Aromatherapy is a treatment where someone rubs pleasant-smelling plant oils into your skin, usually with a slow massage. The hope is that the smell and the rubbing together will ease pain and help you feel calm and well. You meet it in spas, and sometimes in hospitals or care homes, as a comfort, not as a strong doctor's medicine. Though actually, shops and everyday talk often stretch the word: people also call it aromatherapy when they only put those oils in the air with a little machine, with no massage at all. The tidy meaning is the massage; the loose meaning is anything done with those oils.