about ayurveda
“Ayurveda is the science of understanding the nature of things. The Ayurvedic system cannot separate nutritional intake, the mental state, daily habits, your environment, and your deeper motivations in life from the medicine it prescribes.” · [Atreya Smith]
Ayurveda is the art of good life and gentle healing. The word comprises two Sanskrit words, ayus meaning life and veda meaning knowledge or science; the knowledge of life. It is the ancient medical tradition from India, which continues to be one of the world’s most sophisticated and powerful health systems.
Central to Ayurvedic medicine is that it views the body, mind, person, and life as one whole; an integrative medicine which can work well together with modern medicine. Ayurveda is focussed on prevention, and in case of disease on diagnosing the root cause and treating the corresponding imbalances. It works with the natural rhythms, including the seasons and uses herbal medicine, diet, bodywork, counselling, rituals and routine to bring balance, health and vitality.
Ayurveda developed from the physical and sociological needs of humanity, when people started to live together in larger groups and health became a concern. It is deeply rooted in India’s oral tradition and was noted down around 100 BCE by Caraka Samhita in thousands of verses, these are still forming the key texts for studying and working with Ayurveda today.
about me
As a child I was most happy being outside. In my memories I am tending the earth or the plants. Not actually, but through imagination, movement and storytelling; moving through the garden, paying attention and being in quiet conversation.
From real young age my older brother talked about becoming a doctor; in a large house (hospital), or for vets, and for my parents when they would become older… He became an excellent one. My brother was and is also an exceptional drawer. I was more of a dancer. Dancing from the age of three.
There was a time I dreamed of working as a child psychologist, but when I was fifteen I took the train from our village to the capital a few times to visit the Museum for Modern Art by myself (I’m not sure if I told my parents). I had read about an art exhibition in a music magazine, and was curious. Two years later, I went to follow art education. Finding autonomy and means to express myself were important to me. I loved thinking and acting through making, combining abstraction with philosophy and concept.
The last twenty years I have been (and still am) working as a visual artist exhibiting my work internationally. Close awareness of the body and its perception are key to anything I’ve made. My process always includes studying, learning new skills and going back to a beginning.
When I became the mother of our son in 2012 I felt pulled back towards the garden, to nature and to finding a new kind of self-reliance which includes working with people, with other minds and bodies. I looked for a philosophy which was whole and addresses us humans (our physiology and mind) within the systems of the natural world. There was this unconscious drive to point attention to the praxis of healing.
In 2018 I started a Bachelor in Ayurveda next to my art practise. Completely intrigued by this ancient vast science and its relevance today. I’ve been learning about life – health and disease – and the medicine of nutrition, herbology and massage. Ayurveda touches on my ever present fascination with the human body and its response-ability.
Now I have opened up my art studio to speak to and treat clients with nutrition & lifestyle advises and through treatments. I’ve designated a part of my studio to Ayurveda. By bringing all my activities more together, I’m acknowledging their diversity and strength; an integrated life, with integrity. It’s a subjective quest too, which has to do with a more existential need to reassess and restore what is happening to nature, to people.
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Education in Ayurveda:
2018-23 Ayurveda Practitioner Training (Bachelor); Delight Academy, Amsterdam. Since 2018 I am a certified Ayurveda Nutrition & Lifestyle coach, and since 2023 Ayurvedic Practitioner. The four year Bachelor study covered Ayurvedic physiology, pathology and herbology in addition to nutrition & lifestyle. Main teachers: dr. Vijith Sasidhar, dr. Alaknanda Rao, drs. Coen van der Kroon, Liese van Dam, Victoria Hyndman, Gabriele Karpf
2021: course > Women’s Health & Hormones by Dr. Claudia Welch
2023: research paper > ‘A Skin Surrounding Everything: external oleation treatment with medicated oils in neurological conditions with a special emphasis on migraine and ADHD’
2023: graduation internship with dr. Shailesh Muli in The Netherlands
2024: self-initiated internship with dr. PMS Raveendranath at Poonthottam Ayurvedasram, Palakkad, India
2024-25: course > Western Medicine Fundamentals, Con Amore (currently following)
Seminars & workshops:
2024: Tongue Diagnosis, dr. Rama Prasad; masterclasses (18hrs)
2024: Specialized Ayurveda for Dementia & Neurological Health, Vaidya Krishna Raju; masterclass
2024: Ayurvedic Prenatal Massage, Eva Ugolini & Ombretta Dettori; three-day workshop
2024: Ayurveda for Pregnancy care, postnatal care and breastfeeding, dr. Alaknanda Rao; seminar
2024: Marma Therapy, dr. Shailesh Muli; two-day workshop
2023: Hypothyroidism, dr. Archana Munot; seminar
2023: Menopause, dr. Alaknanda Rao; seminar
2022: Tongue analyses, dr. Vasant Lad; masterclass
2022: Women’s Health (1&2), dr. Vasant Lad; masterclasses
2021: Introduction Ayurvedic Yoga Massage, Eva Ugolini & Ombretta Dettori; three-day workshop
2021: Menopause, difficult & painful menstruation, dr. Naveen Gupta; seminar
2019: Children’s Health, dr. Alaknanda Rao; seminar
2019: Pulse diagnosis on 5th Dhatu level, Clinical assessment of Rasavaha and Udakvaha srotas, Healing emotional trauma through Ayurvedic counselling and Manovaha sroto dusti, Ayurvedic clinical assessment of facial reading, dr. Vasant Lad (APA, VK); four-day seminar
2019: 7 Dhatu’s (tissues), dr. Robert Svoboda; two-day seminar
Membership:
LVNT; Landelijke Vereniging Natuurgeneeskundig Therapeuten
RBCZ; quality register for competent practitioners in complementary care; license number 240682S
[note: partial reimbursement by health insurers when supplementary insured will only be possible from mid-2025, after completion of Western Medicine Fundamentals training]
