Ayurvedic Clinical Foundations

Dearest purest Saraswati & Lakshmi ,

bless this journey and all my relations

ॐ नमः शिवाय गुरवे सच्चिदानन्द मूर्तये

When I returned to California from my dream trip through India an Sri Lanka my dream was to move to North Carolina to study with Dr. Vasant Lad. At the time, felt impossibly far away.

I couldn't leap logistically, so I began looking closer to home little did I know that life had better plans.

I remembered the time my friend Heather mentioned a woman years before, someone she spoke about with a certain reverence and mystery.

That woman was DeAnna.

Meeting DeAnna became one of those turning points that changed the direction of my life.

She has become my mentor in Ayurveda, elemental medicine, I have gotten into so many deep rabbit holes of deep learning and study because of her prompts and guidance.

Her understanding of classical Ayurveda is profound, yet what makes her such an extraordinary teacher is her ability to translate this ancient science into the language of everyday life with the most delightful humor.

Ayurveda emerges from a civilization where medicine, mythology, spirituality, ritual, and cosmology were inseparable. While I remain deeply devoted to those ancient roots, DeAnna has shown me how these teachings can become accessible and meaningful for anyone, regardless of faith and place of origin. She teaches through the elements, through observation, through relationship with the natural world.

When I completed my training at the closing ceremony, she offered some words that felt like a rite of passage into practionerhood.

She told me that one of my gifts is the ability to perceive qualities. To notice the gunas. To read texture, color, rhythm, pattern, vitality, and the subtle language that bodies are constantly speaking.

Those words landed somewhere very deep inside me because they named something I been doing my entire life.

During my recent travels through Spain, several strangers assumed I was a physician. At first I laughed, but afterward I sat with it. Perhaps they weren't responding to credentials. Perhaps practionerhood is all about presence.

I find myself in a profound season of maturation. I feel myself crossing an invisible threshold, leaving behind the archetype of the maiden and slowly becoming the mother. Not necessarily through children, but through responsibility, discernment, stewardship, and the willingness to hold others yet learning boundaries and allowing people to hold themselves and be responsible for their own is the hardest thing as a kapha woman but has brought so much liberation, something I also have learned from DeAnna.

I want to express my deepest gratitude to DeAnna and to my Ayurvedic practitioner community in California. You have held me, witnessed me, encouraged me, and appreciated me in ways that have profoundly shaped who I am becoming. There is something deeply healing about being seen not only for what you know, but for who you are.

Especially grateful to Sasha, Alison, Annette, Kirsty, Trinity, Marie Claire, Justine, Felicja, Andie, Mona, Radhe, Revitall, Felicia Rose, Kaelynn, Cheyenne, Suraya, Sam and Mallory who have redefined what friendship and sisterhood are.

Being welcomed into this community has opened my heart like a lotus to the morning sun. It has reminded me that true learning does not happen in isolation. It happens in relationship, in mentorship, in shared meals, in laughter, in study, in ritual, and in the quiet moments where someone believes in you before you fully believe in yourself.

Thank you for reflecting gifts that I was only beginning to recognize within myself.

Thank you, DeAnna, for preserving this ancient lineage with such integrity while making space for new voices to emerge. It is an honor to walk this path beside you, and I carry each of you with me as I continue becoming the practitioner, educator, and woman I am meant to be.

This journey into Ayurvedic Clinical Foundations by DeAnna is much more than another certification. Truly, be ready to step into an embodied healing journey.

This is my truth.

Strength and honor,

Eká Tamara Maria