By Kate Rising — Last Updated: February 11, 2025

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the energy of our time is a little intense right now. Naturally, we’re emotional, we’re numb, we’re out of sorts… to say the least. Intense times require us to ground ourselves into what is true, real, and stable.

I’m a somatic-emotional health practitioner, and my job is to accompany people through their most challenging emotions. Processing emotions isn’t always easy, but it’s crucial to our mental and physical health. We need tools for processing now more than ever. And it’s worth it – because our truth, reality, and stability are waiting for us on the other side!

Emotions are important messengers and guides that help us see from our hearts what we can’t see with our minds. When we allow ourselves to experience emotions, we’re able to process and resolve them. And what we find underneath this process is our trustworthy, core-self essence.

I call this our luminessence. This is the intuitive essence of us that is always loving and always wise. It’s the part of us that we can rely on when times get tough.

One of the modalities I utilize in my practice for emotional resolution is the Aroma Freedom Technique (AFT), which was created by psychologist and author Dr. Benjamin Perkus. He found that bringing essential oils into his therapy sessions with clients enhanced the efficacy of EMDR and other trauma resolution processes.

I’d like to share a few things I love about AFT:

How quickly we’re able to access and identify emotional blocks.

We begin AFT with a simple intention or goal around something that feels challenging in our lives. As we enter the process, I guide participants into the felt experience of their emotions around this intention. We may sense a tension in our shoulders, an upset stomach, a lump in the throat. The body is an excellent guide, when we listen to it. It shows us what the mind cannot.

How the emotional charge from a difficult memory can be dissolved.

Through AFT, the body brings up certain memories associated with our emotional blocks. At this point, we bring in the aroma of specific essential oils. These plant oils contain compounds that work exceptionally well with the limbic brain – where these memory complexes reside. As we breathe with the oils, the nervous system essentially resets, and the emotional charge neutralizes. This is the clearing we experience. In a recent session, after inhaling the AFT oils, a client said she felt relief in her heart-space. She could breathe more easily again, and a sense of peace washed over her.

How this technique reliably brings us back to luminessence – our deeper wisdom and stable truth.

When a situation or memory keeps us stuck in a state of emotional dysregulation or dissociation, we’re not able to connect with our core truth. But when we allow ourselves to feel emotional blocks and clear them, we’re able to remember what is deeply true for us. It’s beautiful to see these realizations rise to the top after a round of AFT. The intention that seems impossible at the beginning of a session becomes possible by the end.

I’ll never forget the client whose intention was simply to get herself out the front door to go for a walk each day. She was having bouts of anxiety every time she tried to leave the house, even getting to the door and then being afraid to go out. During the session, a memory surfaced from her childhood. It was a memory of her mother yelling at her, which made her feel that same anxiety. We cleared the emotional charge with AFT, and by the end, she felt confident about going out for walks!

The interesting part is that after her session, she realized that her mother had actually been standing in a doorway when she was yelling at her – blocking her from walking through it! We were both amazed about the connection her body had made through her sensed anxiety, without her consciously realizing it. This client’s core truth helped her see that she didn’t have to be afraid anymore, and she was able to easily get out the door for daily walks after her session.

I’m bringing AFT to Green Lotus for group emotional clearings on February 20th (Lakeville) and March 20th (Mendota Heights). If you’re struggling with something, want to get un-stuck, or just want to find your sense of hope – I invite you to join us! Even in difficult times, it’s possible to connect with the wisdom of your body, the guidance of your emotions, and the reliable truth of your luminessence.

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Kate Rising holds certifications in SOEA Feminine Embodiment Coaching, Somatic Attachment Therapy, Aroma Freedom Technique, and Abuse Survivor Advocacy. She helps self-healers resolve emotional trauma, build secure attachment, and harmonize inner polarities so they can break free from old paradigms and create a life fueled by intuitive self-trust, compassionate relationships, and pleasure-powered purpose.

Emotional Well-Being