Embodied Āyurveda and Yoga

Laws differ, not only from country to country, but often between states, provinces, or other localities. We are unable to provide information about the laws where you reside. Laws and regulations change or are updated frequently, and we are unable to keep current on that information. Each of us needs to educate ourselves about the laws that apply in our own location, and determine if and how our chosen subject or field can be practiced legally and safely there.

Just because an organization, school or online program or course may issue a diploma, certificate of completion, or a degree in a particular subject, it may not come with legal recognition. 

If you are a citizen of the United States, for example, there are currently no recognized governmental legal requirements for being an Ayurvedic practitioner or provider. However the practice, or indeed even the advertising to practice of any type of healthcare is regulated in every state no matter whether it is conventional healthcare or one of the many complementary and alternative disciplines, like Ayurveda. The regulations vary widely from state to state and penalties for illegal practice can be grave. There are only a few states where the individual practice of Ayurveda is allowed under certain conditions. Please take the time to educate yourself as to the regulations for healthcare practice in the state you intend to practice in.

While not legally recognized, one of the current standard-setting organizations in the US is the National Āyurvedic Medical Association (NAMA). They have designated and set educational requirements for three levels of Āyurvedic professionals, in order of increasing educational requirements and scope of practice: Āyurvedic Health Counselor (AHC), Āyurvedic Practitioner (AP), and Āyurvedic Doctor (AD). 

If you are a US citizen  interested in an educational path that meets NAMA’s professional requirements, it is important to first know what each level signifies. In particular, you should be aware of the difference in scope of practice for each level. It is neither practical nor effective for us to stay up to date with changing policies and requirements for NAMA.  For more information about NAMA defined professional levels, educational requirements, or requirements, please consult NAMA.

Ayurvedic Certification: What do you want & need?

Each of our online courses provides you with a Certificate of Completion, indicating the date you took the course and passed the final examination. If you are considering the study of Ayurveda, you may be thinking about what you want to do with this Ayurvedic education or certificate. For example: incorporate it into your life for personal reasons, incorporate it into a yoga practice, counsel people on lifestyle and diet issues or work towards full clinical training. Each one of these goals would be best served by varying courses of action. 

Applying our courses towards certification in one of NAMA’s Levels of Ayurveda Professionals:

No matter where you live or what your goals, our Embodied Ayurveda and Yoga online course provides a solid foundation. While it is natural to incorporate what we learn into our lives, and to want to share it with others, it is important to have sufficient knowledge, education and training– through at least the National Āyurvedic Medical Association (NAMA) “Āyurvedic Health Counselor” (AHC) level, before providing Ayurvedic health counseling to others. While our Embodied Ayurveda & Yoga course is an intensive, in-depth course on the fundamental principles of Ayurveda and Yoga, if you are interested in working clinically or offering consultations or teaching yoga, it is important to study Ayurveda and Yoga in greater depth.

If you would like to use this course, or our other classes as part of your education towards one of  NAMA’s three levels of certification, here’s how that could work:

• If you are looking for AHC level certification, you can take our online courses and then go on to complete your requirements through an institution we’ve partnered with that not only will accept our credits as transfer credits, but that provides further education within a program that is NAMA-recognized for providing education up to at least the AHC level. If you would like a list of our partner institutions, kindly contact us. Some of those institutions are NAMA recognized. If you find a school or institution to which you would like to transfer our credits but that school is not on our list of partner institutions, you could provide them a list of objectives covered in our classes (you can find these on the landing pages for those courses on this website, and inquire from them if they would transfer our credits in. If we don’t have any partner schools for the AP or AD levels, or don’t have any you are interested in, you could check NAMA’s website for lists of schools that do offer that level of education and approach those schools to see if they would be willing to transfer in our courses. (Please check with the school you are interested in transferring into to make sure they are NAMA-recognized if that is important to you, and that they will accept the credits of the course you wish to take with us.)

NAMA PACE continuing education: If you are already a NAMACB board certified professional, you may be interested in taking courses that count towards your PACE (Professional Ayurvedic Continuing Education) requirements to maintain your board certification. To see if one of our courses may qualify for PACE credits, kindly check with NAMA regarding how to determine that. Some of our courses may be more than 28 hours long but NAMA may only provide 28 PACE credits for them. This is because, at the time of this writing, for any given course in a 2-year cycle, 28 credits is the maximum amount awarded by NAMA.

It might be worth noting that many students and practitioners of Ayurveda that have previously covered the objectives taught in our Embodied Ayurveda & Yoga course have found it very useful to review or be introduced to the perspective on these objectives that this course offers. 

We are aware it can be daunting to figure out what you need to study, how you might be able to do it in a way that works for you within your local regulations, and that inspires you. You can join programs or institutions that already have all the programs, credits and classes required for NAMACB or some other board certification (we are not one of those programs) or you can choose some courses and credits from one source (like ours) and some from another (like from our partner institutions). Whichever way you choose, you are a pioneer charting a course for your life and education. Maybe it entails picking up your life and moving somewhere, or maybe you do part of it from your living room. It can be courageous and fun (and, yes, possibly sometimes tedious) to figure out what combination of online or in-person programs, which country (countries) you may want to study in and what direction appeals to you. Once you have a solid theoretical background, we highly recommend in-person clinical training under the supervision of experienced physicians of Ayurveda. Vaidyagrama, one of our partner institutions, can provide that. Just contact them if you would like to know more about that.

We wish you all success.