reporting in the literature that comes about and now for the for the use of aromasticks, we have some great evidence. You know, we’ve got good data now. So that’s we’re quite it’s quite easy to argue the place of aromasticks now in a clinical setting. So the more evidence that we have, the more that people report on benefits and publish those those benefits, the better it is for all of us in in the community. But, you know, there are always, you know, sticky points, and, you know, we’re still aromatherapy still seen as sort of something fluffy and fuzzy and just a a a bit of a treat.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:46:44]:
But you know what? If somebody says, oh, aroma aromatherapy is just something that makes me feel good or smells nice, actually, that’s a compliment in itself for me. Because if if that’s all I can do is give something simple and familiar and pleasant, I know that that whole stress reducing cascade kicks into place. So, for me, that’s enough. I don’t I’m not into arguing my place. I just see the benefits with patience and, encourage other people to do the same.

Ericka Clinton [00:47:19]:
Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Oh my goodness. This has been so amazing. I’ve learned so much. And and now I just have, like, 25 more questions for you, but, for for another episode. But I really I really wanna thank you so much for talking with us today.

Ericka Clinton [00:47:41]:
This has been an absolute pleasure, and, I just I just wanna say thank you.

Rhiannon Lewis [00:47:47]:
Oh, well, thank you too, Erica, and to everybody at the Society For Oncology Massage and all of the therapists that you have as members because you’re doing just such great work around the world. So, yes, happy to come come back. Happy to support you in whatever way I can, and let’s stay connected.

Ericka Clinton [00:48:07]:
Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Alright, collaborators. Have a great day, and I hope you enjoy today’s podcast.