Welcome to the LAST post in the Raindrop Technique Education Series! The first blog on the Raindrop Technique was back in December–before I officially started the Education Series. If you haven’t read it yet, it goes through the Raindrop Technique in a Q&A format, letting you in on how I experience Raindrop as the provider and how my clients experience it from beginning to end. The Education Series started officially at the end of February, with a primer on essential oils before diving deep into each individual essential oil and essential oil blend used. With this post, there are THIRTEEN posts for you to read to really learn about the Raindrop Technique.

Balancing the Body’s Energy

While this didn’t make it into the video on the techniques, I always love to start the Raindrop session with Guardian Angel (aka White Angelica) essential oil blend. One of the overarching goals of the Raindrop Technique is to promote total harmony and realignment of your energy and physical bodies to your highest self. I apply Guardian Angel to my neck and shoulders before inviting you to inhale deeply the scent of the blend to help us start out on the right foot. This is also how we end, except I apply Guardian Angel to your neck and shoulders before inviting you to take three deep breaths inhaling the symphony of scents of the Raindrop Technique.

After prepping us for a beautiful session with the Guardian Angel blend, I move to your feet. Grasping your heels firmly, I slightly lift and wiggle your legs back and forth, gently tugging to apply a mild traction to your body. This technique gently lengthens your body and starts the physical process of realignment.

Now, I finally apply an essential oil to your body by applying Courage (aka Valor) to the soles of your feet. Like Guardian Angel, Courage is meant to facilitate your higher alignment and harmony. Then, the energetic work really begins as I grasp your feet, palm to sole and simply hold that contact for about five minutes, allowing Courage to sink in and for your body to slip into deep relaxation.

Vita Flex Technique on the Feet

Vita Flex is a technique similar to reflexology that was first discovered in Tibet over 5,000 years ago, making it older than acupuncture. It uses more than 1,500 points in the body, compared to about 360 acupressure points, to stimulate the internal body systems. Vita Flex is the technique I use to apply the essential oils on your feet–a technique I’ll often refer to as a reflexology technique, though that is not technically accurate.

The premise of Vita Flex is that when the fingertips connect with specific reflex points while applying essential oils, an electrical impulse is generated that sends energy through the neuroelectrical pathways of the body to the corresponding internal organs. This is different from reflexology because the pressure used in reflexology is typically harder, causing a compression and rotation pressure that will ground out the electrical charge. Because of this key difference (Vita Flex is a light touch technique), Vita Flex is seen as superior to impacting the body’s systems to reflexology by its practitioners.

Vita Flex uses a roll and release motion with medium pressure to work the essential oils into the soles of the feet along the area that specifically aligns with the spinal column and key glands in the body, including the thyroid, thymus, pituitary, pineal, and hypothalamus glands. Honestly, the rest of the session is just icing on the rich, dense cake of Vita Flex on the feet. That part alone is enough to positively impact your entire body and bring it back into alignment.

For each foot, I will stand at the outside of the foot and place my palm furthest from the sole of the foot just above your ankle. Then, I drop a couple of drops of essential oil into the palm of the hand before using the fingertips of the other hand to circle clockwise in my palm three times, picking up the oils onto the pads of my fingers. I run my fingertips from the inside of your ankle bone to sole of your foot, towards the back or middle of your arch, before rolling my fingers from the pads to the back of the fingernails up along the inside edge of your foot, until just my index finger remains on your big toe. From there, I will roll and release my index finger on the pad of your big toe three times before repeating this process twice more. Then, I move on to the next essential oil in the lineup. This technique is gentle but typically not so light of touch that sensitive people feel tickled.

Techniques Used on the Back & Spine

Most of the different techniques used in the Raindrop Technique come into play when you turn over and I start applying oils on your back. Of course, the first thing–and where the technique gets its name–is dropping 4-6 drops of each oil along your spine from a few inches above your back. This is to mimic the feeling of–you guessed it–raindrops. Once the drops have fallen, each oil is worked into the skin gently with effleurage–a light, feathering touch. Some oils are also worked in further with additional techniques.

Effleurage: Feathering & Fanning

The primary technique used to apply the oils on the back is a five-step feathering and fanning process (see video at 1:00 minute). I use the backs of my fingertips to gently disperse the oils along the length of the spine and back muscles. Oregano and Thyme essential oils are the first two applied to the back and are only applied using effleurage.

I will adjust the pressure used in this technique occasionally if someone finds they are very ticklish with this technique. In those cases, I’ll keep a more constant contact with the skin and a slightly firmer pressure. Most find that they start to relax into it, becoming less ticklish as the session progresses. I have found that those who are ticklish are typically the most tense and have the hardest time relaxing. Often, the ticklishness is a sign of an overstimulated nervous system that is in desperate need of resetting. If this describes you, I encourage you to stick with the Raindrop Technique in spite of the tickling sensation and to take advantage of other methods to help you reset your nervous system in your daily life.

Spinal Tissue Pull

After feathering and fanning Basil essential oil onto the back, I use the spinal tissue pull technique with a medium pressure to gently pull the muscle tissue away from the spine. With curved fingers, I place my fingertips along the edge of the spine and the heel of my palms against the muscles on the side. I then rotate my fingertips clockwise three times before moving up the width of my hand and repeating this motion–all the way to the neck. I do this on each side of the spine a total of three times. This massage technique enhances muscle relaxation and encourages absorption of the essential oils.

Finger Straddle

Cypress is applied after Basil, using the Finger Straddle technique. The first and second fingers straddle the spinal column while the bottom edge of the opposite hand applies a moderate downward pressure across the two fingers. I then slowly pull the fingers up from the sacrum to the atlas while using a sawing motion to create a rocking motion along the spine that ripples to the whole body. At the atlas (where the neck meets the head), I use the two fingers to gently pull toward the head three times, before repeating the entire technique two more times. The finger straddle technique comes from massage rather than reflexology or Vita Flex traditions. It enhances muscle relaxation and spinal alignment.

Vita Flex Thumb Roll

Coming back to the Vita Flex roll and release technique, Wintergreen essential oil is further worked into the back along the spine using the thumb roll technique. Unlike on the feet where I use four fingers to do the roll and release, I use my thumbs, placed on either side of the spine, to roll and release from pad to back of the fingernail all the way up the length of the spine. This technique, like the others, is completed three times before moving on to the next essential oil in the Raindrop Technique. Like on the feet, this technique promotes an electric signal to travel along the length of the spine, activating the nervous system connection points that disperse to the rest of the body. Both the stimulation itself as well as the essential oils applied to the spine enhance the effect of this technique.

Circular Palm Massage

After Wintergreen, Marjoram essential oil is applied with effleurage and then the circular palm massage technique is used to really allow the disbursement of the oil along the muscles of the back. I place my palms side-by-side on the muscles along the back with fingertips brushing the spine then rotate my palms together in a clockwise direction three times before working my way up the back, a palm’s breadth at a time. I do this a total of three times on each side of the back. Marjoram is especially good at relaxing muscle tension so this massage technique is a wonderful adjunct to helping get the Marjoram essential oil into the muscles where it can be most effective.

Palm Slide

Continuing to massage the essential oils into the muscles along the back, the next essential oil after Marjoram is a blend named Soothe (aka Aroma Siez) which is massaged into the muscles using the palm slide technique. Again, starting at the base of the spine, I place one hand on one side of the spine and the other on the opposite side of the spine just above the first. Then, applying mild to moderate pressure, I slide the palms back and forth in opposite directions working my way up the spine to the base of the neck before working my way back down to the hips. I’ll repeat this two more times, for a total of three times up and down the spine.

The remaining two essential oils, Peppermint and Courage, are simply applied with the feathering and fanning technique before I finish on the back with a gentle massage, often focusing briefly on the knots I find. This is just to allow the essential oils a little more time to soak into the skin and muscles along the back and spine before you turn back over for the grand finale of the Raindrop Technique.

Occipital Pull/Lymphatic Pump

Once you are face-up again on the massage table, I have a seat at your head and run my fingertips along your neck up to the base of your skull to the occipital ridge. I then pull your head towards me in a pulsing motion so that your entire body gently rocks. I continue this rocking motion for one minute at a time, resting one minute between each session, for a total of three sessions. I love this technique for releasing tension in your neck. It is also an effective method to help drain the cervical lymph nodes as it acts as a lymphatic pump. Our lymphatic system passively moves fluid through it using our body’s motion, so when we live mostly sedentary lives, using lymphatic pump techniques to move our lymph is invaluable to our overall wellbeing and immune system functioning.

The Number Three (3)

You may have noticed that each technique is repeated three times. While I have not found information stating specifically why this number was chosen for the Raindrop Technique, I can certainly offer an informed speculation as to the importance of this particular repetition.

The number three holds significance in pretty much every spiritual or religious tradition. In Christianity it symbolizes the holy trinity and the harmony of body, mind, and spirit. The number three is there to let you know that you hold all the answers to your questions inside you–I am just there to support you in reaching those answers. Three holds creative energy, joy, and the divine.

Whatever the number three means to you, let the relaxing repetition of threes in the Raindrop Technique allow you to find the answers you seek and the relaxation you need and deserve.

Final Thoughts

I hope you have learned as much as I have through this Raindrop Technique Education Series. I have always loved the benefits of the Raindrop Technique: Even as a practitioner, I benefit from each session I provide.

What I have learned empirically is that which I had sensed intuitively beforehand. The Raindrop Technique, using its unique combination of essential oils, techniques, and energy balancing work, has the potential to impact every facet of your life for the better if you are willing to allow it and receive its gifts. From stimulating every major organ system using the Vita Flex techniques to the medicine of the essential oils, the Raindrop Technique perfectly aligns with my mission to help myself and others to reset our nervous systems and connect more fully with our bodies and souls.

The Raindrop Technique helps our bodies remember how to live in a state of harmony with our energy bodies/souls, in deep relaxation and a state of being from which we can then live and “do” those things we need or wish to accomplish.

Gratitude to Ruth Tru, my model for the Raindrop Technique pictures and video. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Sources

Essential Oils Pocket Reference (6th ed.). Life Science Products and Publishing, 2014.
Angel Number 3: Unlocking the Secrets of This Divine Number. Brett Larkin, n.d. Tiny Rituals.

Techniques Used in the Raindrop Technique

Balancing the Body’s Energy

Vita Flex Technique on the Feet