
Education Highlights |
Assignments are designed using active learning methods so students engage with and apply the knowledge to heal themselves and others. Practical exercises will help you discern the subtle cues your body uses to communicate imbalance.
Experiential learning will be accompanied by weekly case studies on advanced disease for a complete, in depth natural approach to health.
Use of multimedia makes online learning more effective than traditional in-person classroom settings, where the teacher may be more than 50 feet away from the students.
Our inspiring courses do not rush education. 2 years is the minimum to understand the full scope of Ayurveda. An additional 2 years is required for advanced level practice.
Our courses are more challenging, but build more confidence and results in your personal healing journey, and those of your clients.
Avoid comparing schools based on price. Instead compare clinical outcomes. Don't skimp on education. Focus on your lifetime career, not on 'geting a deal' today.
Harvard is not the cheapest school, but you can actually have a successful career and your lifetime earning potential makes it worth it.
When you graduate from Joyful Belly, you are investing in a high-quality, in-depth education, your future clinical confidence, and a lifetime of achieving your goals.
All of our teachers receive ongoing pedagogy training (teacher training) customized to medical education.
We train our teachers in active learning methods and mutliple intelligences and learning styles. We've organized exercises using these pedagogy tools.
Study after study proves great teaching is essential to learning outcomes and competency.
The founder of our school graduated from Harvard, and his academic qualities infuse the whole school to a higher quality education.
Joyful Belly takes a natural, common sense approach to Ayurveda education so that people in your community can relate to your future clinical practice and engage in your services.
Patient centered care focuses on the culture of the client, not the medicine, ensuring your practice will be accessible in a cross-cultural context.
Your journey will not only be profound, it will also make sense.
Gain experience running your clinic and business while in the course.
Once you graduate, you are already setup for practice.
Receive expert 1-1 guidance from business advisors at Joyful Belly.
Assignments include both multiple choice questions and written work that graders analyze and offer corrective feedback.
Your accuracy is ensured and developed every step of the way. Gaps in your understanding are identified and remedied.
This feedback will give you confidence in yourself and your knowledge.
You can't become a clinician just by studying on your own. Self-paced and open enrollment 'by modules' don't work.
All students start at the same time and grow together as a class, while combined synchronous & asynchronous learning maximizes flexbility.
You are joining a community and you will learn from each other. Expect to make lifelong friends and colleagues.
Our students are leaders with busy lives. We DO offer flexiblity for any life events or plans you have during the school-year. Contact us for details.
Our leadership, expertise, and commitment to Ayurveda is best demonstrated through our many accomplishments incuding our pioneering research studies involving over 75,000 participants.
The quality of a school is measured by what it does, not what it says. We don't just teach Ayurveda, we study and develop it.
The scope of knowledge you will receive is demonstrated by the thousands of free, down to earth, practical articles we provide on the website and the many free tools we offer to the public.
Ayurveda is a grass roots health movement that is more accessible to the public because of the free content we offer.
Great schools of Ayurveda publish content and have a strong public service mission.
You will come to understand Ayurveda they way the ancient pioneers did, from the ground up, using your body as the guide.
At Joyful Belly, you will not only study what Ayurveda was, but what it will be. You have a chance to be a part of Ayurveda's development and growth.
They exist to protect their donor schools, increase the cost of education, and do not represent clinicicians. They offer little to no benefits to our graduates.
Unlike associations, state school licensing boards conduct regular audits. State school licensing is a much better measure of quality.
Despite this, associations frequently scare students by convincing them they have authority. They have no legal authority with the government, and no impact on your ability to practice.
Employers largely ignore association membership when hiring. Instead they look at years of clinical practice and education level.
There is no travel required in the program.
At Joyful Belly College of Ayurveda, you will discover your purpose through an advanced, clinically-focused Ayurvedic education. Joyful Belly is a North Carolina, State Licensed college nestled in the mountains of Southern Appalachia (Note: The North Carolina State Board of Community Colleges is not an accrediting agency). As a state-licensed college, we take academia seriously and offer a rigorous curriculum that includes: Ayurvedic medicine, herbal formulation, digestive tract pathology, pulse and tongue diagnosis, tailored diet and lifestyle planning, and so much more! Our courses provide you with the solid foundation of both Ayurvedic knowledge and clinical training to legally practice Ayurveda and see clients in the United States. Our many international students are able to work within their local laws to practice Ayurveda as well. Here are just some of the reasons students choose Joyful Belly Ayurveda:
We teach the rich foundations of traditional Ayurvedic medicine while also teaching our students to be critical, convergent thinkers in a clinical setting to bring about high quality client outcomes. We are innovative: We conduct research in the field of Ayurvedic food and herbs and are pioneers in the development of Ayurvedic diagnostic strategies and clinical programs and tools to put forth the strongest practitioners in the field.
We provide an exceptional education that also delivers an accessible and convenient online platform so students can succeed from anywhere in the world and in any walk of life. We teach in a step-by-step approach that makes the learning of even the most complex Ayurvedic concepts feel natural.
Weekly live classes give students access to distinguished teachers and practitioners in the field, bringing experience, perspective, and clarification to the curriculum in real time. Exercises outside of the classroom will supplement presentations, ensuring a firm grasp of Ayurveda's concepts and methods.
Personal mentoring sessions will fine-tune assessment & recommendation skills while building confidence as a clinical practitioner.
"thanks so much for the wonderful class last night! Learned a lot and it's good right now for me to hear some things again and again, it's sinking in. You have a very light and playful way of presenting and you're funny! Makes the material, especially in an evening class, very easy to digest (hey, nice pun, eh?)!"
"I have a success story that I just had to share. Last week a man came to see me ready to change his diet. He has a history of excess alcohol/liver heat, excess weight (not a lot but more than he would like), a lot of cold in the GI tract, dry colon with inflammation, lincoln log stools which sometimes purge yellow stools after doing yoga. He also has a history of indigestion with acid reflux which the doctor gave him Nexim for.
The Nexium did not help at all which he told his doctor, but the doctor insisted he keep taking it.
I gave him a vata/kapha diet with no solid foods after 2pm. Lemon/honey/ginger drink in the morning plus CCF tea during the day, I asked him to use certain spices in his cooking and practice mula bhanda to help with the stress he has been feeling. That's all, no herbs.
I spoke with him today and he is feeling fabulous. He said that he is feeling a warm heat throughout his body that he hasn't felt in a very long time. His bowels started to regulate very quickly and his body is starting to sweat during yoga which doesn't usually happen. He has lost a lot of weight, is feeling much lighter, more energetic, and his ankle is starting to heal itself.
If I had not taken the joyful belly course I would not have known that acid reflux can be caused by indigestion/lack of fire. I would have assumed that with his liver being hot that his stomach was too acidic as well and I would not have understood why his bowel movements were alternating.
I would have been nervous to treat him and likely would have treated him similar to the doctor instead of treating his case as having too much cold.
I am in tears at having helped someone and hearing the excitement in this man's voice from how good he feels. He's coming back next week for another consultation"
"So i just watched John's business class and am feeling really so much clearer on my business plan."
"I just want to show my thanks for John Joseph Immel and the time he has taken to share his experience, and expertise. His sharing is supplying us with all that we need to take our personal life experience to a new level of understanding."
"I am on week seven and just listened to the review you facilitated on Cow Milk. I just really want to express how much I appreciate the wisdom you bring to each lesson you teach. From the examples you use down to the pauses you take between questions or topics, to your real world experiences in every day life, I am really able to absorb a lot of your teaching. In recent weeks we haven't heard from you as often as we did the first few module's. In the future will we resume hearing more of your lecture's?"
"JoyFul Belly has been instrumental in choosing Ayurveda as a means to address my digestive issues."
"Thank you, John, for another fabulous class!!! I'm learning so much right now and love how these changes are impacting my body, my experience. I very much appreciate all that you are sharing with us and look forward to learning more. The food was awesome and I feel great today!"
"I found the anatomy and physiology parts and the self-study about digestion to be absolutely invaluable!"
"Your experience shines so brightly in this class and I so appreciate it/you!"
"These were so helpful. Even as a practitioner this was not something that I had a lot of experience coming into the class and the things I discovered during these exercises were amazing."
"John did a wonderful job in presenting completely new concepts to a varied group of students, answering questions patiently and clearly. I felt like a whole new world opened up for me, one in which my body can and will be healthy. It is attainable more easily than I initially believed. It brought back the knowledge of wholeness which can so easily slip further and further into the background with our busy lives and non-supportive patterns we find ourselves in. John's teachings about balance also reminded me that the responsibility to heal myself is in my own lap, no excuses!"
"I have been "self-studying" ayurveda for about 7 years now, and my very first introduction to it (I had never heard of it before!) was when my yoga teacher told me to "go to joyfulbelly.com" Since then I have been reading as much as I can, subscribe to your mailing list, and browse through the many recipes. I would like to now go a step further in my journey, and begin to help OTHERS find wellness through ayurveda. The Joyful Belly site has been so helpful in my own journey, that I am interested in furthering my education through the school."
"As I continue to work on my paper, I find myself overwhelmed with gratitude for what I Ave learned this past nine months. Honestly, it is just amazing. John Joseph Immel, how can I even create a thesis that is more or better than the lecture you gave us regarding constipation? How?? When I read your words, I can visualize what is happening in the gut, I can feel the anguish and the straining of the intestines, and I can vision the alarm of the heart and nerves as they frantically call out forcrelief. I do not mean to be dramatic, but I truly just want to have a half-page Thesis that says, \"What John said.\""
"I just met with my 88 year old client who is having trouble with nausea. I explained the Ayurvedic perspective you discussed in the free call and how unexpressed anger, guilt or shame could be a possible cause. A light bulb went off in her head and she revealed childhood traumas that had cause the same feeling of nausea in her stomach. This new perspective gave her insight into her current condition."
"Anyway, all of this to say that I had big dreams at the outset of this program that still hold true. I cannot fathom the brain power and team power to get this quality of program up and running so successfully. I thank you all for everything that you do- I am inspired."
Founder of Joyful Belly Ayurveda, John Immel, answers the question ‘What is Ayurveda?’