Postpartum University® Podcast

EP 168 Aromatherapy in Postpartum with Kara Johnson

• Maranda Bower, Postpartum Nutrition Specialist • Episode 168

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Welcome back to the Postpartum University podcast! 

Today's special guest, Kara Johnson, a registered nurse and certified aroma freedom practitioner, unlocks emotional healing and postpartum well-being secrets with the transformative Aroma Freedom Technique. 
We'll break down the 12-step process developed by psychologist Dr. Benjamin Perkis. and delve into the science behind how these essential oils interact with your brain's receptors via the olfactory system, promoting deep emotional healing. 

We also discuss crucial safety considerations for using essential oils during pregnancy and postpartum, underscoring their gentle yet effective nature compared to other trauma-release methods.

Learn about the critical importance of choosing high-quality essential oils as we share our own experiences to highlight why thorough research and investing in reputable brands is essential. 

This episode is packed with valuable insights and tips designed to support you during the postpartum period and beyond. 

Key points in this conversation! 

  • What is the Aroma Freedom Technique? (1:37) 
  • Application of Aroma Freedom in Pregnancy and Postpartum (2:43) 
  • Scientific Basis and Safety of Aromatherapy (4:01)
  • Practical Use of Essential Oils in Daily Life (11:28) 


Tune in and empower yourself with the knowledge you need to navigate this crucial phase of motherhood with confidence and ease.

Click here to learn more about Kara and find tons of resources for postpartum healing and well-being. 

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Maranda Bower:

Depression, anxiety and autoimmune symptoms after birth is not how it's supposed to be. There is a much better way, and I'm here to show you how to do just that. Hey, my friend, I'm Miranda Bauer, a mother to four kids and a biology student turned scientist, obsessed with changing the world through postpartum care. Join us as we talk to mothers and the providers who serve them and getting evidence-based information that actually supports the mind, body and soul in the years after birth. Hey, everyone, welcome to another episode here with the Integrative Therapies for Postpartum Wellbeing, and today I have Kara Johnson.

Maranda Bower:

She is a wife, mother of six, almost seven. She is a registered nurse and certified aroma freedom practitioner, and she lives here in Alaska, near me, which is absolutely amazing. She loves to learn, drink good coffee, read and have fun with her family and friends Total Alaskan intro there. I absolutely love it and thank you so much for being here, because I feel like I was just sharing this with you. There's so much misinformation and lack of knowledge when it comes to aromatherapy, so I'm so glad that you're here to kind of bust these myths and tell us what it's really about. Perfect.

Kara Johnson:

Yes, I'm excited to be here and let you guys know everything that I know about Aroma Freedom. This is such a great opportunity for everyone to learn and happy to be here.

Maranda Bower:

So what is the Aroma Freedom Technique?

Kara Johnson:

What does that mean? So the Aroma Freedom Technique itself is a technique that was developed by a psychologist, Dr Benjamin Perkis. He is the founder of the Aroma Freedom Technique, so he uses Young Living Essential Oils for this and it's a 12-step process for identifying and releasing negative thoughts, feelings, memories that interfere with reaching our goals, dreams, et cetera in our life reaching our goals, dreams, et cetera in our life. And it's meant to be used to kind of set your emotional energy in a positive direction versus that negative direction that a lot of us tend to lean towards. And it kind of helps with growth, expansion, instead of that contraction and fear and paralysis. So it uses the oils to help shift, a permanent shift and trigger that to how we view ourselves in the world and kind of move past those things that can hold us back from doing the things that we love.

Maranda Bower:

Yeah, I can see where that can be applicable, not just in pregnancy and postpartum but in like overall life in general.

Kara Johnson:

Yeah, so you can then niche it down, you know, and so like in pregnancy, postpartum, those kinds of things, you know there's a lot of fear sometimes, especially second births that moms have gone through, that they have a lot of fear behind if they've had a bad experience the first time, and so this can help release all that trauma that moms have experienced during that time.

Maranda Bower:

I find this so fascinating. I actually I was a foster mom. Not a lot of people know this. It was a foster mom for many years and we would always go to this one particular counselor. All my foster children, everybody's always been in counseling or some form of therapy, and one in particular had like this huge wall of essential oils and I was like, oh my gosh, she's amazing. And I remember talking to her about it and being like what is that? Why do you have that? And she was trying to explain to me and maybe you can explain this a little bit better. But they hit certain receptors of the brain and they're able to help calm, you know, at at a neurological level, or they're able to arouse at a neurological level and really shift patterns, as you had had mentioned. How does that work at that?

Kara Johnson:

level.

Kara Johnson:

So, like the scientific level, I don't get too far into it because a lot of it is over people's heads, but it goes through the olfactory system and it hits a lot of those receptors in the brain.

Kara Johnson:

I don't know the exact where you know, like is it the hippocampus, all those things. Dr Benjamin Perkis is a great resource for that. He has a lot of scientific data into all the science part of it, but it definitely gets into the brain through the blood brain barrier that not a lot of medications can cross that blood brain barrier, but essential oils have that ability to get directly into that the brain cells, into the I can't think of the word for it now, I'm mind blanking on it, but it's. It's a much gentler release than like even if you've heard of emdr, which is a very similar process and actually this is based off of that um. So people that have gone through emdr may have had even a traumatic response with that, because it uses eye movements to release trauma where this can come in, and it has a very gentle effect but a very profound effect as far as releasing those negative things in the brain.

Maranda Bower:

That's fascinating, that's absolutely fascinating, and you and you mentioned like this is crossing the blood brain barrier and for a lot of people that's going to bring up a fear, especially when it comes to like aromatherapy. Are there any safety considerations or precautions that we need to take in pregnancy and postpartum that they need to be aware of?

Kara Johnson:

I guess these are relatively safe during pregnancy, postpartum, and you can also tone it down. You can dilute them so they're not as strong, because some people get a really strong reaction. I mean, if you take an essential oil straight from the bottle and you're inhaling it, a lot of people have this like cough reflex, which is a great detox reaction. But you can tone it down a little bit if you need to. But all the oils that are used in this are safe during postpartum and pregnancy and you know you can also just smell it directly from the bottle so that it's farther away instead of in your hands and on your skin.

Maranda Bower:

Are there specific essential oils that you're using that's associated with the aroma therapy or aroma freedom technique? Is it like very specific?

Kara Johnson:

It is very specific. There's six for the. So there's let me tone it back a little bit for the aroma freedom technique. It's a 12 step process, but there's also like five or six different steps where they're simpler methods and they can help with just different areas of so like there's like an aroma boost, there's aroma like a quick one that's like literally takes a minute and can help you reset, you know, in the morning. And there's a memory resolution technique which is more based for trauma, and then this aroma freedom technique is setting like a goal and helping move forward with that kind of stuff. So there's many different ways that you can use aroma freedom.

Maranda Bower:

And now I guess I forgot what the original question was really about, like the safety precautions, and it sounds like you know there's specific essential oils that you're using and a process that you're using them with as well.

Kara Johnson:

Yes, so for a lot of them, you're just going to be using lavender, frankincense and stress away, which are very safe, very gentle oils, and so those are. You know, the safety side of things is very safe as far as postpartum pregnancy goes. So, when it comes to the whole technique, you're using transformation, release and inner child, which are different blends that help with the release of those negative thoughts, feelings, things that come up during the sessions, and so those ones can be, you know, a little more intense, have a little more. Some people might be more cautious of them, but they're still very safe. I've used all of these during all my pregnancies, all of my postpartums, and essentially it's just like a different healing modality that some people are just not aware of.

Maranda Bower:

So yeah yeah. This is incredible, like I am so fascinated by everything that you're saying here, and is this something that a mom can learn to do on her?

Kara Johnson:

own, yes, and actually, doctor, if you go to I think it's aromafreedomcom Yep, wwwaromafreedomcom you can. This is mine from doing the certification, but there's an actual full book all about the Aror Freedom technique. This is a great way to learn how to do it on your own and be able to help yourself through it. So, yeah, that's a great question.

Maranda Bower:

I always find it so fascinating and I share with so many of my clients. You know in the very beginning, like when you're going through something like pregnancy or postpartum or whatever, it is something really big and stressful in your life and you're trying a new modality, you know whether it's TRE therapy or you know doing some sort of Reiki, like you can. You can learn those things on your own, but to be able to have somebody else facilitate it, especially in the beginning, is incredibly powerful and you can learn and pick up things that might feel better or really just be able to love yourself in that moment and receive and then eventually learn the tools, which I think is so beautiful to receive something from somebody else, but also learn it to empower yourself and to even like I mean, this is something that you can use for your kids Like this is where my brain is going right Like yes, you can use it for your kids, you can use it for babies, you can use it.

Kara Johnson:

You know it gets simpler for children. You don't necessarily go through the whole process, but it's it still has the very same effect, and I've used it very effectively on my children for scary dreams, thoughts that keep coming up for them, and it has been very effective when you have a practitioner do it for you. This is something that I actually had tried to learn on my own. I had the book and I was learning all of the things about it, and I just couldn't get like this release that they kept talking about, and so then I went through the whole certification and I realized what it was all about, and so it can be a little bit confusing the whole process if you're trying to learn it on your own, which is why you said is helpful to have somebody walk you through it in the beginning, but it is absolutely something you can learn on your own in the future to help yourself and empower yourself to do that.

Maranda Bower:

So that's, that's amazing. I'm thinking about, like the postpartum period and all of this, which is such a huge component, obviously, of what we do. How can we kind of integrate aromatherapy into our self-care routine, like what are some practical ways that we can use essential oils, you know, throughout our daily lives?

Kara Johnson:

really. So I use them like. I set them on the top of my counter in the kitchen it's right at my eye level, something that's going to, you know, trigger. Put them in places where you're going to see every day whether it's brushing your teeth. And what I actually do is I blend three together so lavender, frankincense, stress away them all together in this little one bottle, so you're not using three different ones, and then you can use it as a quick boost. You know, when you're brushing your teeth, you just right after or right before you smell the oil and then it's. You know, it's a technique that you do walk yourself through. It's like a identifying, a memory and a thought for the quick boost anyway, and then you can move on with your day.

Kara Johnson:

Or if you get stuck during the day with like something that's super frustrating, you can use that blend to help you move through that frustrating time. So learning to integrate them in the little parts of your life to not make it overwhelming is key. Essential oils can be really daunting at first, like what do I use for this or that? It's like homeopathy, right, there's like this whole world of all these different oils and different remedies and whatnot, and so they can get super overwhelming, but you just keep it simple and start with. You know whether it's this blend to help you through an overwhelming time, or even if it's just lavender if you just have lavender, that's great too.

Maranda Bower:

So yeah, that's so true. I mean, sometimes keeping it simple, is the is the answer to all of our prayers. Um, I know I keep I keep a little roll on in my of of stress, away in my um purse and I have like this little. I don't leave the house without it. It's like, uh, I don't even know how, it's a little case. I don't even remember where I get it. I got it, but you put like your bigger bottle stuff, essential oils into like these itty bitty little little bottles and you can take those around and that's what we use everywhere. Like I don't, literally I don't leave the house without them. And it's not just for for smelling.

Maranda Bower:

But I, you know I was having tooth issues for a long time, so clove was the key because I could use that on my teeth. It would eliminate the pain immediately, like those kinds of things as well. So it was. It was always an essential. And my husband's like, hey, do you got that? You got it. You good, you know, for belly aches, for everything is aromatherapy. We use so much of that. So I think that integrating it into your life can be a relatively easy thing.

Maranda Bower:

I mean, just carry it along with all your mom band-aids you know like the pack of stuff that you have in your purse at the very bottom that you occasionally need. Yeah, absolutely, Absolutely. And I would imagine, I mean, and I know in my own experience we're talking about things like sleep disturbances, stress, mood swings. You know things that are really common, or what we consider common in postpartum, that we could use aromatherapy to support.

Kara Johnson:

Yes, yeah, and postpartum right is a huge hormone shift. I mean it's your hormones are diving right after you have that baby and you're prone to the baby blues that first couple of weeks and then, of course, sometimes that turns into depression, anxiety, especially as a first time mom, second time mom, you're not, as you know. You're worried about everything and if you don't have that knowledge of what's normal, what's not, I mean anxiety can just creep in so bad. And this can help just even ease those anxieties that may seem really big to you and to someone else that's like that's nothing. So this, this is a great technique to help with those postpartum anxieties, and of course, nutrition, like you do, plays into it as well. But there's so many things that you can help, that can help with that postpartum period, so I'm happy to share this one.

Maranda Bower:

Yeah, yeah, this is, this is a fabulous coping support system. You know it's not. It's not something that's going to help heal us, obviously, but it's something that we can use to really support our nervous system and support our day-to-day function, which I feel like is such a missing piece. You know, especially as moms, we have a tendency to like pick like these really big goals I shared recently on a podcast, like we want to, you know, radically change our diet and or eliminate every toxin in our home right away or go run a marathon right. We have like these really big goals when sometimes the goals should be around our day-to-day life and our on our living. It's about, you know, how do I, how do I conquer the dishes every day without feeling overwhelmed Like the little thing.

Kara Johnson:

Keeping it realistic, yeah, it's gotta be realistic. Yeah, the smart goals, like, if you've ever heard of that S M A R T, you know is setting those goals that are realistic, attainable, measurable, relatable, all those things because we can have these big ideas in our head and even that, this aroma freedom technique, when we have those big goals, can help us realize, like, well, what is most important, you know, helps tone things down and can help you really get a good view of what is what is most important, view of what is what is most important.

Maranda Bower:

Hey, I'm going to be 100% straight with you. The postpartum world is changing right now and I know you feel it. It's in the politics, our community spaces. There is an urgent need to implement a different approach to postpartum health. If you're an alternative provider or postpartum advocate, you need to be with us in the Postpartum University. Pro Membership, get the method, the tools, the handouts, the advanced trainings and so much more to not only help your clients and your business grow, but to help you grow too. Marketwatch says that the afterbirth services and nutrition and support is set for extraordinary growth by 2030. Don't miss your opportunity to help women and families who desperately need your holistic support. Go to wwwpostpartumucom. Slash membership. We're accepting registrations right now and we can't wait to see you there. Another question that comes to mind is like how do we choose high quality essential oils? Is there any resources or guidelines that we can follow, because the market is saturated with them and everybody's such strong opinions, especially about two particular brands, um?

Maranda Bower:

and and it's hard to navigate, like how do we, how do we make the, the choice, how do we get those high quality? Because that's a huge factor here. You want only high quality absolutely.

Kara Johnson:

Um, so yeah, when you're using so off. This technique only uses Young Living, and I know there's controversy there. Some companies, though. So what happens is they take this bottle of oil and they say it's 100% pure therapeutic grade oil, but there's only like five drops of that pure grade oil, and then they fill it with a carrier oil, and then they fill it with the carrier oil. Not all companies do this, but also there's other companies that will take castoffs from bigger companies or other areas that aren't as up to par as some companies would like, and they may have some type of chemical in them. That's not necessarily gonna be super harmful, but it's not what the company wants, so they discard it, and so then those smaller companies get this not as great oil.

Kara Johnson:

Now there's specific ways to oils too, like they distill them in certain ways, and certain companies have ways that they know that this is how you extract the best oil from this plant. So you kind of got to do a lot of research. When it comes to what company you should go with, I'm not going to tell you which one to use. I've been using this one for 13 years, so this is the one I recommend, but there's plenty of other good options out there If you put your research into it. Don't just buy one from Walmart or Walgreens or whatever, because they're not going to be. They're going to be perfume grade, which is different.

Maranda Bower:

And very toxic.

Kara Johnson:

Yes, very toxic For sure. So it'd be like smelling an air freshener, a Febreze air freshener if you bought an essential oil from Walgreens. So do not recommend store-bought oils like that. So I know it's hard because of the MLM structure that people are like turned off by that. People are like turned off by that. But really doing some research into what is a pure therapeutic grade oil can be really beneficial to making that decision?

Maranda Bower:

Yeah, absolutely, Absolutely. And I know again, you mentioned the rivalry between them and really the cost, and at one point in my life I was, like I'm very much the holistic person.

Maranda Bower:

I, you know, get my herbs from my backyard as much as I possibly can you know, do a lot of harvesting, we can a lot of foods that we grow ourselves and and all of that. And I was like you know what, why in the world am I buying all of these aromatherapy essential oils when I can just make my own? Right, if somebody else made them, then I should be able to make them.

Maranda Bower:

and so I started looking and researching and I was like the distiller machine alone was like an upwards of a thousand dollars, and then to be able to find the plants and know when to harvest the plants, like there's a particular season, there's a particular particular time of day, like and you and you know this, if you do any sort of herbal, herbal, you know care, whatever, when you're out, getting from the land, and like there's a technique. But the amount that you needed and the equipment required was just mind boggling to me and, of course, I absolutely do not make my own essential oils for these very reasons. It was, it was so much. And so, yes, like, looking at I, I know that I have both, you know, big brands in my home.

Maranda Bower:

There's some that I I like more than the other brands, and vice versa. And you know it's just I, I don't have to, I'm not a distributor and so I get to to freely choose and all of that. And uh, but I, I do love them, I love them all, um, the ones that I do have. And just be very, very wary of what you get in places like Walmart. Yes, because that's not aromatherapy.

Kara Johnson:

No, no. It's like buying a Febreze air freshener and sniffing that, putting it in your diffuser. I have such a terrible story about that.

Maranda Bower:

We actually just went to Fairbanks. My daughter had like this huge gymnastics competition there, and so we drove six hours to Fairbanks and we stayed at this little VBR, which was beautiful. But we walk in and they had multiple Febreze things all over the house and I was like, oh my gosh, I can't. We took all of them and we set them outside the door and like I had to open up and if you don't, know, Fairbanks.

Maranda Bower:

right, it's like the average temperature in the winter is like negative 20, negative 40. It happens frequently. We had the door wide open. I was like I'm sorry, I don't care we have to get this.

Maranda Bower:

We have to get this out. This is terrible. Yeah, that is not a good thing. So, anyway, random story, but thank you so much for your time and attention and helping us kind of break away some myths and also bring in some science behind aroma therapy and this incredible technique that is aroma freedom. And is there anything else that you'd like to share with us before we go today?

Kara Johnson:

There was a technique that I'm thinking of. So the Roma reset that's what I'm thinking of is a very quick reset that I want to share with you that could be used to help, you know, in your daily life, and it's it's a quick, can take, you know, just a minute or so to get through that technique, and it can be used for anything. For anything, you know, when you wake up in the morning and you're already stressed by the kids or you're, you know, maybe didn't get much sleep last night, or whatever the case is, um, the aroma reset is something that you can use to really just focus on that specific reaction, smell that specific essential oil, and help your brain reset, to get back to that kind of like calm of the day. Yeah, so there's six steps to an aroma reset, and the first one is identifying your situation. So it's just going to be something that you're frustrated with or you're, maybe it's confusing, and so you're going to identify the situation. And then, second, you're going to name the feeling that you feel when you think of that situation.

Kara Johnson:

So a lot of times we have that, um, I have a whole like feeling for real. So I'm going to make sure it's a feeling and not a judgment about yourself. So a feeling is like, um, angry, depressed, alarmed, furious, things like that. You want to find that feeling that you feel and you're going to picture, you know, when you close your eyes, think of how you feel. Once you know what that feeling is, then you have to feel it in your body. So sometimes this is hard for people because they don't understand or they don't have, they're not in tune to their bodies, and so you're going to locate the feeling in your body. So, whether it's like an itch somewhere, if it's like a slumped shoulders, if it's like a headache, if it's like your eye twitching or something like that, you're going to locate that feeling in your body. And then after that you're going to locate that feeling in your body and then after that, you're going to find and identify the negative thought that's associated with that situation.

Kara Johnson:

So let's say the negative thought is like I can't do this, like I'm not enough or I'm not smart enough to deal with this or whatever your negative thought is about that situation.

Kara Johnson:

You want to identify what that negative thought is and then, once you get to that point is where you're going to smell that oil and you can use literally just lavender if you have only lavender, but otherwise it's a blend of lavender, frankincense and stress away equal parts and you put them in your palm and you cup it over your nose and your mouth.

Kara Johnson:

So yeah, you would. You would put that blend in your hand like a drop or so, kind of rub it around and then literally inhale that thought, that feeling in your body and the name, the feeling so like I'm sad, I feel it in my chest and then the negative thought that goes with it and you breathe that into the oil until you kind of feel your body just kind of relax and that is literally an aroma reset and sometimes you know it can intensify the situation. Sometimes it's most of the time it's going to really bring your back down into that calm state. If it does happen to bring you higher, you might not have found the right feeling or the right named, the right like confused or whatever. So this is why sometimes it is helpful to have that practitioner that can help you like really hone in on what that feeling is for you. But that's like a quick reset you can use in the morning, in the afternoon, anytime a day to help you get back on track.

Maranda Bower:

Yeah, that's incredible and there's so much wisdom behind what you shared.

Maranda Bower:

Sometimes just the very fact, and even without aromatherapy, right, if that was not included just naming what is transpiring and how we're feeling and where it's, where it's at in our, in our bodies and the emotions and like what it's stirring for us takes away 80% of the power, and so having that aromatherapy with it to help like that, that reset and that, you know, almost like an unwind, rewind kind of thing, is just incredibly powerful. So I'm going to make sure that your information gets passed along. People can follow you on social media and ask any questions about this and all of that, and again, thank you so much for being here.

Kara Johnson:

Thank you for having me, having me, it's so enlightening.

Maranda Bower:

I just love it.

Kara Johnson:

Yeah, and thanks for having me. That was an amazing opportunity to be able to share with others what this is all about. For sure, All right.

Maranda Bower:

Well, thank you so much, kara. I am so grateful you turned into the Postpartum University podcast. We've hoped you enjoyed this episode enough to leave us a quick review and, more importantly, I hope more than ever that you take what you've learned here, applied it to your own life and consider joining us in the Postpartum University membership. It's a private space where mothers and providers learn the real truth and the real tools needed to heal in the years postpartum. You can learn more at wwwpostpartumucom. We'll see you next week. You.

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