Written by John Immel, Asheville, NC

Realize your Ayurvedic Dreams

Ayurveda is becoming increasingly popular across the globe and the demand for qualified practitioners is only growing.

Since 2008, the Joyful Belly School of Ayurveda has provided premium online Ayurvedic education. In a profession where many schools promote Ayurveda as miracle healing, we have a unique focus on the clinical excellence of our graduates.

As a Joyful Belly student, you will be a student of the most rigorous school of Ayurveda, with a faculty of experienced, passionate teachers. Your theoretical learning will be supported by practical exercises and extended clinical practice. Joyful Belly graduates use our clinical career development platform & learning modules to create thriving clinics, Ayurvedic products, and to become teachers of Ayurveda themselves.

We are the most advanced school of diet and digestive health. We teach a patient centered approach that uniquely enables our graduates to reach communities of all cultural backgrounds, from small towns, to diverse urban subcultures, and to medical professionals.

Our courses are made for those with busy lives and can be successfully completed no matter your timezone or hectic schedule. Our innovative use of modern technology and multimedia enhances learning outcomes, and provides a greater depth of content and a richer overall experience.

Learn the Skills to be Clinically Excellent

The main goal of Joyful Belly School of Ayurveda is delivering exemplary clinical Ayurvedic education to the future generation of practitioners. We aim to create superior clinicians who can educate their clients in an intuitive, practical and easy-to-understand way, taking complex ideas and making them simple. As Albert Einstein famously said, "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself".

Engaging Content & Active Learning Methods

Our teachers are dedicated staff members that we actively train in teaching skills (pedagogy). As a student, you will learn through theoretical presentations, personal food/herb/awareness experiments, and extended clinical practice. This supports you in having a firm knowledge of the Ayurvedic approach that you can confidently explain and discuss with clients, other health professionals or your six year old!

Patient Centered Education to Support Yourself, Your Family & Your Community

Your study will be the most comprehensive, practical and client-focused of its kind. Our courses are rigorous - commitment is required! In return for your dedication, you will receive in-depth Ayurvedic education and extended career development support. This combination means that, as a Joyful Belly graduate, you have the tools you need to create a thriving Ayurvedic clinic wherever you are in the world.

The Joyful Belly School of Ayurveda is proud to have successful graduates from all backgrounds and walks of life. Our students understand the value of our courses and the commitment required to become an excellent Ayurvedic professional. To support them, we have created a custom learning experience that works with almost all schedules while never sacrificing detail or depth.

Access Technology That Improves Clinical Outcomes

Our clinical tools are more advanced that those of any other school - taking advantage of the latest technology to help you identify imbalance patterns, food, and herb recommendations.

Your Multimedia Learning Toolkit

Enjoy a rich multi-media approach to your education - with video presentations, live tutorials, supplementary worksheets, active learning techniques, and your own class chat group. You can also take advantage of unique tools, such as a ready-build template for creating your own online clinic, where you can take bookings and payments from your clients, download client body charts, & track clinical outcomes. This means that you are prepared to launch your dream Ayurvedic business right from graduation.

Never studied online before? You absolutely do not need to be a technology whizz to thrive in our courses! Before the course begins you will receive a full introduction to the technology you'll be using. Your student support team is also always available for resources, advice and troubleshooting help. See the general technical requirements on our course pages:

• Ayurvedic Health Counselor
• Mastering Ayurvedic Digestion

Check out just some of the benefits of learning Ayurveda online.

Designed by an Experienced Academic & Business Leader

Strong academic skills are needed to deliver education and medicine reliably. Did you know that before John Immel, Joyful Belly founder and director, became an Ayurvedic practitioner he was a Harvard mathematician? Far from leaving this behind in his transition to Ayurvedic educator, he has put all of that precision and detail-orientation into the creation of your Ayurveda learning experience.

Throughout his career, John has been a teacher and consultant at various institutions from Harvard, Yale & Columbia University, to local health venues. He studied and speaks numerous languages and has lived in various countries throughout his life. He reads the materia medica of Ayurveda in its original Sanskrit language.

John also has extensive business experience that he can use to help you build a successful clinic. Prior to Joyful Belly, John created a successful, venture capital funded technology company. Then, he left his successful business career to study Ayurveda and create Joyful Belly.

Altogether, John brings his business, analytical, linguistic, teaching, and interpersonal skills to the development of the exciting course material at Joyful Belly. Read more about our teaching style.

Flexible and Accessible to Everyone

Flexible for Moms and Professionals with Busy Lives

Our student body includes professional moms juggling jobs and kids, busy medical doctors with a demanding clinical practice, and recent retirees ready to start a new career for their second half of life. Whatever your circumstances, life doesn't stop once you enroll - this is the reality our students experience. We know that our courses need to be adaptable to different schedules. Whether you are a physician in London, or a stay-at-home mom in Dubai, or Omaha, we have created a learning experience that adapts to your schedule. Our programs are online - no travel is required.

Much of the home-study in this course can be done on your own schedule. Live classes are recorded and made available to our students, so you can review and revisit material as often as you would like. Videos, tutorial notes and supplementary worksheets are also available for download, to add to your library as you move forward.

Scholarships Ensure an Ayurveda Education Remains Accessible to Everybody

At Joyful Belly, we believe that Ayurveda is for everybody. To support the spread of Ayurveda, we encourage applicants from every community and background. Of course, Ayurvedic education is a financial commitment and our aim is to give you the tools, information and support through your course to create a thriving business post-graduation. For those who can benefit from them, we have a range of scholarships available:

• Ayurvedic Heath Counselor - 750hr - 2yr program - scholarships available
• Mastering Ayurvedic Digestion - 500hr - 1yr program - scholarships available

Create Success with Career Development Support

What kind of practitioner do you aim to be? Who do you want to help with your knowledge? How do you envision your future Ayurvedic business? These are all important questions to build your self-confidence and to build your career path.

We Support Your Vision

From experience the Joyful Belly team knows that excellent Ayurvedic knowledge, supported by a strong business plan, leads to more successful practitioners. This is why detailed career development is an integral part of our courses.

As a student you will give time to identifying your target market, considering your area of specialty and learning to market yourself as an Ayurvedic professional. Through this process you will receive business and marketing lectures, and tutorials with individual feedback to support you moving forward with confidence.

Create a Path to Your Goals

This element of the course allows you to develop a clear vision and engaged client base within your town, city or online. Each year, this process allows our students to identify needs within their community, tailor their messaging and hold successful workshops and events, all before they've even completed their course.

This means that, not only will you receive rigorous Ayurvedic education, but you will have the tools to turn that knowledge into a professional business right away when you graduate.

Does this sound exciting? View this Joyful Belly workshop on Marketing Yourself in Alternative Medicine and get your 5-Step Ayurveda Career Plan to be even more inspired!

Be part of cross-cultural & global student body

Our student body is the highlight of the Joyful Belly School of Ayurveda. Each year we welcome students from all kinds of backgrounds and from all over the world to our digital classroom. Our students are medical doctors, yoga teachers, acupuncturists, nurses, massage therapists, mental health workers, and health enthusiasts.

Our students are ambitious and determined to lead successful clinics that help their clients. Our applicants include those who grew up with Ayurveda and those from parts of the world where Ayurveda is still almost unheard of. Our students are herbalists, Chinese medicine practitioners or medical doctors. Others are just starting out in medicine. We regularly admit nutritionists, yoga teachers, nurses, mental health workers, and enthusiastic individuals who have been personally impacted by Ayurveda.

An Ongoing Network of Support

Each student brings with them a wealth of previous experience that invariably adds to the richness of the course and the breadth of knowledge shared among the group. Our admissions team aims to select students who have the motivation and discipline to not only thrive in our course but to excel as an excellent Ayurvedic professional.

This means that, as a student of Joyful Belly, you will be among engaged peers who support your growth and development, just as you do theirs. This community does not end when you graduate. All Joyful Belly students are invited to be part of our Alumni chat group on graduation so you can continue to network and learn from fellow practitioners.

Hear what some of our graduates have to say about their Joyful Belly experience.

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