How do we become aware of the survival strategies and coping skills that we have become so attached to? How can we let go of the unconscious survival strategies that have their roots in ancestral trauma and prevent us from living our fullest, most creative lives? Let...

by Florian Birkmayer, MD   A friend recently sent me this very sad and touching article from the NY Times about people who have lost their sense of smell due to Covid-19. Smell doesn’t just tell us whether food may be spoiled or conversely makes us enjoy its...

Statue of Yamantaka, Vanquisher of Death (wikipedia)   by Florian Birkmayer, MD Many of us were disturbed but not surprised by the events of January 6, 2021, a day of domestic terrorism, exposing for all to see the dangers of a fascist-in-all-but-uniform...

I want to share an experience that I am currently integrating and that has helped me to carry on healing the mother wound that I carry and see the importance of preparation and protection when sitting or holding space for people with stories that resonate with one’s...

Have you ever driven a familiar route in your car, one you drive regularly to work for example, and when you got to the destination, you couldn’t remember driving it at all? Well that’s because you were operating under the influence of a network in your brain called...

by Florian Birkmayer MD   Jung resurrected the term ‘Enantiodromia‘ from Heraclitus to refer to the hidden patterns by which the psyche evolves. Enantiodromia literally means things turning into their opposite. While Heraclitus felt that this applied to the...

What Does Grounding Even Mean? Although we all seem to have an intuitive sense, the longer I (Florian) have thought about it, the more different definitions or aspects become apparent to me. One common meaning of grounding is being connected to the ground, to the...

“When the going gets weird, the weird go pro.” Hunter S. Thompson I (Florian) don’t know about you, but to us it’s recently felt like the earth changes have been turned up a few notches. It feels that familiar power structures, social structures, political structures...

One of the major causes of trauma that we are witnessing in our work here at AromaGnosis is what is known as Cognitive Dissonance and we recently realized our work could be described as being midwives of the soul. Cognitive Dissonance is when beliefs and what is said...