SATURDAY, MARCH 27, 2026
08:30 Registration
09:00 Florian Birkmayer (USA): Soul Healing and Psychological Wellbeing with Aromas
10:30 coffebreak
11:00 Magali Lerasle-Girard (FR): The Body as a Pathway to Healing and Well-being
12:00 Petra Biháry (SK): Touch and smell: connecting experience and evaluation
12:45 Nikol Spůrová (CZ): From Regulation to Regeneration: Two Faces of Aromatherapy
13:30 Lunch break
14:30 Helen Nagle-Smith (UK): Aromatherapy and Trauma (online)
15:15 Anna Krutová (CZ): Working with Inner Resources and AromaBodyTherapy
16:00 coffebreak
16:30 Cathy Skipper (USA): Feminine Consciousness – Depth Psychology and Aroma
18:00 Panel discussion
18:30 Closing of the Aromaconference Brno 2026
18:30–20:00 Informal gathering of speakers and participants
Florian Birkamayer, MD
Soul Healing and Psychological Wellbeing with Aromas
When we work with essential oils through scent, they act powerfully on our brain and psyche. Through our sense of scent, these ‘molecules of connectedness’, an expression of the soul of the plant, can touch us deeply and we need to be willing to be immanently, fully present to receive their transformative gifts.
This being fully present requires us to accept all of ourselves, including our ego consciousness and our unconscious and be committed to our own paths as wounded healers. Regardless of whether we are in a professional healing role or not, our own transformation towards wholeness, through becoming aware of and integrating our unknown (shadow) aspects, is at the foundation of all healing.
In this presentation, I will offer a roadmap of the psyche, especially the unconscious and which essential oils I have found most powerful as allies for this work.
Florian Birkamayer through his commitment to his own Wounded Healer’s journey, he supports clients and students in discovering their personal myth and soul’s purpose. Living aromatic allies, in the form of high-quality essential oils, play a powerful role in helping the ego—our conscious story of ourselves—partner with the soul, the Shadow, or the unconscious by bypassing the intellect and softening the Default Mode Network.
In response to the recent groundswell of interest in psychedelic therapies, he has pioneered the use of essential oils to enhance the benefits of psychedelic therapies in a variety of ways. Essential oils synergize with psychedelic therapies on multiple levels, and his hope is to remind people that aromatic allies can also be powerful on their own in helping us live in alignment with our soul’s purpose.
After a career in mainstream academic psychiatry and addiction treatment, he became frustrated with the overemphasis on pharmaceuticals to suppress symptoms and decided to use his knowledge and experience to help people recover from pharmaceutical medications.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in molecular biology at Princeton University, where he learned to question assumptions and to discover the hidden gifts of the unseen side of life—the shadow. He received his medical doctorate from Columbia University, which taught him to think critically about “business-as-usual” medicine and inspired him to become an addiction psychiatrist.
He completed his psychiatry residency at the University of New Mexico. He is board-certified in Psychiatry, ASAM-certified in Addiction Medicine, and a Certified Life Coach (CLCI).
Cathy Skipper
Feminine Consciousness: Depth Psychology and Aroma
Historically, it has been mainly men who have been studied in neuroscientific and psychiatric papers. The reason being that the variability due to women’s hormonal cycles would make things more complicated. This has given us a very one-sided scientific view of the human psyche.
I have worked with many hundreds of women over the last ten years going through menopause, a deeply feminine initiation. I have therefore with the help of thesis and books by women who have gone before me mapping out their own experience of the feminine psyche and applying a depth psychological model to the feminine life path learnt to recognize what Jungian analyst Maureen Murdock calls, ‘The Heroine’s Journey”.
As this journey involves a descent into the unconscious realm or underworld of the self, I have found that the use of essential oils through olfaction is a very supportive and effective tool. In this talk I will share some of the oils that I use on a regular basis to help women work with their shadow, their spirituality, the inner masculine and their motherline stories.
Her workshops and consultations in New Mexico, internationally and online help clients learn how to use the senses, depth psychology, journeying and other approaches to peel away layers, heal deep-seated and ancestral trauma, and explore the fullness of their experience.
She holds a B.Ed. (Hons.) in Speech and Drama from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, a Herbalist degree from the École Lyonnaise de Plantes Médicinales, and completed a four-year training in advanced kinesiology (Cellule de Vie) in France. She is a CTA Certified Coach.
She is the author of The Alchemy of Menopause Workbook.
Helen Nagle-Smith
Aromatherapy and trauma
In this session, clinical aromatherapist, educator and author Helen Nagle-Smith will address what we mean by the term ‘trauma’ and demonstrate its widespread and complex nature.
She will explain some of the ways in which it can affect our body, brain, behaviours, emotions and soul, and will consider how aromatherapists can use this knowledge to start to work in a more trauma informed way with clients. This session will enhance your understanding of trauma, whilst encouraging you to think practically and reflectively about your work with clients.
After a previous career delivering, shaping and managing information and counselling services in the voluntary sector, Helen Nagle-Smith trained with the Institute for Traditional Herbal Medicine and Aromatherapy (ITHMA) in 2025/6. She has run her own aromatherapy and massage practice for two decades and is experienced in working in different settings.
As an aromatherapy educator, she has taught with aromatherapy schools and lectured at international conferences, summits and for professional membership groups around the globe. She has written CPD courses, numerous articles for several international aromatherapy journals and website material for companies.
Helen is editor for In Essence, the membership journal for the International Federation of Professional Aromatherapists, of which she is a member. Helen is an ICAN fellow and currently co-moderates an ICAN specialist interest group on mental health alongside Magali Lerasle-Girard. In 2020, Helen wrote her first aromatherapy book Working with unusual oils: an aromatic journey with lesser known essential oils. Volume 1. This was followed by Working with unusual essential oils, published by Singing Dragon in 2024. Her latest book, Aroma, aromatherapy and trauma was published by Singing Dragon in 2025. She has a special interest in trauma, mental health, lesser known essential oils, peer support and olfaction.
Magali Lerasle - Girard
The Body as a Pathway to Healing and Well-being
This presentation explores the body as a central and essential pathway to well-being, healing, and personal transformation. Far from being a passive container, the body is presented as an active resource for regulation, release, and repair, supporting a global process of human development and evolution.
Working with the body allows access to dimensions of experience that may remain unreachable through verbal approaches alone. In contexts of psychological distress or trauma, where words may be absent, insufficient, or inaccessible, bodily-based practices offer a safe and meaningful entry point for restoration and integration. Through sensation, movement, touch, and sensory awareness, the body becomes a mediator of reconnection, resilience, and self-regulation.
Beyond trauma-informed care, this presentation also highlights the relevance of body-based approaches in everyday life. Cultivating a conscious relationship with the body can significantly enhance quality of life, emotional balance, and overall well-being. By fostering greater awareness of bodily signals and needs, individuals are supported in developing more sustainable and compassionate ways of relating to themselves and others.
This one-hour presentation aims to bridge body and mind perspectives, offering a conceptual and experiential framework that positions the body as a powerful ally in therapeutic processes, personal growth, and daily well-being.
Magali Lerasle – Girard is a Human Relations Facilitator and Educator with over 20 years of experience in the field of psychosomatic and integrative care.
She was first certified as a Touch Therapy Practitioner (Relation d’Aide par le Toucher – Jean-Louis Abrassart), later serving as a program assistant for four years, providing pedagogical support and facilitating the learning process between students and faculty.
Her academic and clinical background includes training as a Natural Health Practitioner (Toulouse), Clinical Aromatherapy with Rhiannon Lewis, Nursing Touch® with Wendy Belcour and certification in Integrative Psychology. She also holds a University degree in Psychology from Paris 8 University.
Her therapeutic practice combines Emotional Aromatherapy, Nursing Touch, and body-based therapeutic modalities, with a specific focus on trauma care and somatic integration.
Magali is trained in Olfacto-reliance (Anne-Laure Jaffrelo, levels 1 and 2), participated in the Aromatic Sentinel program (Jonathan Benavides), and is an active member of the ICAN international aromatherapy network.
Magali is currently teaching Nursing Touch® and Essential oils in a Clinical Settings.
Petra Biháry
Touch and smell: connecting experience and evaluation
Touch and scent appeal to us even before words appear. Working with the body, scent, and touch opens up access to levels of experience that often remain inaccessible to purely verbal approaches. This lecture focuses on the use of aromatherapy and conscious touch as practical tools for supporting self-regulation, inner stability, and everyday well-being.
Based on case studies from aromatherapy practice, it shows how sensory experience—conscious inhalation, working with scent, breath, and gentle touch—can support nervous system regulation, emotional balance, and the ability to cope with stress. The body is understood here as an active part of the therapeutic process, not as a passive carrier of symptoms.
The lecture also includes a presentation of the author’s Aroma-CARE Integrative Model™, which combines physical experience, aromatherapy interventions, and conscious reflection. Special attention is paid to the question of how wellbeing can not only be perceived, but also sensitively monitored and evaluated. Changes in clients’ experiences are illustrated using empirical indicators (WHO-5, PSS-10, and selected MAIA subscales) with a focus on interoceptive self-regulation.
The lecture offers a practical and empirically grounded view of aromatherapy as part of working with the body and sensory awareness. It creates space for connecting experience and its naming—between the body as a source and a gentle, respectful reflection of the process of change.
Petra Biháry is a professional aromatherapist, social worker, and physiotherapist. She has completed several long-term psychotherapeutic training programs focused on movement therapy, body-oriented psychotherapy, and support in stressful and crisis situations. She is a certified craniosacral therapist and has long been dedicated to somatically oriented, fascial, and manual approaches.
In her professional work, she develops aromatherapy within a biopsychosocial and integrative framework, using it as a non-verbal and somatic tool to support psychological well-being, regulate the nervous system, and enhance both personal and social functioning. She also understands aromatherapy as a means of supporting body awareness, helping to regulate inner experience, and strengthening individual autonomy in both personal and professional life. Her experience is drawn from work in social and healthcare institutions as well as from private practice.
Nikol Spůrová
From Regulation to Regeneration: Two Faces of Aromatherapy
This presentation introduces aromatherapy as a tool whose application varies depending on the therapeutic context and the goals of the work. Drawing on examples from psychiatric and addiction treatment with clients with dual diagnoses, it presents an approach to aromatherapy focused on emotional regulation, strengthening self-efficacy, and expanding clients’ capacity for autonomous decision-making and action, with an emphasis on transfer into everyday life.
In contrast, the presentation also introduces an approach from private practice, where aromatherapy is used primarily for regeneration, restoration of inner resources, and the prevention of burnout among therapists and other caring professionals. This approach emphasizes conscious choice, safety, and clear therapeutic intention.
Nikol Spůrová is an addiction specialist, therapist, and aromatherapist with more than fifteen years of experience in healthcare and the non-profit sector. She works in an outpatient psychiatric clinic and at a private residential treatment center with individuals at risk of addiction and clients with dual diagnoses.
She holds a degree in Addictology from the First Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in Prague and has completed psychotherapeutic training in dynamic and depth psychotherapy (SUR). She continues her professional development through further training in various therapeutic approaches.
She views aromatherapy as a sensitive yet effective tool for supporting emotional regulation, self-efficacy, and the development of self-care, which she integrates with behavioral and body-oriented approaches. Alongside her clinical work, she runs a private therapeutic practice and is the founder of the Aroma Anima project, focused on individualized care that honors the interconnectedness of body, mind, and soul.
Anna Krutová
Working with Resources and Aroma Body Therapy
This lecture focuses on the importance of resource-oriented work in aromatherapy and body therapy as a fundamental prerequisite for safe and effective therapeutic practice. A key theme will be the creation and expansion of inner space in both the client and the therapist, and the role of relaxation as a gateway to deeper therapeutic processes.
I will present the principles of resource-oriented therapy and ways of anchoring resources through scent, including the integration of resource work with imagination and embodied experience. Emphasis will also be placed on the ability to “be with the client” — the necessity of continuous self-work, conscious regulation of one’s own capacity, and care for the therapist’s inner stability as a core instrument of the healing process.
The lecture will also include aromatic inspiration: an overview of selected essential oils suitable for different therapeutic themes and situations, which can enrich both the personal and professional practice of participants.
Anna Krutová graduated from the Institute of Aromatherapy in Prague and later founded the Aromatherapy & Herbs School in Brno, through which she organizes the largest herbal festival in the Czech Republic, an international conference, as well as courses, lectures, and a year-long training program. Her work with aromatherapy massage led her to a deeper interest in body-based therapies and to long-term training in biodynamic body psychotherapy with Mona Lisa Boyesen.
In her practice, she integrates aromatherapy, body therapy, and other therapeutic approaches learned from internationally recognized clinical aromatherapists. In both individual and group settings, she guides clients on a journey toward greater authenticity, inner balance, and life satisfaction. She believes that tension in the body is closely connected to tension in the soul, and that lasting change arises through working with both simultaneously. She summarizes the entire approach in her proprietary Aromarelease concept.
SUNDAY, MARCH 29, 2026
The registration fee includes participation in one workshop. After payment, you will receive a link within a few days through which you can register.
10:00–14:30 Workshops with international speakers
(Participation based on prior registration into workshop groups)
Magali Lerasle-Girard: Working with the Body as a Path to Wellbeing
Cathy Skipper: Menopause as a Holistic Transformational Journey
Florian Birkmayer: The “Wounded Healer” as a Source of Inner Wisdom and Healing Power
WORKSHOPS
Experiential Workshop: Working with the Body as a Pathway to Well-Being Magali Lerasle-Girard
This workshop invites participants to explore different approaches to working with the body and is structured in three progressive phases.
The first phase focuses on reconnecting with oneself and with inner bodily sensations through breathwork, meditation, and the use of olfaction.
The second phase supports the development of self-awareness and personal well-being through guided self-massage practices.
The third phase introduces participants to accompanying others through the Nursing Touch method, developed by Wendy Belcour. This technique offers a gentle and compassionate reconnection with the body and is based on principles of soothing, grounding, and returning to oneself in an atmosphere of respect and compassion.
This experiential workshop supports participants in rediscovering or deepening their awareness of bodily sensations and in experiencing the body as a meaningful pathway to overall well-being and inner balance.
Workshop / supervision with Cathy Skipper
Cathy’s workshop focuses on menopause as a holistic transformational journey that helps women rediscover their authentic feminine power and view this life transition as a process of growth and conscious aging, rather than merely a physical symptom or a “problem to be solved.”
Cathy works with the psychological, emotional, and spiritual aspects of this transition so that women can move through menopause with greater clarity, inner integrity, and a sense of personal empowerment.
Her approach draws on depth work and circle-based sharing, creating a framework that supports women in embracing menopause as an opportunity to release old patterns and enter a new phase of life.
The conference workshop will differ from the full-day Thursday program and will additionally offer space for supervisory questions and insights from your therapeutic practice.
Workshop / Supervision with Florian Birkmayer
Florian’s workshop will explore a depth-oriented approach to the concept of the “wounded healer,” emphasizing how personal experience, trauma, and the shadow aspects of our psyche can become sources of deeper wisdom and authentic healing power.
Florian integrates his background in psychiatry, trauma work, shadow work, and aromatherapy to help participants understand how to face trauma, move through its transformation, and safely integrate these experiences into their therapeutic or personal practice.
Working with Florian includes both a theoretical understanding of the mechanisms of trauma and the healing potential of essential oils, as well as practical experience in self-inquiry, supervision, and reflection on one’s own path as a healer and therapist.
AROMAKONFERENCE BRNO
The Aromaconference is organised for you by Škola Aromaterapie&Bylinky, z.s.
Contact: info@aromaterapieabylinky.cz
MgA. Anna Krutová – Chair of the Association
Škola Aromaterapie & Bylinky © Copyright 2025. All rights reserved.