The Power of Panchakarma

By: Dr. Denise Renye

Close-up of a person's arms, using a tincture bottle to drop oil onto one arm with the other hand holding the dropper, highlighting the holistic nature of Ayurvedic healing.

As a San Francisco Bay Area yoga and somatic therapist, the mind-body connection is one I explore regularly with my patients, clients, and students. The mind and body are one despite some people’s insistence otherwise.

On the journey to becoming a certified yoga therapist, I studied Ayurveda. Ayurveda is an ancient medical system that is natural and holistic. It is what paved the way for Traditional Chinese Medicine. While someone who studies to become an Ayurvedic doctor, practitioner, or scholar spends many years of rigorous study, I merely took a module in the ancient practice.

An Ayurvedic healing modality that I experienced first hand earlier this year, is panchakarma, typically done as a retreat of three, seven, 10, or more often 30 days. Panchakarma is a Sanskrit word that means “five actions” or “five treatments.” It’s an Ayurvedic treatment program for the mind, body, and consciousness that seeks to cleanse and rejuvenate. Functioning in tandem with Indian psychology, Ayurveda is not only a healing system, it’s a science and art for balanced living that creates longevity.

According to Ayurveda, every person is a unique expression of cosmic consciousness with various combinations of the five basic elements: ether, air, fire, water, and earth. Determining your combination (also called dosha), can guide your choice of diet, living habits, and exercise to restore balance in your mind, body, and life. When balance is disturbed, that’s when diseases and disorders occur, according to Ayurveda.

The vata dosha is a combination of ether and air. Pitta is a combination of fire and water. Kapha is water and earth. Your constitution is determined in utero and you can have varying degrees of each element. In other words, you can be pitta dominant, vata-pitta, pitta-kapha, etc. 

Panchakarma is a process for restoring the body to order and balance. And when the body is back in balance, the mind is also affected. In other words, depression, anxiety, and other mental health symptoms may be lifted or lessened. I see this frequently in my work as a San Franciso Bay Area yoga therapist and somatic psychologist – the body easily expresses what the mind experiences.

To start the process of panchakarma, the body must be encouraged to release toxins, which is done with the procedures snehan and svedana. Snehan is a particular kind of oil massage that moves toxins toward the GI tract to encourage removal. Svedana is a steam bath to encourage sweating. From there, depending on your dosha, you will engage in vamana, virechan, basti, nasya, rakta moksha, or a mix of any of these.

Vamana is therapeutic vomiting to eliminate excess mucus in the lungs. It can also release repressed emotions such as grief.

Virechan is purgation therapy or a therapeutic laxative to remove excess bile and can lessen the feeling of anger.

Abhyanga is an integral part of the panchakarma experience. It is an oil massage using herb-infused medicinal oils. This is done to decrease stress and to lubricate the joints and connective tissue. It is typically an essential part of the panchakarma retreat and something that is often suggested to do at home after one learns how. This can become part of one’s dinacharya, or daily self-care routine.

Basti is a word used for a few different types of panchakarma treatments. One is an enema therapy to support the proper elimination and retention of feces, urine, bile, and other excreta. It can also help you eliminate toxic people, places, or situations.  There are also “Kati Basti” treatments that are herb-infused hot oil treatments contained inside of a dam or barrier used to treat the lower back (lumbar spine and sacrum). There is also “Hrid Basti,”  a basti done by creating a reservoir with flour and water to hold medicated herbal oil to treat the cardiac muscles as well as to assist in the release of deep-seated grief.

Nasya clears the nasal and sinus passages to allow for more prana, or life force energy to flow. This treatment can improve mental faculties such as memory and concentration. It might spark creativity or awaken a part of yourself that was long dormant, such as your inner child.

Rakta moksha is a blood-cleaning and purifying treatment. The traditional method involves blood-letting or the use of leeches but more modern techniques use herbs, gem therapy, or color water therapy. This method can help with any stagnancy in your life.

Shirodhara is a treatment in which a steady stream of warm, herb-medicated oils are poured through a curvaceous copper vessel onto the third eye and across the forehead for an extended period of time. Depending on dosage, this treatment has been known to clear the mind and improve concentration.

I went on a panchakarma retreat earlier this year and experienced a profound and deep transformation  on all levels. I have undergone many different types of transformative experiences in my life and this one took me to many different realms. During the shirodhara treatment in particular, I felt  intense emotions, expanded consciousness, and had access to visions and seemingly different realms.

My experience with panchakarma was something akin to psychedelics. There are many avenues into exploration of the psyche, body, spirit, and the human lived experience overall. There are many ways to experience healing. And there are many ways to have mystical experiences, if that is what you seek.

I mention all this because Western psychology has its place but/and it’s relatively new. I’m a big advocate of Western psychology, after all, I did train for 15+ years in it. But acknowledging the limitations of Western psychology alone and exploring other modalities such as elements of Indian Psychology, and more specifically Ayurveda, you may deepen your embodied experience on this earth while you explore more nooks and crannies of your mind, and your life overall.

Journal prompts

·      Would I be willing to explore incorporating Ayurvedic principles into my daily routine to promote balance and harmony in my physical, mental, and emotional well-being?

·      How would exploring other ways of healing enhance my current self-care program?

·      How willing am I to expand my self-care practices?

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