Overview
MUIH’s Ayurvedic Wellness Practices Post-Baccalaureate Certificate (PBC) program provides a solid foundation in modern Ayurvedic practices, incorporating a progressive scientific perspective while maintaining its roots in traditional practices. MUIH’s program is the only accredited program that can be completed fully online. This program is well suited to individuals interested in helping themselves and others support their health and wellness.
Ayurveda (“science of life”) is one of the oldest systems of self-care in the world, with seminal texts dating to the height of the Vedic civilization (circa 2000 BC). It focuses on an individual’s relationship with their own body, mind, and spirit, and with the natural world. Its aim is to integrate and balance these aspects to help prevent illness and promote promotes physical health and well-being along with the pursuit of a purposeful, meaningful life, in individualized ways. This proactive and relationship-centered approach is designed to re-establish harmony and balance by cleansing the body of substances that can cause sickness, and integrate and balance the body, mind and spirit. Ayurveda blends well with modern medicine and other integrative health fields, both philosophically and practically, owing to its inclusivity of multiple perspectives. This program offers graduate-level education that prepares graduates to enhance their professional health and wellness and health care practices with Ayurvedic wellness approaches and to apply this healing framework when considering disease prevention and management. This online 12 credit program can be completed in eight months (two trimesters).
Audience
The Ayurvedic Wellness Practices PBC provides educational and career opportunities for professionals in a variety of integrative and conventional health and wellness, health care and medical fields. It provides graduates with the skills, knowledge, and framework needed to specialize in the wellness therapies used in traditional Ayurveda. It also provides health and wellness, health care and medical professionals with the in-depth working knowledge needed to incorporate Ayurvedic approaches in their primary practice, and combine it with and complement other modalities such as yoga therapy, nutrition, herbal medicine, naturopathic and conventional medicine, acupuncture, massage therapy, nursing, chiropractic, midwifery, health and wellness coaching, health education, and personal training, athletic training, and fitness.
Program Description
The program is designed to provide students with practical exposure to the array of ancient and contemporary modalities and approaches that has garnered Ayurveda the title of “mother of healing.” It enables graduates to create general approaches to promote, build, and maintain functional levels of health and vitality in daily life, present basic Ayurvedic lifestyle and wellness education to the public, and apply the principles of Ayurveda to enhance their current professional practice with a unique set of assessment and health promotion skills.
Students will gain a solid foundation in modern Ayurvedic practices which incorporates a progressive scientific perspective while maintaining its roots in traditional practices. The curriculum includes key components of the science of Ayurveda: the incorporation of diet and herbs, the influences of season and climate on physiology, and lifestyle and self-care choices to build a healthy and meaningful life. The program covers a well-developed set of self-care principles and practices to live a healthy and meaningful life, and the use of these principles and practices to develop routines to maintain health and achieve life goals. The program provides a comprehensive, in-depth, and working knowledge of the major aspects of traditional Ayurvedic health and wellness therapies including foundational Ayurvedic principles; constitutional and metabolic typology; Ayurvedic food science; yoga, breathing, and meditation skills; experiential healing and energy points; and seasonal rejuvenation and health restorative measures.
The program’s design aligns with the general educational principles outlined by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Benchmarks for Ayurveda, Association of Ayurvedic Professionals of North America (AAPNA), and the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). Graduates of this program are qualified for certification by the Association of Ayurvedic Professionals of North America (AAPNA) as an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant.
Learning Outcomes
The program provides students:
- Practical exposure to the full array of Ayurvedic modalities
- Present approaches that have garnered Ayurveda the title of “mother of healing”
Graduates will be able to:
- Create Ayurvedic approaches to promote, build, and maintain functional levels of health and vitality in daily life.
- Present basic Ayurvedic lifestyle and wellness education to the public.
- Apply the principles of Ayurveda to enhance their current professional practice with a unique set of assessment and health promotion skills.
Curriculum
Required Courses
The program consists of 12 credits of the following required courses:
- AYUR630 Foundations of Ayurveda (3 cr)
- AYUR631 Ayurveda and the Mind (3 cr)
- AYUR633 Ayurvedic Nutrition and Herbs (3 cr)
- AYUR635 Ayurvedic Lifestyle Skills and Self-Care (3 cr)
- MUIH550 Academic Scholarship and Research (0 cr)
Course Descriptions
Course descriptions are available in the Academic Catalog.
Career Opportunities
Increasing and significant use of holistic health and Ayurvedic wellness practices has led to a need for well-educated professionals in the field. The 2002, 2007, and 2012 National Health Interview Survey indicated a substantial and consistent use of Ayurveda by U.S. adults. The U.S. Department of Labor projects growth in the Ayurveda field. The O-NET OnLine Education Crosswalk aligns the Ayurveda medicine/Ayurveda education program (CIP 51.3305) with the occupation Health Diagnosing and Treating Practitioners (SOC 29-1199.00). This cluster is a Bright Outlook occupation with a much faster than average growth rate (11% or higher) for the period 2018-2028. Ayurvedic medicine is a core task for naturopathic physicians which also have a much faster than average job growth rate (11% or higher) for the period 2018-2028. Increasing professionalization of the field is demonstrated by a growth in professional membership in the National Ayurvedic Medical Association (NAMA) and the establishment of the NAMA Certification Board in 2017. View more about career opportunities.
A number of career opportunities are available to graduates of the Ayurvedic Wellness Practices PBC program, as they will be well positioned to serve as practitioners, guides, coaches, and educators in settings such as:
- Healthcare professional practice enhancement through a new and unique set of assessment and health promotion skills.
- Wellness, spa, yoga, fitness, and athletic professions.
- Ayurvedic herbal, food and beauty product lines.
- General education classes and workshops in fundamental Ayurvedic concepts in community and workplace wellness programs.
- Individual and group health, wellness, and menu coaching, consulting, and planning.
Program Format & Schedule
Program Format
This program is offered in the online format. Click here to view MUIH’s definition of online, hybrid, and on-campus course and program formats.
Program Schedule
For trimester start and end dates, see the Academic Calendar.
Spring 2020 Intake Program Dates
The schedule for students starting the program in the spring 2020 trimester is:
Spring 2020
- AYUR630 Foundations of Ayurveda (3 cr)
- AYUR631 Ayurveda and the Mind (3 cr)
- MUIH550 Academic Scholarship and Research (0 cr)
Summer 2020
- AYUR633 Ayurvedic Nutrition and Herbs (3 cr)
- AYUR635 Ayurvedic Lifestyle Skills and Self-Care (3 cr)
Program Administration
Diane Finlayson, M.L.A.
Department Chair
Suzanne Zolnick, M.A.S.
Department Manager
Matt Mazick
Academic Advisor