The Psychology of Disease offers an introduction to the field of Energy Medicine. This well investigated branch of integrative and alternative medicine studies how biological, social and psychological factors influence health and illness. This course introduces students to the fundamental premise that our physical body demonstrably corresponds to our psychology. The energy of our thoughts, emotions and beliefs can express themselves as matter in the form of a condition or disease. Students explore the energy centres of the body; the chakra system to understand how the body speaks through its own vocabulary. Its language is physical signs and symptoms that are tied to memories, environment or experiences, energetically creating an imbalance. The course looks at how chakras conduct the ten major systems of the body, particularly the endocrine system, and how increasing awareness of one’s thought patterns can inhibit or assist our health and our ability to achieve balance. The Psychology of Disease is a unique course of personal self-development from self-knowledge and self-awareness that will inform future practitioners how to guide their clients to look for clues surrounding their health and work to unpack energetic blockages for deep healing. Students will be taught and evaluated on introductory principles of energy medicine such as the biology of belief, therapeutic applications of subtle energies, the chakra system, as well as assignments to learn strategies that manifest wellness including the profound impact of food. Learning Outcomes • Understand the physical, mental, and spiritual connections to health and illness • How to identify thought patterns and belief systems that contribute to disease/health imbalances • Be able to confidently provide recommendations for reframing stressors to shift perspectives, that can positively shift health outcomes • Awareness of traditional and contemporary energy medicine modalities and techniques to build into one’s practice • Getting out of the way of, and trusting your intuition • Discernment around how and when to discuss the purpose of disease and the language of illness with clients The Psychology of Disease is a personal development course that combines well-established mainstream science in chemistry and biology with quantum physics evidence that shows us there is no difference between energy and matter. Whether students look at chakras as literal places in the body, or metaphoric ones, this course will increase self-awareness to activate mind/body connections that optimize healing. Energy Medicine is at the forefront of driving curiosity to acknowledge and provide practitioners with the opportunity to learn how nature organizes itself, at all levels, for the greatest impact to healing.

Ayurveda: Mind/Body Healing Unique to IHN, Ayurveda is the science by which life in its totality is understood – the traditional natural medicine of India, dating back over five thousand years as it describes the diet, medicines, and behaviors that are beneficial or harmful for life and consciousness. It classifies all the factors of our lives in an organic energetic language that reflects the entire living biosphere around us. According to this philosophy, there are three primary life forces, called doshas, in the body – Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, which are the manifestations of the Great Elements of air, fire, and water. When out of balance, they are the causative factors in the diseased process. If we eat and behave in ways that support both our constitution and our environment, we are likely to stay clean, clear, and healthy. Students will be taught and evaluated on constitutional balance through an in-depth assessment of body systems and dietary recommendations according to dosha (physical) and gunas (spiritual). Learning Outcomes: • Develop customized protocols using Ayurvedic assessment tools such as tongue analysis, tonification, purification, and detoxification • Explain the classifications of disease (innate, exogenous, and psychic) that arise when the body is not in balance • Describe how each of the six tastes of sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent are manifestations of 2 of the 5 elements – earth, air, water, fire, and ether – and have a symbiotic relationship with the foods we eat • Learn to properties of healing Ayurvedic herbs such as Triphala, Aloe Gel, and Trikatu • Assess how the accumulation of Ama when there is a disruption in the metabolic force of Agni Ayurveda teaches students how to embody the Ayurvedic lifestyle through the daily incorporation of meditation, yoga, and breathwork. Practitioners recommend general dietary plans to rebalance constitution based on dosha type and specific detoxification diets such as Palliation Therapy and Pancha Karma which stabilize digestion through deep tissue cleansings.