Course Descriptions
Supervised Consultation Internships
Students gain invaluable hands-on training with clients under the observation of qualified Ayurvedic practitioners (either by phone/email, or in some cases in person). Each student is required to conduct 20 consults and then 20 follow up sessions with those 20 clients. Students may choose from any of our teachers who live throughout the world to work.
Mentoring
~ The teacher learns more than the student ~
One area of SEVA requested by students is peer mentoring. Each student is required to mentor at each of three levels:
- Year 2 students will mentor Year 1 students
- New graduates mentor Year 2 students
- Seasoned alumni mentor new graduates
The benefits of this program include:
- Learning becomes stronger when you teach to another
- Social bonds among students is nurture
Paper (who you mentored, dates, times (length of time), what they asked, what you learned); due before final exam.
Hours: 25
Articles & Lectures
One lecture and one article are due before the midterm and again before the final. Topics are decided during discussions with teacher; student's profession is best place to mold topic around. Students are required to
A) choose a topic that relates to their profession
B) try to build a bridge of information between Ayurveda & their profession
C) Offer ground-breaking ideas by integrating and answering questions directly from their professions needs.
Hours: 25 (5 each article and lecture)
SEVA
Seva is the Sanskrit word for service.
(extra credit - 200 credit hours)
In India, service is a part of the life of most Ayurvedic doctors.
In addition to working 5 - 6 days of the week, they will go to the remote villages or poorer neighborhoods and work their remaining 1-2 days of the week for free
Ayurveda is first and foremost a spiritual science, designed to help people grow in spiritual peace through mental peace, harmonious career, relationships, and physical health. SEVA helps culture a person and remind them that Ayurveda is not a business, nor is it only a medical practice.
To follow the honorable example of the Ayurvedic doctors in India, we ask our students to spend a little of their time doing something for their community or the Ayurvedic community. This is optional, but we hope students can spend even a few hours a year sharing their training in some service.
We advise students to create the opportunity to help their community through one of the two forms of SEVA:
1. Offer Ayurvedic help freely to some group in your community (e.g. nursing home, firemen) [Letter of validation of SEVA - required on letterhead from the organization upon completion of SEVA]
2. Make research studies more available. Add to the body of research about a particular herb (to be chosen with the teacher).
Students choose one or more people or places in their community that can benefit from any or all of the natural modalities Ayurveda offers.
For distance learning students, they may either send videotape (in US format) of 3 clients to whom they are giving spa work. Video must show shiro dhara, and nose, eye, and ear baths; marma balancing, and pulse taking. Also any herb mixing, lepas, etc. that you do are to be included on the tape.
Research Assistant Project (for the mathematically challenged) (200 credit hours)
Scientific validation of Ayurveda has been very well documented in India, with more than 3,000 research studies on various health conditions and herbs. Yet its acceptance in the western world is just beginning, and there is very little in the way of research studies available outside of India.
While statistical research can be both costly and require extensive training in scientific research methodology, one area that offers some degree of respect is in the documentation of case studies. This is the area that students will learn how to prepare a research study based on their 40 mock consultations. Some of the data gathering forms may be applicable for future statistical research as well.
Students will be introduced to research procedures by participating as an Ayurvedic research assistance. They will be given standardized research data templates to use with all their clients. They will only need to plug in their findings into the templates. Once their data is complete, the school's research department will run the statistics and students can plug the findings and details into an article template.
The research department will submit research to appropriate journals for publication, and may also be listed in our online forum and/or online Research Ayurveda Journal (RAJ).
Yes, even if you have never done research before; even if you don't know statistics, or even aren't good in math; you can easily learn to conduct research and, yes, enjoy it.
Pre designed templates and statistics are provided for students, they only need to follow the standardized template for each client they see in mock consultations and in supervised internships. Once the information is compiled, our statistics software runs the research findings.
Students then fill in the blanks in the research paper template to complete their abstract and article findings. We have developed a style of research that is free, yet using respectable methods. Students will be helping to add to the body of Ayurvedic research. Research paper is due before the final exam.
Hours: 100
Exam
In the vein of alternative education practices, we do not demand memorization. The final exam is offered at the end of the 10 months of training. The exam are open-book and test your understanding of practical consultation questions.
Certificate of Completion
Upon successful completion of the consultations, exam, and students show they are able to follow their own Ayurvedic lifestyle, they will be awarded a certificate as an Ayurveda Practitioner (CAy).
return to syllabus
Register now
