Feeling stressed? Aches and pains getting the better of you? What better way to relax than with a soothing aromatherapy massage. Breathe in the scent from those essential oils and let the power of massage ease your ailments.

Or not. According to psychologist Dr Neil Martin, aromatherapy is just a New Age marketing ploy and little more than a pleasant smell. Dr Martin, who specialises in the power of scent, goes so far as to claim that aromatherapy can cause a more intense experience of pain.

Aromatherapy is big business, with £20 million a year spent on oils, and a booming trade in spas. But Dr Martin has carried out experiments that he claims expose aromatherapy as a marketing exercise with no scientific basis.

In his study, volunteers were asked to plunge their arms into freezing water then see if a pleasant lemon smell could ease their discomfort or if the unpleasant smell of machine oil made it worse.

Both oils performed equally badly and the volunteers not exposed to any odours were best off.

"We wanted to test whether using aromatherapy - the use of odour - meant you would feel less pain and we found it was relatively ineffective.

Indeed both odours made people focus more on the pain, which means they could be counterproductive."

Dr Martin says "mood music" and massage used by aromatherapists applying oils create a short-term feel-good factor. "They make you smell nice and temporarily lift moods but the experiments don't support claims that aromatherapy can alleviate ill health and illness."

Anne Hobson has worked as an aromatherapist for 15 years, treating patients for a range of problems including depression, stress and anxiety, aches, pains and muscular stiffness. She uses the technique to help sufferers of motor neurone disease, claiming it has a "cheering-up effect."

A former NHS physiotherapist, Anne found aromatherapy a good adjunct to physio. She says that applied with massage, the oils can be very effective; on the aromatic side the particles absorb through the nose into the limbic system of the brain which controls emotion, creating a calming and soothing effect.

But she doesn't claim it's the right answer for everyone. "Not a great deal of research has been done on the results of aromatherapy, so they are not very subjective, " she says. "The essential oils are very complex and have been used medicinally since time began. Some aromatherapists help cancer patients and it is also used in hospices.

"My experience is that it doesn't do much for some people, but for others it helps tremendously."

Anne, whose practice is based in Heaton, has clients coming time and time again. "Aromatherapy is beneficial on so many grounds, " she says.

Carol Preen, secretary of the Aromatherapy Consortium, says Dr Martin's research didn't involve aromatherapy because "they simply used a certain smell to gain an effect."

"Aromatherapy is much more than that, I don't see how they can say this proves it doesn't work, " she says. "It's not a cure but there is a wealth of scientific research to show it can be beneficial. It can lift mood, alleviate pain and helps many people."

FACTFILE Aromatherapy is the practice of using essential oils - the pure "essence" of a plant - for physical and psychological well-being.

Inhaling the aroma of natural essential oils is said to stimulate the brain to trigger a reaction.

Oils applied to the skin are absorbed into the bloodstream. Aromatherapists claim various oils aid certain conditions. Since essential oils are concentrated, they are applied to the skin in diluted form with "carrier oils". Common carriers include sweet almond, apricot kernel and grapeseed oil.

Essential oils can be blended together to provide a specific therapeutic action and some essential oils act as a natural repellent and pesticide.

Not all products labelled "aromatherapy" are natural. Some oils can be harmful to people with particular conditions, check the ingredients or ask the seller about the oils used.