Maps of Trauma
The next evolution of Aroma Freedom trauma work
Help more people experience the full transformational power of Aroma Freedom. A newly redesigned and expanded eight-week live Level 3 course for understanding how to help people more thoroughly process memories, get past stuck points in the process, clear inner protective mechanisms, integrate meaning and context from the trauma, and support forward movement in life.
Now enrolling · Sept 8 – Oct 27, 2026
- Main course · Tuesdays 1–2:30pm ET · live weekly teaching · $995 (Included free for CEPP Members and those already registered for 4-Level Certification)
- Clinical Practicum (optional) · Tuesdays 7–8pm ET · $795 ($595 for CEPP Members)
Live online · Maps of Trauma serves as Level 3 Advanced Trauma Training within the Aroma Freedom Certification Pathway. It may also be taken as a standalone educational course.
with Benjamin Perkus, PhD
Clinical psychologist, 25+ years · Creator of Aroma Freedom
If you practice Aroma Freedom - or use essential oils to support emotional well-being - you may have encountered this
You already know how powerful Aroma Freedom can be
The Aroma Freedom Technique is a neuroscience-informed approach to emotional transformation. It can produce profound shifts by helping people resolve charged memories and predictive structures that interfere with pursuing their goals. But sometimes the process stalls or remains incomplete. This course is designed to address these issues.
Problem #1
The person cannot access the deeper transformational moment
The session stalls, loops, becomes overwhelming, or activates a strong protective response. You know memory processing could help — but the person cannot safely reach or move through it.
Problem #2
The memory processes, but unwanted problems or patterns remain
The emotional charge decreases, yet the person still carries an old belief, expects the same danger, repeats the same pattern, or cannot move forward in life.
Maps of Trauma gives you a more complete map — for what may be needed before memory processing, how to support resolution, what may remain afterward, and how healing can become embodied in life.
Books by Dr. Perkus
Breakthrough methods to identify and resolve negative thoughts, feelings and memories with scent and guided awareness.
Your trusted foundation
This course extends the method we already use
Aroma Freedom is a complete system — working with past, present, and future concerns with awareness, scent, and step-by-step processing. It is already transforming lives around the world. Maps of Trauma helps you guide the entire journey with more confidence.
Aroma Freedom is the complete process we already use — a neuroscience-informed approach to emotional transformation.
TMRT is the core memory-resolution process nested within every Aroma Freedom session.
Maps of Trauma is the expanded map that helps you guide the entire journey with confidence.
"You already know how powerful Aroma Freedom can be. This course will help you understand what a person may need when the familiar process cannot begin, when processing stalls, or when relief has occurred but something important still remains."
What you'll learn
By the end of the course, you'll walk away with greater ability to…
- Recognize when a person is ready for memory processing
- Understand why an Aroma Freedom session may stall
- Work more effectively with overwhelm, collapse, dissociation, protection, and parts
- Deepen your understanding of advanced Aroma Freedom and TMRT
- Recognize what has resolved and what may still remain
- Distinguish emotional charge from persistent beliefs, expectations, or action difficulties
- Understand why insight does not always lead to change
- Choose a more appropriate next step
- Help clients move from relief toward integration and, when desired, renewed participation in life
The complete curriculum
Newly redesigned 8-week Level Three Certification Curriculum
Understand the deep conceptual architecture underlying Aroma Freedom as well as the methods that will make you more effective as a practitioner.
Trauma and the Metabolism of Experience
What does it mean to fully process an experience? Learn how traumatic experiences can remain active when the mind and body have not been able to complete, organize, and integrate what happened.
Safety, Protection, and Readiness
Learn how to recognize whether a person is ready for memory processing and how to work with overwhelm, shutdown, dissociation, hesitation, and protective parts.
Advanced Aroma Freedom and TMRT
Explore the memory complex, the emotional timeline, and the interaction of image, thought, feeling, body, scent, and awareness — and how TMRT functions as the core memory-resolution process within an Aroma Freedom session.
What Remains After the Charge Is Gone?
Learn why old beliefs, expectations, and life patterns may continue after emotional relief — and how to recognize when additional integration is needed.
Introducing the Diamond
Receive a simple, practical map for how regulation, meaning, action, relationship, and personal agency interact. No need to master a complicated new theory before using it.
Trauma and the Knowing–Doing Gap
Explore why someone can sincerely know what they want to do but still be unable to do it. Learn to distinguish trauma-based inhibition from executive-function and ADHD-related difficulties.
Trauma in Relationship
Examine how attachment, authority, anticipated judgment, obligation, conflict, and fear of relational consequences influence what a person feels safe or permitted to do.
From Trauma to Becoming
Bring the model together. Explore how healing may move from resolution to integration and, when desired, toward action, relationship, creativity, and a life that feels available again.
What's included
Everything you need to guide the full journey
Course includes:
- Eight weekly live online teaching sessions
- Replays of every teaching session
- Course handouts and visual maps
- Opportunities to submit your questions
- A TMRT Foundations Review Library to refresh the core process
- Access to the newest evolution of the Aroma Freedom trauma model
The Clinical Practicum
For participants who want to observe and discuss the work in greater depth, the optional Clinical Practicum offers live demonstrations of trauma processing and applied case mapping.
Genuine trauma work does not always unfold according to a predetermined plan. The practicum allows you to observe Dr. Perkus responding to the actual territory rather than merely following a script.
"The course provides the map. The practicum reveals the territory."
Price: $795 or $595 for CEPP or All Access Students
The practicum may include
- Live trauma-processing demonstrations, including optional live work with students
- Advanced Aroma Freedom and TMRT applications
- Practice in developing safety, stabilization, and pacing
- Exploration of what remains after memory resolution
- Applied case mapping
- Participant questions and field observations
- Discussion of why a particular intervention was selected
Who the course is for
Designed for people who already use AFT, or those using essential oils for emotional wellness
This course counts as a Level 3 advanced course for existing Aroma Freedom practitioners. However, it is also open to therapists, coaches, helping professionals, or essential oil users who want to work more confidently with trauma.
Thoughtful non-practitioners are welcome to participate for personal education — but the teaching speaks primarily to people who already know what Aroma Freedom can do.
Aroma Freedom practitioners
Want to guide the full journey with confidence.
Therapists & coaches
Wish to deepen trauma-informed discernment.
Helping professionals
Seek a more complete map for complex work.
Thoughtful learners
Welcome for personal education and growth.
Your instructor
Benjamin Perkus, PhD
Clinical psychologist · Creator of the Aroma Freedom Technique
Benjamin Perkus, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with 25+ years of practice and 20+ years working with essential oils. He is the creator of Aroma Freedom and is now pioneering practical methods for developing Executive Function — the capacities that help people consistently bring their vision into the world.
The Aroma Freedom Technique is a neuroscience-informed approach to emotional transformation. It uses six techniques to calm the nervous system, release emotional barriers, and help clients experience new possibilities in the moment.
What started as a simple process to rewire memories is now a complete system to move from inspiration to results — and 1,000+ practitioners have already been trained in the method. Maps of Trauma is the next evolution.
25+
years as a psychologist
20+
years with essential oils
1,000+
practitioners trained
Tuition & registration
Join the next cohort of Maps of Trauma
Reserve your place in the eight-week live Level 3 Advanced Trauma course and start helping more people experience the full transformational power of Aroma Freedom.
Now enrolling for the Sept 8 – Oct 27, 2026 cohort. Two ways to participate - either the Main Course or the Main Course + Clinical Practicum
The Main Course
Tuesdays, 1–2:30pm ET · live weekly teaching
All eight sessions with replays, handouts & visual maps, submit-your-questions time, and the TMRT Foundations review library.
Clinical Practicum Optional
Tuesdays, 7–8pm ET · limited enrollment
Live demonstrations, applied case mapping, and deeper discussion of why each intervention was chosen.
Full Aroma Freedom CertificationLevels 1–4
On-demand · includes registration in this Level 3 course
The complete four-level Aroma Freedom certification program, available on-demand — with Maps of Trauma (this Level 3 course) already included in your registration.
Already have an Aroma Freedom registration?
Some participants — including graduates of the four-level certification program and current CEPP members — may be eligible for parts of this course free with their existing registration. Fill out the form and we'll confirm exactly what your registration options are before you pay anything.
Let's confirm your registration options
Whether you're joining fresh or already hold an Aroma Freedom registration, share a few details and we'll confirm exactly what's available to you.
Resolve what was left unfinished.
Integrate what it means.
Reclaim what becomes possible.
Are you ready to help more people experience the full transformational power of Aroma Freedom?
Join the next cohort of Maps of Trauma — an eight-week live advanced course with Dr. Benjamin Perkus, PhD.