We were lucky to catch up with Tanja Bungardt-Price recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tanja, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

This may not sound at first as a story of “what did my parents do right”, however it turned out to be the most important wisdom of my father, that guided me to discover my dharma.

When I was 6 years old my mother died of mental illness, she committed suicide. The biggest gift my father was able to give me at that time was to tell me truth about her and her death and not to ever make me feel shame or embarrassment about who my mother was and how she died. He also made sure I was aware of the possible genetic burden I might have inherited, making me aware of possible depression, and other mental illnesses that she might have passed on to me.

Growing up I had no shame about my mother, or her death and I learned that anybody and everybody could get imbalanced in body, mind and spirit. I knew that I had to learn to be aware of my mind and body and that it was just as important to be healthy and balanced in body as it was in mind.

I think that was why I was looking for integrative, holistic tools to do this and found first yoga, meditation, pranayama, Ayurveda and qigong. I fell in love with these ancient holistic practices that I became a teacher and practitioner wanting to share these amazing healing and balancing tools.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was born and raised in Germany and came to this country for love in 1992. I have always been looking for a way to balance body, mind and spirit due to my mother’s mental illness and suicide when I was 6. I first discovered yoga and meditation. I fell in love with how it made me feel physically, emotionally and spiritually. For the first time I felt connected to the divine and the world and beauty around me, truly understanding that this beauty was also inside of me. As part of my yoga journey, I went to India to dive deeper into the practice and while there discovered Ayurveda, the ancient holistic medicine.
I came back to the US and started my studies of Ayurveda. I am now a NAMA board certified Ayurvedic practitioner, yoga and qigong teacher.
My husband Bill, a massage therapist and Panchakarma therapist and I now own an Ayurvedic practice in Tucson Arizona. I do the consultations and he gives the treatments. We both love to educate and spread the knowledge and wisdom of Ayurveda. We facilitate workshops, lectures, trainings and all kinds of classes on yoga, Ayurveda and qigong.

We also do Panchakarmas here in Tucson, which are ayurvedic cleanses and detoxifications. It is just the two of us and we are not able to have our own big ayurvedic wellness center where people can stay overnight. This has pros and cons. The pros are that we can make it possible for everyone to be able to afford a full panchakarma by doing it from their own home or an Airbnb. The clients have to do their own cooking after detailed instructions.

Clients can come for some of the treatments without a consultation first. However a lot of the treatments are very specialized to the clients’ unique needs and require a consultation first, so we can prepare the oils and herbs specific for them.
Ayurveda always amazes me and its healing abilities of diseases and imbalances.

A lot of my clients are coming to me with autoimmune diseases, digestion challenges, insomnia, anxiety, depression, PTSD, hormone imbalances and more because they are not finding enough help from western medicine, are discouraged by the side effects from their medications or just want an additional tool for their imbalances.

The tool belt of an ayurvedic practitioner is big. We use food as medicine, herbs, lifestyle changes, meditation, pranayama (breathing techniques), dinacharyas (daily routines), gem stones, aromatherapy, color therapy, sound therapy (mostly mantras) and more.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Being empathetic and being compassionate but keeping good energetic boundaries. It is important to truly understand the trauma your clients have been through and to know how deeply it has impacted them not just emotionally but also spiritually and physical manifestations in the form of diseases. It is also very important to learn to protect yourself from taking on their trauma.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Always word to mouth from your existing clients is the best. The clients share their success stories with friends and family. The second most successful way for us is giving lectures and workshops where we educate people on Ayurveda and the way it could help them or their loved ones in their lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.yogalish.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ananda_ayurveda_yogalish/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/AnandaAyurvedaWellness
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/tanjabungardtprice