DeAnna Batdorff, AP

Experience and Education

DeAnna has been offering consultations via private practice since 1988. She is the founder of both the dhyana Center, a “by donation” Ayurvedic clinic, and Aushadi Health Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit for Ayurvedic education and low-cost healthcare clinic services.

Her Ayurvedic training includes 3 years of study in Tibetan pulse and tongue diagnosis, as well as marma massage with Dr. Lobsang Rapgay. She also spent 2 years at the Bihar School of Yoga in India, where she studied ancient Ayurvedic texts and ran an infirmary for local residents.

She has volunteered at senior centers for many years, and spent 12 years working with the Immune Development Trust/Shanti Project, a global advocacy group for HIV prevention and in-home health support.

Degrees and Certifications

• Certified Massage Therapist—South Blossom Massage School
• Ayurvedic Practitioner—Ayurvedic Institute
• Marcel Lavabre Clinical Aromatherapy
• Nutrition Counselor—Bauman College
• Nationally Licensed Cosmetologist/Esthetician

Publications

DeAnna's writing has been published in Alternative Medicine, Sunday Health, and Yoga Journal among other publications. Learn more about her published works on her website.

Upcoming Events

DeAnna is teaching her Ayurvedic Clinical Foundations Course in Occidental, California, September 2023–February 2024. You can learn more and sign up here. 

She is also leading a month-long educational retreat in Turkey in April 2024. It will be a blend of DeAnna's Ayurvedic knowledge and inspiration from local teachers. Learn more. 

DeAnna co-hosts Edible Ayurveda, an Ayurvedic cooking and diet course. It is now evergreen and can be accessed year around, along with monthly group check-in calls. Learn more about the course, early bird pricing, bonuses, and recipes. 

DeAnna's signature course, MyBody, is an empowering 7-week journey that helps you to understand and care for your own body. Stay tuned for the next course dates.

DeAnna's Point of View

How were you introduced to Ayurveda?

In 1990, I was working at a spa in San Francisco when a massage client from India asked if I had ever heard of Ayurveda. I told her that I'd heard a teacher mention it, but that I wasn't sure what it was.

She gave me Dr. Lobsang Rapgay's phone number, mentioning he taught a class in LA. I called him immediately after she left, signed up for his next 2-week course, and studied under him for 3 years. As a monk, he could not touch female clients, but he held panchakarmas as well. I was one of many who were his hands—administering the treatments and interning under his guidance.

It was Dr. Rapgay who urged me to go to India to continue my studies. I left for India in 1993, at 23 years old, where I spent 2 years living in an ashram and running a public support infirmary with a medical doctor. 

At 25, I moved to Albuquerque to study with Vasant Lad. It was there, in 1995, that I first met Kevin (co-founder of Banyan Botanicals) and his wife, Tammy. I was their tenant and when I moved out, Banyan Trading (now Botanicals) was born! 
 

When are you most likely to go out of balance and how do you bring yourself back in balance using Ayurveda?

Daily dinacharya care (daily routine) is a great focus, but sometimes a tall order. I focus on healthy foods as my primary daily care and do a weekly dinacharya restoration program to keep me stable from week to week.

Every Monday, I spend 3 hours on steam inhalation, neti pot, and Nasya Oil to clear my upper channels. Then I use salt scrub, svedhana bath, and full-body gua sha massage to move lymph and blood dhatus.

I conclude with a basti (enema) to clear primary intestinal channels and secure downward motion.
 

What does the future of Ayurveda look like to you?

I see it going global, expanding into user-friendly ways for all people to understand the self. I see it merging with allopathic medicine to balance the needs of patients by putting certain aspects of health care into their own hands.

Ayurveda will intertwine preventive medicine with intervention-based medicine as equal values. It will be a super system of health! This is already happening at the West County Clinic, which I supported in securing MediCal and Medicare coverage for Ayurvedic consultations. It's only one county, but it is a start!
 

What's one Ayurvedic practice anyone can implement to spur change in their life, right here, right now?

Proper hydration!