Atlas›Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield›Guide 072
Guide XII-072

Aromatherapy and the Raindrop Technique

René-Maurice Gattefossé, D. Gary Young1937France
A 31 · L 59 · M 1013 interventions in the Trinity explorer
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[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: aromatherapy as described in the US National Cancer Institute PDQ health-professional summary and the UK Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) aromatherapy core curriculum (June 2025); NHS Lanarkshire's maternity aromatherapy guideline (v2, 2025) as an example of clinical aromatherapy inside a health service; multi-level-marketed (MLM) essential-oil use and the Raindrop Technique as their sellers and practitioners publish them. Sections 1–3 describe the method; section 4 is the psychotherapist's own work alongside it. The psychotherapist never performs, sells, prescribes or recommends essential oils, blends, Raindrop sessions or any related product.

What it is. Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils (volatile plant oils obtained by steam distillation or mechanical expression) with the stated aim of supporting physical, emotional and, for some practitioners, spiritual well-being. NCI classes it as a derivative of herbal medicine within biologically based complementary approaches. Oils are inhaled (diffusers, personal inhalers, drops on a tissue), applied to the skin diluted in a carrier, usually through massage, or added to baths and lotions. Internal use occurs in France and Germany; in the UK and US clinical practice is generally limited to inhalation and topical use. [source: NCI PDQ]

History as sources give it. French chemist and perfumer René-Maurice Gattefossé coined the term and published a book called Aromathérapie in 1937, relying mainly on anecdote and case reports; French physician Jean Valnet revived interest (his The Practice of Aromatherapy appeared in English in 1982); interest then spread through Britain and the US, much of the early English-language research coming from nurses. [source: NCI PDQ] Robert Tisserand's Essential Oil Safety (2nd ed., with Rodney Young, 2014) is the reference text the Tisserand Institute cites for safety. [source: Tisserand Institute]

Three forms a client may describe.

  • Clinical aromatherapy: a trained aromatherapist, nurse or midwife takes a consultation, screens contraindications, obtains consent, gives inhalation or a massage with diluted oils, and records and evaluates the treatment. [source: CNHC core curriculum; NHS Lanarkshire]
  • Esoteric or energetic aromatherapy: oils are held to act on the body's energy field or spirit as well as on mood. These are the practitioners' own beliefs and are described here as theirs, neither as fact nor dismissed. [source: Raindrop practitioner page; NCI PDQ on 'spiritual well-being']
  • Consumer and MLM use: oils bought through direct-selling companies, chiefly Young Living (founded by D. Gary Young; the founding year is given as 1993 or 1994 in different sources [uncertain]) and dōTERRA (launched 2008 by former Young Living executives), and used at home by inhalation, on the skin and, in some sellers' advice, by mouth. [source: Consumer Reports summary of The New Yorker; NZ Skeptics]

The Raindrop Technique. As one practitioner page presents it, Raindrop combines massage, acupressure, a reflexology method called Vita Flex, what it calls 'Native American healing techniques' and Young Living essential oils. Oils are let fall in drops onto the spine from a short height, spread with light 'feathering' strokes along the back, worked into reflex points on the feet, and the session ends with a hot, wet towel over the back. The theory offered is that the spine is the body's 'life line', that oils on the spine balance the whole body and its 'energy field', and that blocked nerve pathways cause illness; the page credits Gary Young with the idea that spinal curvature comes from pathogens, including from vaccines. The technique is generally attributed to Gary Young [uncertain]; one practitioner page attributes its theory to CARE Raindrop training and quotes a survey by a Raindrop promoter. [source: Raindrop practitioner page (Health Essentials LLC)]

Core idea of how change happens (as proponents state it). Aroma compounds are said to bind olfactory receptors and act on the limbic system, and topical use is said to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects; NCI notes that this neurobiological mechanism is regarded as mainly theoretical. [source: NCI PDQ] For the psychotherapist, the relevant 'change' is different: a client who feels calmer with a scent, finds meaning or community in oils, or makes risky choices because of claims made for them, is working with something that belongs in the therapeutic conversation. [synthesis]

Status in one line each.

  • Evidence: no published peer-reviewed studies address aromatherapy as a treatment for cancer; small, mixed trials in people with cancer report some short-term effects on anxiety, sleep and procedure-related distress, and several found no difference from control. [source: NCI PDQ]
  • US regulation: no licence is needed to practise; products need FDA approval only when they claim to treat disease, and on 22 September 2014 FDA sent Young Living a warning letter (dōTERRA was warned at the same time) because disease claims made their oils unapproved drugs. [source: NCI PDQ; FDA warning-letter page, Young Living 09/22/2014; Daily Herald; Deseret News]
  • UK regulation: no licence is needed to practise; practitioners who meet the CNHC core curriculum may apply for CNHC registration. CNHC describes itself as a UK voluntary register, accredited by the Professional Standards Authority. [source: NCI PDQ; CNHC core curriculum; CNHC home page]
  • Canada: the Canadian Federation of Aromatherapists sets certification, safety and conduct standards and keeps a public directory. [source: NCI PDQ]
  • Massage-licensing rules that may apply to hands-on Raindrop sessions vary by jurisdiction. In the US most states, the District of Columbia and some territories regulate massage therapy by licence (Vermont by registration), with different minimum training hours; California has voluntary certification; where a state does not regulate, county or city ordinances may apply. [source: FSMTB, Regulated States] Rules outside the US are not covered here [uncertain].

2. Framework

A. How clinical aromatherapy is organised (as the sources publish it).

  • Training: in the US, the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA) and the Alliance of International Aromatherapists (AIA) set educational standards, NAHA approves programmes and national exams run twice a year; some courses for licensed clinicians carry nursing or medical continuing-education credit. [source: NCI PDQ] In the UK, the CNHC curriculum requires a substantial qualification (several hundred hours of total qualification time with supervised practical training, at least an academic year, and a portfolio of case studies with observed assessments). [source: CNHC]
  • Session sequence: consultation exploring the client's needs; recognising contraindications and acting on them; confirming consent; treatment; monitoring well-being; aftercare and self-care advice; recording to professional and legal standards; referral when aromatherapy is unsuitable. [source: CNHC]
  • Inside health services: only staff who have completed a specified accredited course and supervised practice may give it; verbal consent recorded in the notes after discussing oils, reasons and contraindications; absolute and relative contraindications (epilepsy is absolute in the maternity guideline; caution for complex mental-health conditions); no ingestion; flags on doors in shared areas and protection of pregnant staff; serious reactions reported as incidents. [source: NHS Lanarkshire] In one hospice account, treatment needed consultant approval, a nurse assessment for contraindications and a signed consent form, and therapists were told to be sensitive to patients who dislike touch or smells. [source: IFA care homes and hospices page]
  • Session count: not fixed; given as single or repeated sessions according to the setting [uncertain].

B. Consumer, MLM and Raindrop use. No consultation, screening or record is required; information comes from the selling company, its distributors (upline) and social media. Raindrop is given by massage therapists and lay distributors trained through privately run courses (e.g. CARE Raindrop training). [source: Raindrop practitioner page; Daily Herald]

C. The psychotherapist's framework alongside it [synthesis; ethical anchors from the APA Ethics Code].

  1. Ask and record (any session, routinely at intake and review): what oils, how used, by whom, for what, how often bought, any reactions.
  2. Understand: meaning, hopes and explanatory model; place in identity, faith or community.
  3. Screen for risk: children in the home, ingestion or undiluted use, skin or breathing reactions, pregnancy, epilepsy, asthma, delayed medical care, financial and group pressure.
  4. Inform and decide: support the client's own values-based decision; route all product and medicine questions to prescriber or pharmacist.
  5. Coordinate: with consent, inform the GP, pharmacist or treating team (APA 3.09, 4.05).
  6. Act on risk and report: poison centre, safeguarding, regulator.
  7. Review: revisit at each formal review or when circumstances change. Move from 1 to 3 at once if children, pregnancy, ingestion or stopped treatment are mentioned.

3. Guiding principles

  • Curiosity without judgement. Ask about oils as routinely as about sleep or alcohol; clients who expect disapproval do not disclose. [synthesis]
  • The therapist never performs, sells, prescribes or recommends. No diffusing oils in the room, no blends, no 'try lavender', no product links. [synthesis; APA 3.06]
  • No conflicts of interest. A therapist who is also an oil distributor does not sell to, recruit or solicit clients or their families. [source: APA 3.05, 3.06, 3.08, 5.06]
  • Attribute, don't adjudicate. Energy, spiritual and 'frequency' ideas are described as the client's or the tradition's own; physical-health claims are attributed and their evidence status stated in one line. [synthesis]
  • No disease-treatment framing. Essential oils are never discussed as a treatment for cancer, infection or any physical disease; NCI states no studies address aromatherapy as a cancer treatment. [source: NCI PDQ]
  • Medicines and products belong to the prescriber or pharmacist. Never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine or remedy. [synthesis; APA 2.01]
  • Safety first for children. Young children swallowing oils is the commonest cause of internal essential-oil poisoning. [source: Tisserand Institute]
  • Informed consent and documentation. Record the conversation, what information was given and any coordination, as consent processes in clinical aromatherapy themselves require. [source: APA 3.10; CNHC; NHS Lanarkshire]
  • Touch questions are about consent and safety. For hands-on sessions (Raindrop, aromatherapy massage) the client has the right to consent before and during, to stop at any time, and never to sexual touch. [synthesis]
  • Stay within competence. Psychological work belongs to the therapist; safety and toxicity questions go to poison centres and clinicians. [source: APA 2.01, 2.04]
  • Cross-references: health anxiety and somatic symptom work in Domain II; integrative oncology in 172. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

All interventions below are the psychotherapist's own work alongside a client's use of essential oils or Raindrop sessions. Unless a source is given, steps are [synthesis] built on the ethical standards cited (APA Ethics Code 2.01, 3.04, 3.05, 3.06, 3.09, 3.10, 4.05, 5.06).

4.1 Routine, non-judgemental inquiry and recording

  • Purpose / when: find out what the client uses so risks and meanings can be discussed; at intake, at reviews, when the client mentions sleep, anxiety, pain, pregnancy, children or a new 'wellness' interest. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Normalise: say many people use complementary approaches. (2) Ask open questions: which oils or products, how used (inhaled, on skin, by mouth, in baths, by a practitioner), from where (shop, aromatherapist, MLM distributor, friend), for what, since when. (3) Ask about any practitioner sessions (aromatherapy massage, Raindrop) and who gives them. (4) Ask about reactions: skin redness, itching, burning, eye irritation, breathing problems, headaches. (5) Ask whether their doctor, midwife or pharmacist knows. (6) Record neutrally in the notes: product names as the client gives them, route, purpose, reactions, who else is involved.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Lots of people use things like essential oils, supplements or massage alongside everything else. Is anything like that part of your week?" / "How do you use them — breathing them in, on your skin, or any other way?"
  • Watch for: hesitancy or defensiveness (the client expects judgement); mention of oils taken by mouth, used undiluted on skin, or used on babies and children; reliance on oils instead of prescribed treatment. Working: the client volunteers updates without prompting.

4.2 Exploring meaning, hopes and the explanatory model

  • Purpose / when: understand what oils or Raindrop mean to the client — control, comfort, hope, distrust of medicine, identity, faith, community or income — before any safety discussion. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Ask what drew them in and what they hope for. (2) Ask how they understand it working (scent and mood, 'energy', spiritual cleansing, 'toxins', immune support); reflect it back in their words, attributed. (3) Explore the role of the community (distributor team, online groups) and of the seller who introduced them. (4) Ask what it would mean if it did not work, or if a doctor disagreed. (5) Note values that can anchor later decisions (e.g. 'being natural', 'protecting my children', 'not being dependent').
  • Example language (illustrative): "What does using the oils give you that other things haven't?" / "When you say the Raindrop session clears your energy, what does that feel like for you?" / "Who else is part of this for you — is there a group or a team?"
  • Watch for: explanatory models that set oils against medicine ('my doctor just pushes drugs'); spiritual or energy framings tied to distress (e.g. fear of 'toxins' or contamination); strong group identity that makes doubt feel like betrayal. Working: the client can hold both their own view and other information without feeling attacked.

4.3 Supporting informed, values-based decisions

  • Purpose / when: when a client is deciding whether to use oils for a health problem, to give them to a child, to ingest them, to replace or delay medical care, or to join a selling business. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Ask permission to look at the decision together. (2) Clarify the decision in the client's words and what matters most to them. (3) Ask what information they have and where it comes from (seller, label, clinician); help them identify sources independent of the seller, such as NCI PDQ summaries, poison centres, their pharmacist or prescriber. (4) State the limits of your role: you can help them think, not advise on products or medicines. (5) Help the client list what each option means for the values they named. (6) Agree what they will ask their doctor or pharmacist; record the decision and its basis. A published decision aid specific to aromatherapy is not established here [uncertain: not verified]; use general shared-decision principles only.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not the right person to say whether an oil is safe for you — your pharmacist is — but I can help you think through what matters to you here." / "What would you want to know before deciding?"
  • Watch for: decisions made under seller pressure or deadlines; 'all or nothing' framing (oils or medicine); the therapist slipping into advising for or against a product. Working: the client names their own reasons and has a plan to check with a clinician.

4.4 Coordinating with the doctor, midwife or pharmacist

  • Purpose / when: when oils are used by mouth, during pregnancy, on children, by someone with epilepsy, asthma, skin disease or serious illness, alongside medicines, or when medical care has been stopped or delayed. [synthesis; contraindication examples from NHS Lanarkshire]
  • Steps: (1) Explain why sharing would help. (2) Obtain and record specific consent: what will be shared, with whom. (3) Share factually: products and routes as the client describes them, any reactions, the client's goals, and any risk concern; ask the clinician to advise the client directly on safety and interactions. (4) Do not interpret toxicity or interactions yourself. (5) Record the contact and any reply; agree how you will both follow up. Without consent, share only where law or a valid purpose such as preventing serious harm allows. [source: APA 3.09, 4.05]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it be all right if I let your GP know you're using these oils, so they can check they fit with your other treatment?"
  • Watch for: client fear of being judged by the doctor; a clinician dismissing the client, which can push them further from care. Working: the client hears safety information from a clinician they trust.

4.5 Recognising and responding to physical risk at home

  • Purpose / when: when oils are kept or used where children live, swallowed, used undiluted, near the eyes, or in diffusers around infants, people with asthma or pets. [synthesis]
  • What sources state: young children (aged five and under) swallowing oils is the commonest cause of internal essential-oil poisoning, and children as young as two have opened caps and drunk the contents; any ingestion by a young child needs urgent medical attention. [source: Tisserand Institute] Oils can be aspirated into the lungs and cause chemical pneumonitis even in small amounts; camphor can cause abrupt seizures; eucalyptus can cause drowsiness, unsteadiness and, rarely, seizures and coma; wintergreen (methyl salicylate) carries aspirin-like toxicity and its minty taste attracts children; clove oil can injure the liver; thyme oil can burn tissue. [source: Tennessee Poison Center] Skin problems include irritation, allergic reactions and light-induced reactions, often linked to undiluted oils, and undiluted oils can chemically burn the eyes. [source: Tisserand Institute]
  • Steps: (1) If a current ingestion or reaction is described, stop the session agenda and direct the client to emergency services or the poison centre at once (US Poison Help line; UK NHS 111; Australia Poisons Information line; Canada local poison centre). [source: Tisserand Institute] (2) Otherwise, ask where oils are stored and who can reach them; how they are used around children. (3) Share the general fact that oils can poison children and that storage and use questions belong to the pharmacist or doctor; do not give dilution or 'safe use' instructions. (4) Record and, with consent, inform the GP or health visitor. (5) Consider safeguarding (4.6).
  • Example language (illustrative): "Poison centres say small children swallowing essential oils is a real risk. Where are the bottles kept at home?"
  • Watch for: oils given to children by mouth or in the nose on a seller's advice; seizures, drowsiness, coughing after exposure; burns or rashes. Working: the client checks with a clinician and changes storage or use on that advice.

4.6 Children: safeguarding, consent and assent

  • Purpose / when: a parent or carer gives children oils by mouth or in the nose, uses them instead of medical care, vaccination or adequate treatment for a sick child, or a young person in therapy is given oils or Raindrop sessions. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Ask factually what is given, how, and whether the child's doctor knows. (2) Distinguish a parent who needs information and a clinician's input from a child at risk of significant harm (ingestion of toxic oils, a sick child kept from medical care). (3) For the former: encourage and, with consent, arrange contact with the GP, paediatrician, pharmacist or health visitor. (4) For the latter: follow local safeguarding procedures and consult the safeguarding lead; urgent physical danger goes to emergency services first. (5) With a young person: explain what you will share and why, seek their assent and views, and record them; touch-based sessions (Raindrop, massage) need the young person's own willingness as well as parental consent. (6) Never name the child outside the record and referral.
  • Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like you really want to protect her. Because oils can be dangerous for small children if swallowed, I'd like us to get her doctor's view — can we do that together?" / To a teenager: "You get a say in whether anyone touches you during a treatment, and you can say stop at any point."
  • Watch for: a sick child not taken to a doctor; repeated poisonings; a young person who feels unable to refuse sessions. Working: the child's clinician is involved and the parent stays engaged.

4.7 Pregnancy, epilepsy, asthma and other medical flags

  • Purpose / when: the client is pregnant or breastfeeding, has epilepsy, asthma, heart, kidney or liver disease, skin disease, takes anticoagulants, or has a serious illness and is using oils or having massages with them. [source: contraindication examples from NHS Lanarkshire]
  • Steps: (1) Note that health services using aromatherapy treat such conditions as contraindications or cautions (e.g. epilepsy as an absolute contraindication in maternity care; no oils for newborns). (2) Do not judge which oils are safe; route the question to the midwife, doctor or pharmacist. (3) With consent, inform the clinician. (4) Record.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Hospitals that use aromatherapy have rules about pregnancy and epilepsy. Could you check with your midwife what applies to you?"
  • Watch for: seller advice contradicting clinicians; use during labour or on a newborn outside clinical guidance. Working: the client has a clinician's answer.

4.8 Multi-level-marketing pressure, finance and group dynamics

  • Purpose / when: the client sells or is being recruited to sell oils, spends beyond their means, feels unable to leave a team, or experiences conflict with friends or family over the business. [synthesis]
  • What sources state: Young Living distributors were reported to need about $100 of monthly purchases to earn commissions, and in 2016 about 94% of roughly two million active members earned under $1 for the year [source: Consumer Reports summary of The New Yorker]; a 2019 international income disclosure, as reported, showed about 90% of members earning between $0 and $1,461 a year before expenses, with recruitment bonuses on new members' orders. [source: NZ Skeptics]
  • Steps: (1) Explore the client's story of the business: hopes, identity, friendships. (2) Ask for concrete numbers they already know: monthly spend, income, stock at home, debts. (3) Look together at the company's own income disclosure if they wish. (4) Explore relational costs (selling to friends, online conflict) and pressure from the upline or team. (5) Support an exit or a limit as the client chooses; plan for loss of community and identity. (6) Where misleading income or health claims are involved, the client may report to the consumer regulator (see 4.13). (7) If you are or were a distributor yourself: never sell to, recruit or solicit clients or their families; disclose and manage the conflict, or refer. [source: APA 3.05, 3.06, 5.06]
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you add up what you've bought and what you've earned this year, what does that look like?" / "What would you lose if you stepped back from the team?"
  • Watch for: shame, sunk-cost thinking, debt, isolation, pressure to recruit family; high-control group features (leaving framed as betrayal or spiritual failure). Working: decisions based on the client's own figures and values.

4.9 Disease claims and stopping or delaying medical care

  • Purpose / when: the client believes oils treat or prevent cancer, infection or another physical disease, or has stopped, reduced or delayed medical treatment. [synthesis]
  • What sources state: no peer-reviewed studies address aromatherapy as a cancer treatment; in cancer care it is used as supportive care for well-being [source: NCI PDQ]; FDA warned Young Living and dōTERRA in September 2014 over website and distributor claims that oils could cure or prevent conditions including Ebola, herpes, Alzheimer's disease and cancer. [source: FDA warning-letter page, Young Living 09/22/2014; Daily Herald; Deseret News]
  • Steps: (1) Ask about current medical care calmly and specifically. (2) Explore the reasons (side-effects, fear, distrust, cost, faith) with empathy. (3) Share, once and plainly, that these claims are not supported and that regulators have acted on them, without arguing. (4) Encourage and, with consent, arrange a conversation with the treating team; for cancer, see integrative oncology (172) as complementary to, never instead of, standard care. (5) If capacity is in doubt or a dependent is affected, consult and act under safeguarding or capacity law. (6) Keep the relationship open whatever the client decides.
  • Example language (illustrative): "You've told me you stopped the tablets and are relying on the oils. Can we talk about what led to that?" / "Would you be willing to tell your oncologist what you're using, so they can work with you?"
  • Watch for: rapid deterioration, missed appointments, family conflict; the therapist being drawn into either endorsing or attacking. Working: the client re-engages with, or at least stays in contact with, medical care.

4.10 Health anxiety, somatic symptoms and fragrance sensitivity

  • Purpose / when: the client uses oils as reassurance against fears of illness, 'toxins' or contamination; has persistent bodily symptoms; or attributes symptoms to fragrances. [synthesis; cross-ref Domain II]
  • Steps: (1) Ensure medical assessment has occurred. (2) Formulate the role of oil use (safety behaviour, reassurance, ritual) within the established health-anxiety or somatic-symptom model. (3) Use Domain II procedures (psychoeducation, attention and monitoring experiments, reduction of safety behaviours) without telling the client to stop products; any product change is the client's choice, with clinician input. (4) For reported fragrance sensitivity, take it seriously and arrange medical review (NCI notes odorants and fragrance materials can trigger migraine and asthma symptoms); then address anxiety and avoidance as relevant.
  • Example language (illustrative): "What do you notice happens to the worry after you use the oil — and how long until it comes back?"
  • Watch for: escalating use, rituals, avoidance of places with scents; dismissal of genuine allergy. Working: less preoccupation and more flexible behaviour.

4.11 Scents in the therapy room and the client's own self-soothing

  • Purpose / when: a client asks to use their own scent or inhaler in session for calming, or asks the therapist to diffuse oils. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) The therapist does not provide, diffuse or choose oils. (2) A client's own personal inhaler may be part of their self-chosen coping; explore it like any grounding object. (3) Avoid diffusing in shared spaces: other clients and staff may have asthma, allergies, migraine or pregnancy, as health services flag. [source: NHS Lanarkshire; NCI PDQ] (4) Use scent-free sensory grounding (naming smells in the room, touching a textured object) if a sensory anchor is wanted. (5) Record the agreement.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I don't use oils in the room because some people react to them, but you're welcome to tell me how your own one helps you."
  • Watch for: the client using scent to avoid feelings in session; requests to recommend a blend. Working: the client has several coping options, not only a product.

4.12 Touch-based sessions: consent, boundaries and trauma

  • Purpose / when: the client receives Raindrop or aromatherapy massage, or is considering it, and has a trauma history, feels uneasy, or describes something that felt wrong. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Ask how the sessions feel and whether they knew what would happen beforehand (Raindrop involves the back, feet and a hot compress, as practitioners describe it). (2) Affirm the right to consent before and during, to stop at any time, to ask for hands-off alternatives, and that sexual or genital touch is never part of a legitimate treatment. (3) Explore trauma reactions to touch, lying face down or heat; plan how the client could communicate limits. (4) If the client describes sexual or non-consensual touch, respond as a disclosure: safety, support, options to report to police and to the practitioner's professional body or registrant body. [source: right-to-stop and hands-off points are synthesis; hospice sensitivity to touch from IFA page]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You can say no or stop at any point in a treatment — how would you feel saying that to the practitioner?"
  • Watch for: freezing or dissociation during sessions; burns or skin reactions after hot compresses with oils; a practitioner discouraging the client from telling anyone. Working: the client feels able to set limits.

4.13 Reporting routes

  • Purpose / when: a product injured someone, a seller made disease claims, a practitioner behaved unsafely, or a child is at risk. [synthesis; routes from Tisserand Institute unless marked]
  • Steps: adverse reactions to products: US FDA MedWatch; Health Canada; UK MHRA; Australia TGA. [source: Tisserand Institute] Disease claims for products: the national medicines or product regulator (FDA issued the 2014 warning letters). [source: FDA warning-letter page; Daily Herald] Misleading business or income claims: the consumer or advertising regulator (e.g. the NZ Commerce Commission, as suggested by NZ Skeptics; US FTC and UK ASA [uncertain]). Practitioners: their registering or certifying body (CNHC in the UK; NAHA, AIA or CFA in North America). Children: local safeguarding services. Help the client decide; report yourself only where law, your code or safeguarding requires it, with consent where possible. [source: APA 4.05]
  • Example language (illustrative): "If you'd like, we can look at how to report what happened."
  • Watch for: fear of the group's reaction; the client wanting the therapist to report for them. Working: the client knows their options.

5. Handling problems

The sources above do not address the psychotherapist's difficulties directly; all guidance in this section is [synthesis] unless a source is named.

  • Client becomes defensive when oils are raised. Return to curiosity and meaning (4.2); name that you are not there to take anything away. (illustrative) "I'm asking because it matters to you, not to talk you out of it." Defer safety topics unless risk is current.
  • Client wants the therapist to endorse or recommend a product, or to try a Raindrop session. Decline warmly and explain your role; do not argue the product's merits. (illustrative) "It's not something I recommend or use with clients either way — my part is helping you think it through."
  • Client tries to sell to or recruit the therapist, or offers oils as a gift. Decline, explore what the offer means in the relationship (gratitude, need for income, wish for alliance), and keep the boundary. [source: APA 3.05, 3.06]
  • Therapist is personally invested (uses oils, sells them, or strongly opposes them). Bring it to supervision; disclose and manage any financial interest; refer if objectivity cannot be kept. [source: APA 3.06]
  • Stuck: the client continues a risky practice (ingestion, undiluted use on children, oils instead of treatment) after information. Avoid repeating warnings; explore ambivalence with motivational methods; keep clinician involvement alive; escalate to safeguarding when a child or a person lacking capacity is at risk.
  • Rupture after a safeguarding referral or contact with the doctor. Acknowledge the client's anger, explain the duty and what you shared, repair through transparency; record. Prepare in advance by explaining confidentiality limits at intake. [source: APA 4.05 on disclosure]
  • Overwhelm or shame on realising money lost or a child harmed. Slow down; validate; separate responsibility from blame; plan practical steps (debt advice, medical follow-up); screen for depression and suicidality with standard risk assessment.
  • Group or upline pressure, loss of community after leaving. Map the client's network; plan replacement sources of belonging; anticipate contact from the group and rehearse responses.
  • Palliative or serious illness: the oils bring comfort. Respect comfort and meaning; ensure the palliative team knows (health services set their own contraindications, e.g. avoiding radiotherapy areas for massage [source: IFA hospice page]); focus therapy on what the client values.
  • Fragrance used by one family member troubles another (asthma, migraine, conflict). Treat it as a family negotiation; route medical questions to clinicians. [source: NCI PDQ on fragrance and migraine/asthma]
  • Touch-related distress after Raindrop or massage. See 4.12; work with trauma responses using the client's existing trauma-focused plan; support any report.
  • Client presents 'energy' or spiritual interpretations of the oils. Engage with them as the client's framework; don't correct or confirm; separate spiritual meaning from physical-health decisions.

Harm account

What was actually done

  • Disease claims for MLM oils (2014). On 22 September 2014 FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research issued a warning letter to Young Living Essential Oils (Spanish Fork, Utah) [source: FDA warning-letter page, Young Living 09/22/2014; Daily Herald; issuing centre per RegDataLab reproduction of the letter, secondary], and a letter was sent to dōTERRA at the same time. Statements on both companies' websites said oil products could cure herpes, Alzheimer's disease and cancer; Young Living's site said cinnamon bark and oregano prevent the Ebola virus from surviving; a dōTERRA consultant listed oils on Twitter said to help prevent Ebola infection. [source: Daily Herald] FDA said that, given these claims, the oils would need testing and approval as drugs, and called them misbranded for lacking adequate directions for the intended use; the companies had 15 days to report corrections. Independent consultants' social-media posts drove many claims; Young Living said policing its distributor network was difficult, and dōTERRA called it 'a select few' distributors. [source: Deseret News] Later, distributors were reported to promote a Young Living blend as protection against coronavirus, and consultants to put non-food-grade products into food. [source: NZ Skeptics citing Salon and CNBC]
  • How clients encountered it. Through friends, family and online groups selling starter bundles, with commissions for recruits and minimum monthly purchases to earn commissions; most members earned little or nothing. [source: Consumer Reports summary of The New Yorker; NZ Skeptics]
  • Raindrop sessions. As a practitioner page presents them: oils let fall in drops onto the spine, feathered across the back, worked into the feet, and a hot wet towel placed over the back at the end; theory crediting Gary Young with blaming spinal curvature on pathogens, including from vaccines; testimonials claiming results for scoliosis, multiple sclerosis symptoms, motor neurone disease, asthma, bronchitis, strep throat, shingles and chickenpox; a promoter's uncontrolled self-report survey presented as outcome evidence. [source: Raindrop practitioner page]
  • The founder's history as reported. As The New Yorker reported (summarised by Consumer Reports): Gary Young opened a health centre with birthing services in Washington State in 1982; in 1983 he claimed to detect cancer with a blood test, was arrested for practising medicine without a licence and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanour; a later Tijuana clinic reported 'aggressive cancer' in a blood sample a reporter had taken from a cat and recommended a costly detox programme; a Utah clinic opened in 2000 offered alternative therapies for heart disease and cancer; his only medical qualification was a naturopathy doctorate from an unaccredited school; a former executive described a video of him giving essential oils intravenously at a clinic in Ecuador. [source: Consumer Reports summary of The New Yorker] An infant died after a water birth at his 1982 clinic; no charges were brought. [source: NZ Skeptics; uncertain: secondary] Young Living also pleaded guilty, per a US Department of Justice agreement, over illegally harvested rosewood. [source: Consumer Reports summary of The New Yorker]

How it caused harm

  • Poisoning, especially of young children. Small children open bottles and drink the contents; ingestion by under-fives is the most common cause of internal essential-oil toxicity in the US, at more than ten times any other age group. [source: Tisserand Institute] Aspiration of even small amounts can cause chemical pneumonitis; camphor causes abrupt seizures and has killed children; eucalyptus causes drowsiness, slurred speech and unsteadiness and has caused deaths; wintergreen causes salicylate poisoning with possible seizures, brain swelling and coma; clove oil injures the liver; thyme oil causes burns that may be painless; tea tree oil causes confusion and reduced breathing; three pre-pubertal boys developed reversible breast enlargement associated with lavender oil. [source: Tennessee Poison Center] Advice to take oils by mouth increases this exposure. [synthesis]
  • Skin and eye injury. Irritation, allergic reactions and light-induced reactions, often after undiluted use; rarely anaphylaxis; chemical eye burns from undiluted oils; airway irritation and respiratory distress after oils are put into the nose. [source: Tisserand Institute] Raindrop's oil-on-spine and hot-compress steps raise the question of skin irritation and burns; no documented case series is known [uncertain].
  • Delayed or forgone medical care. Claims that oils cure or prevent cancer, Alzheimer's disease, herpes or Ebola could lead people to rely on them instead of care; no studies support aromatherapy as a cancer treatment. [source: Daily Herald; NCI PDQ] Raindrop's vaccine-blame theory could discourage vaccination. [synthesis]
  • Financial and relational harm. Required purchases, recruitment incentives and near-zero earnings for most members; costs of shipping, travel and advertising excluded from disclosures. [source: Consumer Reports summary of The New Yorker; NZ Skeptics] Selling to friends and family can strain relationships, and leaving can mean losing a community. [synthesis]
  • Who was most at risk: infants and young children; pregnant people; people with epilepsy or asthma; people with serious illness looking for alternatives; people in financial need recruited as sellers. [synthesis drawing on sources above]

Recognising it today

  • Oils promoted to prevent or treat infections, cancer, dementia, autism or other diseases, often during outbreaks (Ebola in 2014, coronavirus later). [source: Daily Herald; NZ Skeptics]
  • Advice from sellers to take oils by mouth, put them in food, use them undiluted, or give them to babies and children. [source: NZ Skeptics; Tisserand Institute]
  • Testimonials and self-report surveys offered as proof; disease claims in a distributor's social media rather than the company's labels. [source: Raindrop practitioner page; Deseret News]
  • Explanations that link spinal problems or illness to vaccines or 'blocked' energy, presented as medical fact. [source: Raindrop practitioner page]
  • Starter kits, monthly purchase minimums, recruitment bonuses and pressure to 'build a team'. [source: Consumer Reports; NZ Skeptics]
  • Red flags in a colleague's or group's practice: a therapist or group leader selling oils to clients, diffusing oils without asking, recommending oils for clients' health problems, or offering Raindrop to clients. [synthesis; APA 3.06]
  • How legitimate versions differ: in health services, aromatherapy is given only by staff with accredited training, after contraindication screening and recorded consent, without ingestion, with protection for others in shared spaces and incident reporting [source: NHS Lanarkshire]; CNHC-standard training covers contraindications, safety, consent, referral, records and advertising rules. [source: CNHC]

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

  • For anxiety, sleep and distress: established psychological treatments for the presenting problem, as used across this guide (see Domain II for health anxiety and somatic presentations); where a client wants aromatherapy in a health setting, it is the treating team's decision. [synthesis]
  • Acute exposure: emergency services or poison centre at once; do not wait for the session to end. [source: Tisserand Institute]
  • Assessment of affected clients: physical follow-up through the GP; guilt and shame after a child's poisoning; grief and regret after delayed care; debt and loss of community after leaving an MLM; trauma responses after unwanted touch. [synthesis]
  • Treatment considerations: validate the hope and care that led to the choice; work on self-blame; rebuild trust with medical care; plan financial recovery; for families, address conflict over the business or over a child's care. [synthesis]
  • Ethical, reporting and legal duties: safeguarding referral where a child is at risk; adverse-event reporting to FDA MedWatch, Health Canada, MHRA or TGA [source: Tisserand Institute]; misleading claims to the product or consumer regulator; practitioner conduct to their registering body; disclosure limits and consent as the APA Code sets out. [source: APA 4.05]

Sources

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