Patricia Layton, M.A., C.A.S., PKT, E-RYT 500 is co-founder of Bhavana Institute and Director of the Ayurveda Studies Program. She has been training Ayurveda educators and practitioners for the past twelve years. She was introduced to Ayurveda in 1975 by her spiritual mentor and has spent her adult life studying and integrating the practices of Yoga and Ayurveda into her life. She graduated from the California College of Ayurveda in 1997 as a Certified Ayurvedic Specialist and Panchakarma Technician, and went on to complete a Panchakarma training course in India with the International Academy of Ayurved. She has a B.S. in Natural Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and she also earned a masters’ degree in Integral Health Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where her thesis was an epistemological study on how American students learn Ayurveda.
While living in San Francisco she owned and operated Yerba Buena Ayurveda, a full-service Ayurveda clinic. She also taught extensively in the Bay Area, including four years as adjunct professor at San Francisco State University; two years adjunct at the California Institute of Integral Studies; thirteen years core faculty in the Iyengar Yoga Institute’s Yoga Teacher Training Program; and five years core faculty at the California College of Ayurveda. She also taught Year One and Year Two practitioner programs at Kanyakumari Ayurveda in Milwaukee for five years.
Prior to teaching Ayurveda Patricia taught all aspects of yoga and worked as a Yoga Therapist at a Pain Clinic from 1982 to 1987. She teaches her specialties in the Bhavana Yoga Teacher Training Program – Physiology for Yoga Teachers; Sankhya Philosophy; Ethics for Yoga Teachers; Emotional Purification; Physiology of the Subtle Body; and Ayurveda for Yoga Teachers.
She is a perpetual student and continues her study of both Yoga and Ayurveda in the US and India.
Patricia is known for her scholarship, humor, and incredible memory. Her extensive contact over the past 40 years with a variety of high quality teachers of both Yoga and Ayurveda in the US and India has provided her with a wealth of knowledge that she unselfishly passes on.
“Pat’s teaching comes directly from her heart and personal experience. Her countless personal stories filled with humor and lessons will always remain with me. She welcomes her students with a warm and open heart and ushers them gently and intelligently on this beautiful path of Ayurveda. I will joyfully recommend her classes and teachings to all people interested in true, authentic, and light-filled Ayurveda.” R.R.C. Arizona
Bonita Carol, LMT has been an Ayurveda Health Educator for the past 22 years. She has received extensive training in Ayurveda including participating in a course at Maharishi European Research University, Vlodrop Holland in 1991. She went on to train extensively with Vaidya Ramakant Mishra beginning in 1998 and completed all three levels of his Transdermal Marma Therapy course.
She has been a Panchakarma Therapist since 1993 and has given over 10,000 hours of Ayurvedic therapies and bodywork in her busy private practice in Fairfield, Iowa. She has traveled to Nepal twice to enhance her training in Panchakarma with Dr. Rishi of the Ayurveda Home Health Center in Katmandu.
She is a licensed massage therapist and an approved Provider for Continuing Education by the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (#451569-11)
Bonita has been a practitioner of meditation since she was thirteen years old and trained as a Vedic Science Teacher and Transcendental Meditation Teacher at the Maharishi International University in 1987.
Currently she has integrated more psychological methods into her practice (Sattvajayanti) such as Voice Dialogue, a body-centered therapy developed by psychologists Hal and Sida Stone.
An author of over 25 articles on health, she also co-authored the book, Ayurvedic Cooking Made Easy, with Dr. Kamuda Reddy (Lincoln Press).
Subjects taught at Bhavana: Marma Therapy; Transdermal Therapy; All of the Ayurvedic Body Therapies for Licensed Massage Therapists; Food as Medicine.
“Bonita is a remarkably intuitive person. Whether she is doing bodywork or talking to someone about an issue in their life, she intuitively zooms in on the crux of the problem, and lovingly brings healing through her bodywork or her wisdom.”
Linda Brooks -Shadowwork Coach
Jackie Hill, C.A.P; PKT has been committed to natural, healthy living for the past 30 years. A landscape horticulturist by training, she has a profound knowledge of native plants and trees that has transferred over to and informs her herbalism studies and practice. A Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, she was one of the first people in the Milwaukee area to learn the ancient techniques of Panchakarma. She furthered her studies by traveling to Pune and Kerala in India. Jackie attended the first two conferences sponsored by Floracopeia in California and went on to receive a certificate in Aromatherapy. She was part of the core staff at Kanyakumari Ayurveda in Milwaukee where she helped shape the center as a place for therapeutic bodywork. She has taken her administrative and therapy skills to form Diva Ayurveda in partnership with Rima Shah. Jackie and Rima, through Diva Ayurveda, have created a grassroots Ayurveda and Panchakarma Center, believing that this ancient wisdom medicine is valuable to all persons and communities because of its whole and comprehensive nature. They serve the diverse neighborhood of Riverwest in Milwaukee as well as the city as a whole.
Subjects taught at Bhavana: All of the Ayurvedic Body Therapies; Panchakarma; Ayurveda and Aromatherapy.
Rima Shah, B.A., C.A.P., PKT is an Ayurvedic Practitioner and Panchakarma Technician in private practice in Milwaukee, WI. Rima’s first Ayurvedic teachers were her grandparents who taught her many Ayurvedic home remedies and spiritual practices. She has been studying herbs and medicinal plants for 25 years, completing both Western and Ayurvedic herbal studies. She was a core faculty member at Kanyakumari Ayurveda in Milwaukee where she also founded and created the Kanyakumari Apothecary. It was there that she developed some of her signature products such as herbalized nasya oils, ghees, and spice churnas. She has also taken numerous trips to India to enhance her knowledge through advanced studies in Ayurveda herbalism, Panchakarma, and Women’s Health.
Rima counsels women through birth, prenatal, and post-natal care using her knowledge of midwifery and doula work; folk medicine; and ancient Ayurvedic care for the childbearing woman. She maintained a private Ayurvedic practice in Milwaukee for several years before partnering with Jackie Hill in 2008 to create Diva Ayurveda. The hallmark of Diva Ayurveda’s practice is that all treatments, including Panchakarma, are done the traditional way with two practitioners. Due to the sublime results their clients have achieved, Diva Ayurveda has become the most sought after Ayurveda facility in Milwaukee for Panchakarma.
Subjects taught at Bhavana: All of the Ayurvedic Body Therapies; Panchakarma; Ayurveda and Aromatherapy; Women’s Health – Pre-Natal, Pregnancy, and Post-Natal Care.
