History of SAMA
SAMA, which stands for the
Swiss Ayurvedic Medical Academy, is the Sanskrit word for ‘balance’. The name
thus represents the very principles of health in Ayurveda.
SAMA was born of a working
partnership between Jean-Pierre Bigler, ayurvedic practitioner and yoga therapist
who trained in India and in Europe and, in 2000, opened one of French-speaking
Switzerland’s first ayurvedic centres, and Doctor Simone Hunziker, general
practitioner specialising in alternative medicine who, in 1996, set up a
multi-discipline treatment and alternative medicine centre in Lausanne.
The multi-discipline centre
originally planned to bring together various differing approaches, among them
homeopathy, acupuncture, phytotherapy and osteopathy, as offered by recognised
therapists, to arrive at an understanding of the best, the most complete way of
treating the patient. But, it being true that the sum of all the parts do not
necessarily make the whole, it took the coming-together of Doctor Simone
Hunziker, Jean-Pierre Bigler, and Ayurveda to reach the turning-point. What was
needed was the promotion and development of ayurvedic medicine. This meant
setting up a centre of reference that would combine clinical practice with
teaching, based on the founding principles of Ayurveda. After two years of
close collaboration, in January 2003 Hunziker and Bigler opened a centre for therapy
and professional training in ayurvedic medicine, Kalaguna-Sadhana, in Vevey.
All ayurvedic consultations
and treatments are conducted along the traditional principles. But it was the
desire to take medical consultations onto a higher level that drove Dr
Hunziker, from late 2007, to improve her own knowledge of ayurvedic medicine by
making regular visits to India. This enabled her to find both top-level Indian
partner bodies, and the ideal medical environment. At the same time as
developing the vision, planning and networking for creating the ISA Foundation,
she coached the first-ever Swiss student who underwent university-level Ayurveda
training in India (BAMS).
From 2001, ayurvedic
classes have been held regularly at the centre, first in Lausanne then in
Vevey. The professional school, in the proper sense of the term, was set up in
2004. In 2011 Jean-Pierre Bigler obtained the Federal Diploma qualifying him as
an academic director entitled to train teachers, and the school received the
official eduQua certification (the Swiss quality label for professional adult
education, recognised by the government).
From 2005, Dr Hunziker has
been actively engaged in professional policy-making, the aim being to get
ayurvedic medicine officially recognised, both nationally and internationally,
within the framework of complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM. In line
with these developments and her international activities, in 2009 the centre
changed name, becoming the Swiss Ayurvedic Medical Academy (sàrl).