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Promoting relaxation through essential oil-enhanced digital hypnotherapy: A randomized controlled trial

Steven Ngandeu Schepanski^1,2, Martin Bogdanski^1,2, Katja Karolina Siegfried^1,2

¹https://ror.org/001w7jn25Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Charité Competence Center for Traditional and Integrative Medicine (CCCTIM), Berlin, Germany.

Psychological Medicine

|March 30, 2026

Summary

Digital hypnotherapy significantly improved relaxation and calmness. Adding aromatherapy provided a modest additional benefit, but did not enhance conditioned relaxation effects.

Area of Science:

Digital health interventions
Psychology
Complementary and alternative medicine

Background:

Digital relaxation tools are popular but rarely combine multiple sensory modalities.
Few studies have investigated the synergistic effects of combining hypnotherapy with aromatherapy.
The potential for scent-induced conditioned relaxation remains largely unexplored in digital interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

To evaluate the effectiveness of a digital relaxation program integrating hypnotherapy and aromatherapy.
To determine if aromatherapy can induce a conditioned relaxation response when paired with hypnotherapy.
To assess the impact on subjective calmness, perceived stress, and well-being.

Main Methods:

A four-arm randomized controlled trial with 504 participants.
Intervention groups: combined (hypnotherapy + aromatherapy), hypnotherapy-only, aromatherapy-only, and control.
A 4-week self-guided online intervention, followed by a 1-week conditioning test for specific groups.

Main Results:

Both hypnotherapy groups (combined and hypnotherapy-only) reported significantly greater calmness compared to the control group.
The combined group showed a mean difference of β = 2.08 (p=0.010) and hypnotherapy-only showed β = 1.80 (p=0.024).
No significant conditioned effects of aromatherapy were observed in the fifth week.

Conclusions:

Digital hypnotherapy is effective for improving subjective calmness and relaxation.
Aromatherapy offers modest additional benefits when combined with digital hypnotherapy.
Current evidence does not support scent-induced conditioned relaxation effects within this digital intervention framework.

Keywords:

aromatherapy digital hypnotherapy eHealth essential oils multisensory intervention online mental health intervention randomized controlled trial relaxation subjective calmness

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