Intuitive Aromatherapy
A Conversation with Dr. Matea Polisito by Sydney L. Murray
What is your favorite scent of childhood? Often it is foods baking or soup simmering on a stove. Or it could be the perfume your mother wore, which you sense in a crowd that may bring a smile to your face. I know I sleep better when I use my lavender spray on my bedding. But really there is so much more going on with our olfactory sense. Wikipedia defines aromatherapy as “a form of alternative medicine that uses volatile plant materials, known as essential oils, and other aromatic compounds for the purpose of altering a person’s mood, cognitive function or health.”
I wanted to know more about this practice so I went to an expert, Dr. Matea Polisito. I believe “Dr. Matea” has a special gift.
Vision Magazine: What is your practice of intuitive aromatherapy?
Dr. Matea Polisito: Most aromatherapy practitioners prescribe based on book knowledge. I call it left-brain prescribing. It’s intellectual and its results are usually marginal. It’s much more powerful when you use both intuition and intellect. Each essential oil has a particular vibration, and effectively prescribing for a client is about matching the right resonance of the oil to that person. For example, there may be twenty different oils that I would consider using for someone with a headache but finding the one that really clicks with that person is an art. You might reach for lavender as the practical choice, but what if that person doesn’t like the smell? You can learn to read their energy first and match the most effective oil to that person.
VM: How do you cultivate this “intuitive knowing?”
MP: It requires spending time with the oils and plants, getting to know them. In my classes we meditate with the oils and feel the effect they have on the body. Each plant has an innate intelligence. If you acknowledge this and create the intention to listen and learn from the plant, a whole other experience opens up. You may find uses and combinations that are magical and much more effective.
VM: Could you give us an example?
MP: I had a person who is very empathetic and is affected by other people’s energy. She would get uncomfortable in crowds, because she would be around sick people and would begin to feel sick herself. As a result she was isolating herself and gaining weight, which is very common with intuitives. Considering this, I decided that marjoram was the plant that would be helpful. I created a blend called the “empath bath” which includes this oil.
I never would have thought that cooking an herb would be good for this kind of situation or that you would ever want to bathe in it, but it was very effective. You can feel a tremendous lifting of heavy energy after using this oil to clear the aura, especially for grief and emotional pain.
Many people are in pain and it’s not even their own pain they carry but the emotional pain of their relatives or loved ones. It’s a real problem for people and a difficult pattern to change, yet I enjoy creating solutions. I found the typical aromatherapy education very boring and rote, including cookbook formulas which weren’t alive to me. I started practicing “Aroma-Readings”, seeing if I could match the oil with the perfect resonance to a person and that’s when aromatherapy came alive for me and was much more fun and effective.
People come to me and they say they are very interested in the oils; they sense how powerful they are but don’t know where to start. With hundreds of oils to choose from, it can be overwhelming. I work with them to narrow down which oils to start with based on their own personal resonance and which oils would aid their healing. You have to use them on yourself before you can effectively use them on others.
A lot has been written about the physical action of essential oils but not as much about the emotional and spiritual aspects. This is something you have to discover through experience.
VM: What would be an example?
MP: Well if you look up “grief,” you’re given one plant to help with this emotion. Yet there may be many oils that help with grief, but we have to discover which one that each person resonates with. If you really commune with plants you realize they have a soul, a personality. They have much more depth than people realize. One of my teachers said in a lecture, very angrily, “To say that St. John’s wort is good for depression is an insult to that plant!” He knew this plant to have many other uses and he inspired me to look deeper, to get to know the plants better on other levels.
Each plant has what is called an “overlighting Deva”. Deva means “shining one,” like an angel. I meditate with them and they inspire me with many more uses and creative formulas. When I make a blend, I go to my kit, which I consider my “council of elders.” These plants have been around a lot longer than I and I want to acknowledge their wisdom.
With aromatherapy, I feel we have just tapped the surface; there is much more to discover. That’s why I love teaching aromatherapy so much. In a class, as we are meditating on the plants, it is so powerful. And we always discover new uses for them.
VM: Are your classes designed for the novice or the professional?
MP: They address both levels of use, yet cultivating intuition requires practice. No matter how long you have used essential oils, spending time with them and smelling them and practicing with them is always useful. I teach a format on how to develop the intuitive side of practicing aromatherapy which gives people a different way to approach the usage of the oils and plants.
VM: What type of spiritual use do you recommend using the oils for?
MP: Many people come to me who are not sick but just want a scent for inspiration or for their spiritual practice. I like to make anointing oils that you can apply before meditation and for spiritual bathing. My favorite is to make anointing oils for newborns. I have a blend called “Heaven’s Arrival” to assist with the birth event and then custom blends for each child to be anointed. Each child is such a celebration; it’s a beautiful way to welcome them to the planet with their own unique blend of sacred oils. My friend, whose child I created this for, told me she still has the bottle seven years later and it still smells wonderful. I bottle them in a special violet glass that has crushed amethyst in it to preserve the smell.
VM: What else do you want to share about the oils?
MP: Essential oils are so powerful because they work on all levels of our being—mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. Most healing tools work primary on the physical, which is an effect, not a cause. Illness starts in the spiritual, mental, and emotional levels before manifesting in the physical, so it’s more effective to treat all levels simultaneously. The oils are powerful because they access the olfactory nerve which connects directly to the brain and our limbic system. Smell is instinctual. Many people live a very intellectual existence, disconnected from their body and the earth. The oils help connect people back to their intuitive knowing which is where real healing and where inspiration comes from.
I know I want Dr. Matea to make me a special blend. I love the idea of the purple bottle with crushed amethyst. How elegant, beautiful, and soothing at the same time. I can’t wait.
Dr. Matea Polisoto is a Naturopathic Doctor with a private practice in La Jolla, California. She teaches classes on “intuitive aromatherapy” and has an essential oils company called “Exquisite Aromatherapy.” You can find her at www.drmatea.com, or call 858.779.9120.