Discover Health Benefits of Touch & Aromatherapy

By Caryn Gehlmann

Gema Allen is one of e3’s most trusted health advisors. With a background in hospice homecare, massage, visceral manipulation, and craniosacral therapy, Gema loves teaching people about the body’s wisdom and willingness to heal and how to give it a gentle nudge in the right direction. She believes aromatherapy provides access to memory, comfort, pleasure, relaxation, stimulation as well as specific healing remedies. You’ll enjoy our interview where she shares the health benefits of touch and how these various modalities can be integrated with aromatherapy.

Tell us a little about your background and your amazing ability to utilize the health benefits of touch in your practice.

I am a Licensed Massage Therapist and my services include Massage, Craniosacral Therapy, Visceral Manipulation, and Journey Mentor Work. After years in Southern Oregon, I recently moved my practice to Sequim, Washington. I truly love what I do for a living. I get to touch people with as much compassion and love as I can while helping them to feel safe and calm enough to let go. I believe that through touch people can become more aware of many levels of issues from body image to deep layers of trauma to emotional holding patterns. We all have our stuff, baggage, trauma, health issues, or just the daily stress and all of it can be affected by a good massage, craniosacral or visceral manipulation work, or journey mentoring.

I have a very holistic approach to my practice and my various modalities tend to overlap. In massage, you’re working on the body from the outside in. With my other modalities, I work more from the inside out. In the Upledger style of craniosacral work I do, I work to gently unwind disorganized cell patterns, with the focus being neurological function through cerebral spinal fluid, resulting from trauma, to allow a more fluid and free healthy functioning wholeness to the body. Visceral Manipulation is organ-specific fascial mobilization including the emotions that are weaved throughout our entire organism. In Journey Mentoring, the focus is on healing through dialogue by using imagination and creativity to help change neuron patterns and transform traumas to a sensory healing experience.

How were you introduced to essential oils?

I was initially introduced in the early nineties as a massage student. I continued to use and teach them as a massage instructor and practitioner. Soon after, I met Caryn and started working with her at e3 in creating different blends. This gave me an amazing opportunity to explore essential oils and learn about their synergy.

Within your practice, how does aromatherapy complement the health benefits of touch?

I almost always have a diffuser running in my room when I meet with clients. I particularly like to use e3’s Protection blend during the cold and flu season and now with the COVID-19 situation. Other favorites in my practice include Respiratory, Purify, and Revitalize. I also use essential oils in a spritzer or in hot wet towels during a session. I like to look ahead at my calendar and consider what each of my clients need or I use muscle testing to identify the essential oil or blend best suited for them. My clients find the aromatherapy very calming and everyone who walks into my office always comments on how good it smells!

How do you personally use essential oils?

Eight years ago I had four hip replacements in a year, both hips had to be replaced twice! This was a very painful experience! I’ve relied on e3’s Nerve Calming blend which I combine with lotion and apply to my legs for relief from severe leg and feet cramps. I find it helps with sensitivity and edema. One of my favorite essential oils is Bergamot, which I find very uplifting, soothing, and complementary to some hormonal distress.

Thank you, Gema for sharing your expertise on the health benefits of touch and ways to use aromatherapy to enhance the therapeutic experience. If you’re a healthcare practitioner, please visit our website to learn more about how e3 can support you as you integrate aromatherapy into your practice. And if you still haven’t done so, please sign-up for our e3 email newsletter to keep up-to-date on the latest essential oil news, sales, and get a coupon for 20% off!