FAQ

Ayurvedic yoga massage is a deep tissue oil massage followed by assisted yoga stretches. As well as oils we use Acorus calamus (vekhno or vekhand or vakand) powder with the massage. This powder is very important – it makes it much more effective than an oil massage without powder. For more information, visit What is Ayurvedic Yoga Massage?

Ayurvedic in India means ‘therapeutic’ so this method of healing massage was called ‘Ayurvedic massage’. The ‘yoga’ came into the name after Kusum Modak developed what she was taught by her Ayurvedic massage guru in Pune, India, to reflect her knowledge of yoga, which she was taught by BKS Iyengar for many years. Hence ‘Ayurvedic yoga massage’.

An Ayurvedic yoga massage is tailored to suit individual clients. It can be relaxing, energising, soothing, deep or remedial depending on your needs. Sessions last between 60 to 120 minutes depending on your requirements.

This depends on the individual: how quickly your body responds; how many parts of the body need deeper work; and your priorities/what you would like to get from your session. If you’d just like to relax and have an amazing full body massage experience then we’d recommend 90 minutes. If you’d like to start working deeper on different parts of your body then it depends how many parts of the body you’d like to work on, how quickly they respond, and whether you’d still like a full body massage as well as the deeper work. Generally, muscles will respond faster if (i) they haven’t been tight for a long time, and (ii) the body is used to yoga/bodywork/something where we feel some pain, breathe into it and then feel better. Then your brain associates being in that condition with relaxation rather than with danger/injury. We can work effectively on some people in 15 minutes, if they’re experienced yoga practitioners and we only work on the tightest part of their body. Many regulars prefer 2-3 hour sessions so they can have a full body massage with extra time to work deeper on the areas needing more attention. It’s really open ended as there’s always more that can be done!

Check out our therapist directory for a list of our certified therapists. Please get in touch with us if there’s no therapist in your area and we’ll advise you further.

Despina Psarra came across Ayurvedic yoga massage in early 2011. After she completed all the training available, and due to the demand for massage practitioners, she qualified as a teacher and set up her own training school, AYM UK.

Yes, Despina gives treatments in London and Leeds. Her sessions can be anything from 15 minutes to several hours long, depending on your needs. Please visit her therapist page for more details.

On each of our workshops you’ll learn a short sequence to massage, mobilise and stretch a particular part of the body. You’ll then be split into pairs and given the opportunity to practise on each other.

Our workshops are open to anyone who has an interest in learning about this style of massage, or who would like to massage their friends and loved ones. They would also suit experienced therapists who would like to add some AYM strokes and stretches to their existing practice, and yoga teachers who want to improve their hands-on adjustments.

Each workshop is four hours long.

Our workshops run throughout the year at various locations. Please see our workshops page for our latest events.

You should absolutely come to one of our courses!

Our Certified Therapist Training courses are aimed at anyone wanting to become a professional Ayurvedic yoga massage therapist. Please note: if you have a physical disability it may still be possible to offer AYM but please get in touch to discuss this further.

In the UK we are very lucky, as we just need some insurance to start practising massage, and you don’t need to complete more than Level 1 to be able to acquire insurance. After completing even just level 1, you will be able to give treatments safely to clients, and you will be able to start charging.

However, we do of course recommend that you attend as many levels as you can, in as close a succession as you can, and that serves you. Traditionally, students would have to sign up for at least L1-4 in one go to be accepted to study AYM, if not L1-5. But we recognise that this does not align with the reality of many of our students’ lives. It can be very difficult to allocate the time and financial resources to take all the levels in one go, and also some people just want to learn to massage loved ones rather than become therapists, or their main practice is not AYM, and they just want to understand the technique and incorporate some of it into their existing practice.

We do offer interest free instalment plans, so if the problem is the financial limitations then we recommend to come to the training, and pay afterwards in instalments as you start earning. Ayurvedic Yoga Massage is a sought after and very valuable skill, so once you have trained with us, you will definitely be able to earn and pay back for your course, provided you have the time to give some massage!

The other consideration is that after you finish your course you might feel like your practice is a little clunky. So you might want to offer 15-20 discounted treatments first, before you charge a full price for your massages. This will help you get the word out about your massage too, and help you very quickly get quite a bit of experience, and practise your new techniques on many new bodies. During this time (and afterwards of course), you can always call/message Despina with any questions, you are not on your own once you finish your course with us! And after 15-20 massages, your practice should flow, and you will be able to give a high end, customised massage to any client.

Yes, you can get insurance and start working legally in the UK after completing level 1, however, your massage repertoire will be quite limited. We can recommend a company to you who can help you find the most appropriate insurance.

We do cover the basic principles of Ayurveda and dosha types if students are interested, but really Ayurveda is a science that takes years to master and you’ll get different opinions from different Ayurvedic doctors. So, instead of focusing on doshas, we focus on identifying and working on energy blockages and developing our own intuition.

Traditional Thai massage is given with the client fully clothed, so it’s not an oil massage. In AYM we can warm up and soften the muscle tissues and fascia a lot quicker through oil massage, and we can also flush fluids in and out of the body in a very effective way. AYM developed as a deep tissue oil massage followed by assisted yoga stretches, so you don’t need to study more than one modality to learn a technique that works amazingly well.

Our Certified Therapist Training courses include the syllabus requirements of The General Council of Massage Therapists – this is an umbrella organisation for massage therapist associations in the UK. You’ll receive a certificate upon completion of each course.

AYM developed in India through a long lineage of practitioners. As such, it has always been taught experientially, i.e. as a technique without the Western theory of anatomy, physiology, pathology or ethics. At AYM UK we have added the “missing” parts of the training, taught by experts in their respective fields, as we believe it’s equally valuable to learn from Western fountains of knowledge as from Eastern ones. This means that AYM UK students now fulfil the requirements of professional associations. We’re currently in the process of developing our own AYM association, as the number of trained therapists is increasing. This will provide representation and accreditation in the near future.

Yes, please get in touch for more details about this scheme.

No, this course is aimed at beginner level. The pace is adjusted to the group, which means we ensure the pace is comfortable for the students who started with the least experience. If you have previous experience of yoga and/or massage (either practising/receiving or offering treatments/teaching), you will find it easier to learn the techniques than if you don’t. So, if you don’t have any experience, and you would like to increase your confidence and make the Level 1 training a lot easier for you, then you could come to a 4-hour workshop first. Then you will already have some contact with the method, and can also get some practice before you start your L1 course, so you will find the course a lot easier. Yoga teachers wanting to deepen their knowledge of the body and adjustments are most welcome.

Find out about Level 1 here

Find out about Level 2 here

Find out about Level 3 here

Find out about Level 4 here

Find out about Level 5 here

Level 1 / 1-2: No, but an interest in massage and/or yoga would be beneficial. Yoga teachers wanting to deepen their knowledge of the body and adjustments are most welcome.

Level 2 and onwards: You need to have completed the level before it in order to progress.

The Level 1 training is 15 hours given over one weekend, i.e. 8 to 8.5 hour days including breaks.

The Level 1-2 intensive is 30 hours given over five 7-hour days, including breaks.

Traditionally Ayurvedic Massage courses deliver L1-4 all in one go, and you wouldn’t be allowed to sign up for just one or two levels! But that doesn’t fit the reality of most of our students’ lives, so we have adjusted the courses to support people who need to spread their training out a little more.

Therefore you don’t need to worry about leaving a certain amount of time between levels. In fact, we recommend that you attend your next level sooner rather than later if you can.

It’s designed so it works well either way, especially if you practise between courses. But if you complete up to Level 4 quite quickly, you’ll be more confident, better equipped to deal with a wider range of client needs and better able to design custom-made sessions.

Levels 3-4 are still early stages and a steep learning curve, so it’s best to get​ as much training as you can as soon as possible after you start practising. You can always practise for a while and come back to Level 5 later in the year.