Women’s Health & Hormones Part I: Hormonal Balance and Stagnation

This course may be a good choice for you if:

• You are a woman or know a woman that wants to explore or further understand and support her physiological, hormonal, emotional experiences
• You are a health care practitioner, treat women, and you want to explore or further understand women’s physiological, hormonal, emotional experiences
• You are a woman, know a woman or treat a woman that wishes to understand crucial hormones involved in women’s hormone balance
• You know a fair bit about stress and sex hormones already but you would like to further understand how they interact
• You want to understand hormonal changes over the course of a woman’s life
• You want to understand how to address painful gynecological issues (menstrual pain, tender breasts, etc) with simple changes
• You are a woman that wants to learn how to support hormonal balance
• You have any or no background in women’s health. This course speaks simultaneously to everyone from people with no background in health care, to MDs, to professionals in Chinese or Ayurvedic medicine

“It was AMAZING. Such a lot of compact knowledge, wisdom and practical insights so beautifully offered with tons of genuine fun. A healthy jolt in how I see my life so far as a woman and my understanding of female world at large. Absolutely wonderful and inspiring on all levels, including my sadhana”. -Barbara

“I can’t tell you how much I loved this course. I knew I would because BYHBYL is my bible, but it was so wonderful to listen to Dr. Welch’s teaching ‘in person’. I have been feeling burned out in my work and this course reignited my love for women’s wellness and I am very excited to start Ayurveda I + II and Hormones II. Please more courses! :)” – Leslie W. Seattle, WA

I found this course highly insightful in preparing me with a set of principles that I can now apply in my practice regarding women’s hormonal health. [This] course gives me more confidence in providing health care to women. – Eric DeForge, Taos, New Mexico [previous graduate of reputable year-long Ayurveda course]

“The information presented in this course is life-changing. An incredible supplement to Dr. Welch’s book Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life.” – Deborah Andersen (graduate of reputable year-long Ayurveda course), San Antonio, TX

It made me aware of the power I have in my wellbeing, that my choices but also my state of mind affects my whole Being. As well as the importance of Breath. – Bettina Milotta Austria/Europe

I have enjoyed listening to each session of Part 1 of the Women’s Health and Hormones course! Really, this course is highly recommended for anyone interested in life. So meaningful and grounding! Taught with so much love and affection by Dr. Welch. – Preeti Singh from India

…The overall message is so hopeful, even if we have some ‘bucket syndrome’ going on! The stories, experiences and anecdotes were beautiful … I have three sisters and want them all to know all of this. – Anonymous

Wonderful! I am very inspired – both to make further personal changes and apply to my clients. Very useful, inspiring, motivating – and makes a lots of sense. Elegant system. Thank you! – Julia Pomazkina, Sydney, Australia

Incredibly engaging, informative, interesting and relevant for me entering my third stage of womanhood, and also seeing many ‘stressed out’ women as Yoga students coming to my classes. – Lisa Morrison, New Zealand

I LOVED the course! It was so fun and uplifting. I am so grateful for Dr Welch and her joyful teaching style. It is the way I want to learn nowadays. With more joy! The information came together in a very easy to understand way. Simple, intuitive and profound. I now more fully embrace rest with far less guilt. I don’t pretend to be busy when my partner walks in the room anymore. -Erica Cooke

Claudia delivered this fascinating topic in such a way that it felt like the “having tea with a friend” she refers to. I looked forward to my time alone with this course and learned so much information which will help the women I work with as clients and for myself and loved ones, all the while having a great time, enjoying a few laughs, and appreciating Claudia’s applicable anecdotal demonstrations of the theories in action in her own practice. Taking the online version felt like being in the room with Claudia and all the live attendees, who had such thoughtful questions. I have recommended this course and the accompanying book to a few people already. -Meri Consor

This course was very helpful for me in understanding women’s hormones and health, and things I can do or help others do to improve any issues. There is just the right amount of backstory and then solutions offered to work with and not be overwhelmed, yet also feel I have a good grip on understand these concepts and how things work. Claudia is funny and knowledgeable, and it was a joy to watch these videos. I appreciate the depth of her knowledge, and that a lot of her wisdom from practice and from what she has learned can address questions and issues in a way that many others cannot. There is a deep understanding of the subtleties involved, and to be able to include that into the mix is so incredibly important, and I think is most helpful in the end. Alexis Muka – Buffalo, NY, USA

…I have watched already two times 🙂 I found it well presented, providing key and detailed information, yet actionable, and truly enjoyable as CW is a very good teacher. Thank you. – Mª Nieves Sancho Ciruelos, Madrid, Spain

I devoured this course. Loved it all so insightful and Claudia’s humility and humour helped make all of the information completely digestible. – Jodey Simmonds

Thank you so much Dr Welch for the structure, pace and content of this course. Essential knowledge for women of all ages delivered in a very comprehensible and enjoyable manner. And I just find your voice very brahmana and soothing and love your audio meditations. –Anne V. France

My first introduction to Dr.Claudia Welch’s work was through her Balance your Hormones, Balance your Life book, which was a gift to myself as I was turning 50. Turns out it is an amazing companion book to her brilliant course Women’s Health & Hormones. I’m very grateful to the wisdom [shared] in this course, with humor, love, science, compassion and a deep understanding of what women truly need to balance their hormones. I binge watched all the lessons from the comfort of my home. I didn’t feel like I was a remote learner, I was in that room, learning with her! She gives us simple solutions to what could be big problems with women’s health. I would encourage all women, especially young women to really pay attention to what Dr. Welch says in this course. And then also teach your daughters. Shantala Sriramaiah, Belgium

Having the framework of yin and yang to understand the sex and stress hormones is such a gift. It makes it easier to understand and explain and brings so much more clarity to the topic for me. -Natasha Whalley, Lisbon

The simplicity yet effective way of delivering concepts, Dr. Claudia’s way of making it engaging, her humor add more value. watching it once has locked in the concepts so well . -Harshla Singh

The course about Women Health, part I, was the best course I took in a long time. Claudia is a great teacher, I love her humor, her knowledge, her approach and ability to touch the very important complex things and make it easy to understand. I definitely can be more in tune with my body now and understand balance between yin and yang in hormonal perspective. Thank you so much for being such a great teacher! I can’t wait to learn more from you!- Michaela

This truly holistic and integrative perspective on women’s health and hormones was incredibly illuminating and transformative; each lens (Ayurvedic, Traditional Chinese Medicine, modern Western allopathic) shed greater insight and perspective on the other, yielding a more complete and nuanced understanding of women’s health overall. As a result, participants are offered a more sustainable and balanced approach to facing life’s challenges, to living in harmony with the macrocosm, and offer one’s self grace and compassion, while nurturing the capacity and resources to live in alignment with one’s most authentic self. I found the accessible, immediately implementable tools and practices to be incredibly potent and life-changing, and I am incorporating them daily to support myself and my clients through the lifespan from now on. -Renée Canada Wuerth, Connecticut

…Dr Welch goes over practices we can do ourselves at home to help gain hormonal balance and be in better tune with our inner most essence. I have known about Dinacharya, Abhyanga and Nadi Shodhana for quite a while, but listening to this information in Dr Welch’s brilliant, earnest and humor-filled delivery lit up the significance of these practices in a new way for me. It feels important to keep close to this wisdom by being in touch with the knowledge of such teachers as Dr Welch – listening to their talks, taking their courses or being in their company regularly. Very grateful. –SR

What this course does not cover

While our Women’s Health Parts I & II online courses set the stage for understanding, contextualizing and supporting healthy fertility, contraception, conception, pregnancy, birth and postpartum care, and we touch on some (very interesting) associated issues, we do not cover these topics in any depth in either Part I or II. The material we cover in these courses we feel, is best understood before addressing these issues, which simply could not be, “fit in” to these courses and would perhaps better constitute their own course. Gratefully, there are some good resources available, including Dr. Welch’s book, Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life: Achieving Optimal Health and Wellness through Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine, and Western Science, especially certain chapters. We’ve listed other resources under the Resources for Conception, Pregnancy, Birth & Postpartum Education & Support category on our Useful Websites & Resources page.

It also doesn’t cover the menstrual cycle in terms of vāta, pitta and kapha. 

This audio course consists of six recorded lessons with a total of 18 videos. Each session includes lecture and discussion with Dr. Welch. You will have access to the course for a year, so you can watch the videos at your own pace.

The listener is also invited to participate in the guided visualizations and practices.

The course comes with a free download of Dr. Claudia Welch’s Prana CD, a free copy of  her eBook Dinacaryā: Changing Lives Through Daily Living and a handout to support the material.

A 20-question quiz is included, to be taken upon completion of the material.

A link to download a certificate is given, once the quiz is successfully passed.

Lesson 1: Two Categories of Women’s Health Concerns & Prāṇa Visualizations

(4 videos: 1 hour, 30 minutes + audio track visualizations: 01 hour, 15 mins)

Learning Objectives:

• Be able to sort women’s health imbalances into two separate categories
• Be introduced to the idea of hormone imbalance
• Be introduced to the idea of stagnation
• Be introduced to association between pain, masses, lumps and stagnation
• Recognize some differences and relationships between physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual disorders
• Become acquainted with various visualization exercises to establish or support a personal understanding of and relationship with prāṇa

Lesson 2: The Language of Duality

(1 video: 44 minutes)

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the general nature of bṛṃhaṇa or yin
• Understand the general nature of laṅghana or yang
• Be able to define guṇa
• Be able to recognize and understand the 10 pairs of opposites in a general way
• Understand the relationship between bṛṃhaṇa/yin and laṅghana/yang
• Understand how bṛṃhaṇa/yin and laṅghana/yang apply to human health

Lesson 3: Sex Hormones and Stress Hormones in Women’s Physiology

(1 video: 01 hour, 50 mins)

Learning Objectives:

• Apply the concept of duality to hormones
• Define a hormone
• Understand the relationship of hormones to bṛṃhaṇa & laṅghana
• Learn the general role of, and pertinent information about dominant female sex hormones
• Learn the general role of, and pertinent information about dominant stress hormones
• Increase understanding of how our actions and experiences affect hormones
• Understand the general nature of DHEA does in relation to cortisol

Lesson 4: The Bucket Syndrome: How Sex Hormones and Stress Hormones Interact

(2 videos: 01 hour, 02 mins)

Learning Objectives:

• Be introduced to, “The Bucket Syndrome”
• Learn how hormones change over the course of a woman’s life
• Learn aspects of how pertinent hormones interact over the course of a woman’s life
• Understand the possible effects of long-term stress on women’s physiology

Lesson 5: How to Maintain, Gain or Regain Hormonal Balance; Dinacaryā & Nāḍi Śodhana

(5 videos: 01 hour, 57 min + Dinacaryā: Changing Lives Through Daily Living mini eBook: 30 mins)

Learning Objectives:

• Be introduced to three tiers of therapeutic responses to hormone imbalance
• Be introduced to information on dinacaryā–healthy lifestyle & diet practices & support
• Explore why nāḍi śodhana may be a potent remedial practice as part of lifestyle
• Learn one way of understanding how the mind affects the body and hormones and the body affects the mind, linking channel systems of the mind and body according to Ayurveda and nāḍi theory
• Explore the concepts of prāṇa and rasa
• Explore the way Ayurveda organizes each srotas (via mūla, mārga, mukha)
• Have a general understanding of the overlap between prāṇavāhasrotas, rasavāhasrotas, and manovāhasrotas
• Know basic information about iḍā, piṅgala, and suṣumṇā channels
• Consider possible contraindications for nāḍi śodhana
• Practice a hands-free visualization for a nāḍi śodhana practice, if you have no contraindications

Lesson 6: Recognizing and Resolving Stagnation in Breasts and Uterus

(6 videos: 01 hour, 08 mins) 

Learning Objectives:

• Be introduced to the relationship between pain and stagnation
• Be introduced to the main places stagnation occurs in women
• List some possible reasons stagnation might arise
• Understand some methods of resolution of stagnation in the main places it arises in women
• Methods of resolving causes of stagnation in general
• Have a brief overview of the four kinds of karma
• Be introduced to a difference between men and women
• Be introduced to the qualities of testosterone

By the end of this course, if you have assimilated the material, you will be able to:

• Understand the role of some major hormones in women’s physiology
• Understand how crucial sex and stress hormones in a woman’s body interact with each other
• Identify some examples of hormonal imbalance
• Understand some causes of hormonal imbalance
• Identify which of the major hormones influencing a woman are likely to be out of balance
• Understand how hormonal imbalance relates to many gynecological disorders including irregular menses, mood swings, anxiety, insomnia, panic attacks, osteoporosis, women’s type heart disease, infertility, difficult peri-menopause and menopause, endocrine disorders and other concerns
• Understand how to support hormonal balance in a woman
• Understand how the concept of duality manifests in a woman’s physiology, emotions, experiences and hormones
• Recognize when stagnation occurs in the human organism—especially for women
• Recognize the relationship between pain, masses, lumps and stagnation
• Understand how stagnation of prāṇa might arise, lead to disorders, and might be resolved
• Understand where stagnation is most likely to occur in women
• Understand possible remedial steps to address concerns arising from hormonal issues or stagnation
• Learn how to avoid lifestyle and dietary practices that contribute to hormone imbalance and stagnation
• Learn a general healthy daily routine
• Explore how prāṇāyāma practices like nāḍi śodhana have the potential to support hormonal balance and how moving prāṇa may help relieve stagnation

When can I begin this course?

Anytime. This is a stand-alone, self-paced course. Start, stop, begin again, any time that is convenient for you.

How long will it take me to complete the course?

There are approximately 8.5 hours of video spread over 18 videos; 1.5 hours of guided visualization exercises aside from what is in the videos; plus some written material that could take 30-60 minutes to read. That’s a total of about 10 hours, but it may take longer to complete the course. We recommend you take your time with the material, reviewing sections that are either particularly meaningful for you or that are unclear with one listening. There are many lessons you may well wish to repeat multiple times. You will have access to the course for one year from the time you register. It will also take you time to read Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life, strongly recommended reading for the course.

Please see, “Course Structure” above, for the length of the individual lessons.

How long will I have access to the course?

For one year. You can extend access to it for another year for 50% off the original price or 50 USD per month extension. If it has been longer than six months since your course expired, you may retake it for 50% off the original price and have one year’s renewed access from the time of that payment.

How much does it cost?

440 USD

What if I have questions on course content?

If you have questions about course content as you go along and would like support, there will be a couple options:

• you can try posting your questions on the course discussion forum, where you can discuss your learning with fellow students. The link to the discussion forum for each course appears in the right hand column on this course page and all its lesson pages. Please do not use this forum either to ask or answer other’s personal health questions. Those are best addressed by a personal health care practitioner.
• you can sign up for a tutoring option.

What if I need technical support?

Once you are a registered student, we let you know who to contact if you need technical support with the website or course.

Can I download the lessons?

No. This is a streamable video course.

Are there any required textbooks?

We highly recommend you read Balance Your Hormones, Balance Your Life: Achieving Optimal Health and Wellness through Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine and Western Science by Dr. Claudia Welch. There are benefits to reading it either before or after taking the course. The course and book have some overlapping material but are mostly designed to complement each other.

You also may find Dr. Welch’s (admittedly rather dry) Secrets of the Mind: The 10 Channels Revealed useful if you are interested in references to classical material that Dr. Welch used to develop the perspective she has on the material she covers in this class, but it is not necessary.

Is there a quiz?

Yes, there is an exam at the end of the course. They are not tricky questions. All questions relate to the stated objectives listed for the course or are directly from the course material. A passing grade is 80%.

Can I have a certificate of completion?

Yes. Once you have successfully completed the course and quiz, you will have the option to print out a certificate that will include your name, the name of this course and the number of course hours. Please download, save and print out your certificate before your access to the course expires. Even if you don’t want it now, you might want it later. If you don’t download your certificate before your access to the course expires, you can request it in the future but we may no longer have access to it and, even if we do, it takes some fiddling and time to get one for and to you, so there will be a $50 administration fee for this service.

Where can I find answers to questions about the legality of practicing Ayurveda, about certification, or NAMA issues?

This course is worth 11 NAMA (TIA) hours. These hours are listed on your certificate of completion.  

For information on NAMA, legal requirements and our courses, kindly see https://drclaudiawelch.com/resources/ayurvedic-certification-licensure/

Does this course fulfill the requirements for CEUs for licensed health care practitioners that are not Ayurvedic professionals?

At this time we are not pre-approved CEU providers for health care professions other than the field of Āyurveda. However, you will have your certificate of completion, which will provide the title of the course, your name, and course hours. This may or may not be sufficient for the organization requiring your CEUs. We encourage you to contact your organization to determine what we could do to support you getting CEU credits for Dr. Welch’s programs. If there is additional documentation that you need, we’d be happy to support you with this for a nominal fee. What that nominal fee would be, depends on the documentation you would need. Please contact our office if you have any questions about this.

What is your refund policy?

We do not offer refunds for online courses. We have tried to provide clear descriptions of our courses; please review this information before purchasing.

Is there an option for financing?

US residents can use the PayPal finance option to pay, when purchasing the course. The PayPal finance option has 0 payments and 0 interest if you pay within 6 months (subject to PayPal credit approval). Beyond 6 months, there would be a 19.99 % interest rate. To choose this option, when you go through the checkout line you will reach the PayPal page where you can choose to pay via your own credit card, via your PayPal account, or via PayPal Credit. Choose PayPal credit. If you haven’t done this before, PayPal will ask some questions to check your credit before approving. Once approved, your transaction will go through and you will have access to the course without needing to pay anything for 6 months. However, to get the zero-interest rate, please remember to pay what you can at the end of the 6 months.