Foundations of Integrative Ayurveda

General Information

Foundations of Integrative Ayurveda

Health education is widening. Those who approach Ayurveda discover an integral way of understanding health beyond the absence of disease. Ayurveda offers a body of knowledge for recognising relationships among the body, mind, habits, ecological environment, natural rhythms and inner experience.

Integrative Ayurveda is also known as Maharishi Ayurveda. From this perspective, health is understood personally: each person expresses a mind-body constitution, a history of habits, a particular way of digesting, resting, responding to the environment and recovering balance. The study of Ayurveda therefore does not begin with general recommendations, but with the reading of individual patterns and the principles that help make them intelligible.

The Foundations of Integrative Ayurveda diploma program offers systematic formation in Ayurveda for those who wish to understand health from an integral perspective within an academic structure, whether for personal development, formative enrichment or as an elective subject within health-sciences education.

In this diploma program, Ayurveda is studied as a knowledge tradition oriented toward prevention, with its own systems and principles for observing imbalance, understanding causes and introducing the foundations of clinically oriented intervention for the restoration of integral balance.

The program develops the essential foundations of the discipline: from mind-body constitution and the dynamics of digestion to the impact of daily rhythms, food, rest and habits on self-regulation, the mind and the development of consciousness.

Within this frame, meditation is situated in the contemporary context of integrative medicine and evidence-informed practice. The program also provides a responsible foundation for communicating these subjects in patient education, always under the guidance of qualified health professionals.

Nadi Vigyan: Principles and Methodology

This program devotes full lessons to the principles of Nadi Vigyan. The purpose is educational: to recognise patterns of balance, understand how Ayurvedic observation unfolds and know the place pulse diagnosis occupies within the clinical approaches of Integrative Ayurveda.

Who Is This Program For?

This diploma is introductory formation, not clinical authorisation. It is for those who wish to approach Ayurveda as a knowledge tradition within an academic frame that privileges understanding of its systems: how it reads the body, identifies imbalance and orients self-repair before clinical application.

Five vocations will find it especially useful.

The First-Time Student

For those approaching Ayurveda for the first time, drawn by its integrated reading of body-mind, habits, natural rhythms and consciousness. The diploma provides the conceptual structure this tradition requires before any application: the learning of qualities, systems and patterns that articulate the whole of Ayurvedic principles.

Health Coaches

Health coaches and non-clinical support professionals find here a framework for understanding habits, digestion, daily routine, stress regulation, self-care and wellbeing in the language of Integrative Ayurveda. The program strengthens their ability to guide educational processes and responsible conversations about lifestyle, without entering clinical functions or replacing the judgement of health professionals.

Integrative-Medicine Professionals and Institutions

For people working in quality of life at work, patient education, clinics, hospitals, medical practices, institutional communication, stakeholder education or public education in integrative medicine. The program provides the vocabulary and interpretive frame needed to collaborate in health, wellbeing and education settings, always within the limits of a formative role.

Health-Sciences Students

The diploma may be taken as an elective by students in the health sciences. It places Ayurveda in relation to evidence-informed medicine and contemporary integrative medicine, and examines meditation within that dialogue: not as an accessory, but as an instrument of clinical perceptibility.

Future UMLAC Postgraduate Students

Those considering academic continuity at UMLAC will find here their first formative threshold: a foundation on which the Medical Specialist in Integrative Ayurveda for physicians and the Master’s in Integrative Ayurveda for health professionals are later built.

Private and Public Organisations

Organisations that recognise mental health and quality of life at work as conditions of sustainability will find here a frame for understanding wellbeing as a system in which rhythms, habits, inner regulation and the development of consciousness converge.

Student Competencies: Knowledge, Skills and Professional Attitude

By the end of the diploma program, the student will be able to:

These competencies form a solid educational basis for understanding Integrative Ayurveda, communicating its foundations responsibly and preparing for later clinical formation within the corresponding professional programs.

• Understand the fundamental principles of Integrative Ayurveda and their relationship with prevention, self-regulation, mind-body balance and integral wellbeing.
• Recognise how Vata, Pitta and Kapha help explain mind-body constitution, individual tendencies and patterns of balance and imbalance.
• Identify the importance of diet, digestion, digestive fire (Agni), Ama formation, natural rhythms and daily routine in everyday health.
• Understand the place of meditation within an integrative approach to health and its relationship with evidence-informed medicine.
• Observe bodily signs and patterns of balance from an educational and self-care perspective.
• Know introductory tools of Integrative Ayurveda, including pulse-reading practice for self-knowledge and the identification of patterns of balance and imbalance in the body.
• Understand basic practices of neuromuscular, neuro-respiratory, tactile-sensory and psycho-physiological integration as educational resources for self-care, regulation and wellbeing.
• Communicate the conceptual foundations of Integrative Ayurveda.
• Support physicians and health professionals in patient-education processes within integrative medicine, especially on habits, prevention, self-regulation, digestion, daily routine, meditation and basic understanding of Ayurveda.

Technical Competency Units

Diploma Structure

The diploma is expected to last 12 weeks and is delivered online, with pre-recorded lessons and live feedback sessions with faculty.

• Online learning: 24 pre-recorded lessons available in the Virtual Classroom.
• Live sessions: 12 weekly 3-hour meetings for feedback, integration and academic guidance.
• Assessments: evaluation activities after each lesson in the Virtual Classroom.
• Final presentation: an integrative assignment with open questions and practical cases, prepared and presented in groups of 3 to 5 people, emphasising conceptual understanding, educational communication and responsible application of the foundations studied.
• Academic load: 130 academic hours, including lessons, live sessions, assessments and final presentation.

Teaching Strategy

The teaching strategy combines autonomous study of pre-recorded lessons with live sessions for integration, feedback and academic guidance. Students advance at their own pace while having guided spaces to clarify concepts, connect topics and consolidate a responsible understanding of the framework studied.

Faculty support is not limited to transmitting content. Its function is to help students identify Ayurvedic principles: relationships among mind-body constitution, digestion, habits, natural rhythms, self-regulation, meditation and integral balance.

The teaching strategy maintains the introductory and formative character of the diploma at all times. It offers a deep immersion in the foundations of Integrative Ayurveda and prepares students to understand the language, criteria and conceptual structure that support later clinical formation.

Transcendental Meditation

At UMLAC, Transcendental Meditation is central to the academic experience because education does not only transmit information; it also develops the student as knower. Daily practice is integrated as an evidence-informed technology of consciousness oriented toward the systematic development of mind, inner clarity and human potential.

The technique is formally learned in the student’s country of residence through personalised, in-person instruction. Within this frame, the diploma provides an academic understanding of Transcendental Meditation in university formation: its relation to the development of consciousness, the scientific foundations supporting its inclusion in the UMLAC community and its relevance as a complementary practice recognised by the American Heart Association with a Class IIb recommendation for blood-pressure management.

Curriculum

The curriculum offers a progressive introduction to the foundations of Integrative Ayurveda, Ayurvedic physiology, food, digestion, Nadi Vigyan, observation of patterns of balance and educational self-care techniques.

Topics of the 24 Lessons

1. Multimodal approach to Ayurveda; contribution of Maharishi Ayurveda; the Unified Field as the basis of physiology and the discovery of Veda in human physiology.
2. Definition of Ayurveda, five elements, Pancha Mahabhutas, Vata, Pitta and Kapha, and the definition of a healthy person.
3. Qualities of the doshas, their functions and their organic location in physiology.
4. Cycles of nature, daily routine, Dinacharya, diet, six tastes, Rasas, relation to doshas and pacifying diets.
5. Agni, states of Agni, factors that disturb it and Ama as the product of incomplete digestion.
6. Modes of physiology, Dhatus, the 13 Agnis and Ojas as an expression of vitality and internal reserve.
7. Habit change, prevention and gradual construction of healthy routines to sustain everyday balance.
8. Subdoshas in physiology: location, functions, physiological role and aetiology of imbalance.
9. Causes of disease, threefold diagnosis and Rogi Pariksha as a traditional frame of Ayurvedic observation.
10. Ghee, Lassi, Mung Dahl, Kanjee and thermos lunch as practical resources for regular and conscious eating.
11. Preparatory techniques for psycho-physiological integration, including Transcendental Meditation.
12. The central psycho-physiological technique in Maharishi Ayurveda: Transcendental Meditation and automatic self-transcending.
13. Pulse diagnosis, Nadi Vigyan, for self-knowledge. Part 1.
14. Dravya Guna Karma Shastra: Ayurvedic pharmacology, plants, spices and natural substances.
15. Aromatherapy in Maharishi Ayurveda and the use of aromas to support balance.
16. Vata digestive-disorder protocol: self-regulation and lifestyle for balancing Vata tendencies.
17. Pitta digestive protocol: self-regulation and lifestyle for balancing Pitta tendencies.
18. Kapha digestive-disorder protocol: self-regulation and lifestyle for balancing Kapha tendencies.
19. Pulse diagnosis, Nadi Vigyan, for self-knowledge. Part 2.
20. Dhatus, Upadhatus, Shrotas and Malas: tissues, channels of flow, elimination systems and the structure of physical manifestation.
21. Marma Therapy: vital-point massage in Ayurveda and touch as a resource for integration.
22. Pulse diagnosis, Nadi Vigyan, for self-knowledge. Part 3.
23. Dermatology and Maharishi Ayurveda: skin and superficial tissue care from an Ayurvedic perspective.
24. Integrative view of the 23 diploma classes: final synthesis of the principles of Integrative Ayurveda and their application to personal and social transformation.

Certification

After approval of the diploma, UMLAC grants the corresponding certificate according to the academic criteria defined by the university.

Admission Requirements

Requests for information and academic guidance are handled through UMLAC. Admission, where applicable, is subject to the criteria and procedures defined by the university for the relevant academic call.

Educational Investment

Evaluation and Approval Requirements

To pass the diploma, the student must complete the required lessons, complete the corresponding assessments in the Virtual Classroom, participate in the indicated academic activities and present the final integrative assignment.

Learning is evaluated through activities after each lesson, with results available in the Virtual Classroom, and through a final presentation based on open questions and practical cases covering the 24 lessons. This presentation is prepared and delivered in groups of 3 to 5 people.

Learning Media and Resources

• Videos of pre-recorded lessons.
• Live feedback sessions with faculty.
• Presentation slides.
• Complementary materials available in the Virtual Classroom.

Directors, Faculty and Administrative Staff

• Prof. Carl Camelia, Academic Director, Curacao.
• Dr. German Martina, Program Director, Argentina.
• Dr. Ana Sacristan, Coordinating Faculty, Mexico.
• Veronica Morales, Assistant Faculty.
• Fernando Zubieta, Administrator, Bolivia.
• Indra Zubieta, Assistant Administrator, Bolivia.

Request Information

To receive information about the next cohort, admission requirements, tuition and enrolment process, request academic guidance from the UMLAC team.

Request information | admisiones@umlac.university

Thematic Summary

The diploma introduces Integrative Ayurveda as an educational system for understanding constitution, digestion, rhythm, self-regulation, meditation and responsible wellbeing communication.

Educational Scope

This diploma does not confer clinical authorisation. It provides a structured academic foundation for personal education, responsible patient education support and later professional study within the appropriate legal and clinical scopes.