Five years ago, Marla’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. What happened next changed everything.

When the diagnosis came, Marla moved home to be with her. Together they found their way to The San Diego Clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, where two extraordinary doctors showed them what truly integrative medicine looks and feels like. The doctors’ belief in Marla’s ability to help her mother became the catalyst that re-aligned her life deeply with her dharma, her life purpose.

But the roots of that calling go back much further.

Ever since 2001, at her first hatha yoga class in a small town in the South of France, a desire ignited in Marla to deeply understand the spiritual and natural laws upon which yoga was founded. That journey took her into ashram life, personal Ayurvedic study, and years of living the questions that most people only read about.

After her time with the doctors in Mexico, Marla left a career in education and the nonprofit sector and stepped fully into the work she had always felt called to: natural and integrative health. It led her to Asheville, to The Ayurvedic Institute, and to three years of intensive study under one of the world’s most respected teachers of Ayurveda, Dr. Vasant Lad. Marla was finally pursuing her dream of serving others on their healing journeys.

This summer, that path is leading her to India.

The opportunity

Dr. Lad was born and trained in India, and his panchakarma clinic, the Vasanta Institute of Ayurveda, is where classical Ayurveda is practiced in its most authentic form. This summer, Marla has been invited to apprentice with him there and at his city clinic, experiencing firsthand what she has spent three years learning in a classroom.

This is not a trip she takes lightly. It represents 25 years of moving toward this work, and a pivotal, irreplaceable step as she completes her training as an Advanced Ayurvedic Practitioner and prepares to bring this medicine fully into the world.

What panchakarma actually is

Panchakarma is Ayurveda’s most profound healing and rejuvenating process: deeply cleansing, deeply restorative, and yes, a bit hardcore. It works at the level of the tissues, the nervous system, and the mind.

Marla will undergo a full two-week panchakarma program while she is there. This will not only support her own health but give her something no textbook can: the embodied knowledge of what her future clients will experience when she facilitates it for them.

There is a difference between a practitioner who has studied a treatment protocol and one who has lived it. Marla is committed to being the second kind.

What your support makes possible

The total cost of travel, panchakarma treatment, lodging, and living expenses for this trip is $7,975. As a full-time student fully committed to completing this training, Marla is asking for the support of the people who know her, believe in this work, and want to see it flourish in the world.

Your contribution will help Marla:

• Travel to India to study under Dr. Vasant Lad at his panchakarma clinic and city clinic

• Complete a full two-week panchakarma program as a patient, not just a practitioner

• Deepen her understanding of classical Ayurvedic herbal formulas, body therapies, diet, and lifestyle at the source

• Bring this knowledge back to the clients and communities she is here to serve

Why it matters

The people Marla works with are navigating chronic illness, hormonal imbalance, stress, grief, and the ordinary and extraordinary challenges of being human. They deserve a practitioner who has gone all the way in. Who has sat with the teachers, received the treatments, and brought the wisdom home in her bones, not just her notebook.

This trip is that.

And she cannot do it without your help.

If you are able to give, it means more than words can say.

If a financial gift is not possible right now, sharing this page with even one person who might resonate with Marla’s story is just as meaningful.

Thank you for believing in Ayurveda and in nature's ability to heal. Thank you for believing in her.