Throwback Thursday Video: Testimonial Of The Efficacy Of Smell Training With An Essential Awakenings® Smell & Memory Kit

There is the popular saying "go with your gut instinct," and that's exactly what I did after I heard that a former Coty colleague survived several aneurysms in 2017 and lost her sense of smell.  The tragic illness that she suffered was just a few months after I had completed the first manufacturing of my innovative multi-sensory kit Essential Awakenings® Smell & Memory which was originally developed to be used in Assisted Living Communities for Memory Care for people with dementia. 

To explain what Essential Awakenings® is would take many paragraphs, so in short, it is a multi-sensory kit that contains 6 distinctive scents:  Chocolate, Jasmine, Cinnamon, Mint, Pineapple and Grass--scents that resonate with people of various generations and cultures--to be used as prompts during a group activity for people living with dementia.  You might be asking yourself out loud - but how does that help? Coming from a lengthy career in the fragrance business, I know that scent triggers memories, and memories ignite emotion and expression, so it was my hope that the scents I had tested during 2016 at many Assisted Living Communities for Memory Care would trigger fond memories and stimulate fun conversation amongst the residents. What resulted in the Essential Awakenings® guessing game of "what's that scent?" I discovered that the scent prompts not only helped trigger memories and start conversations, but it also stimulated their sense of smell and taste (especially with chocolate!). 

So when I heard about Rosanel's anosmia from her aneurysms, I reached out and offered her Essential Awakenings® and told her to do what's called "blind smelling"--a practice of not knowing the identity of the scents by reading the labels, but trying to describe and guess what it is. I suggested that her son help her out with the process and to do the exercise twice a day, every day.  The process of the smell training was emotional at first because it was incredibly frustrating not being able to detect the scent.  But as time went by with continuous practice, Rosanel was able to regain her sense of smell after several months.  As one doctor told another client, "think about Smell Training just as physical therapy is for a broken bone. You have to stick with it." 

This is a secure link to Ruth Sutcliffe's The Scent Guru Group You Tube Channel video of Rosie R. an aneurysm survivor from New York City explaining how emotional it was loosing her sense of smell and how she was able to bond with her son during the Smell Training process and as she started to recover from her lost sense of smell (anosmia):

https://fb.watch/vIR5RqH0FB/