Teacher / Therapist
I am dr. Japjeet Rajbir Kaur (° Nele Bemong in Belgium before I became a Sikh; based in the UK since 2011, most of that time in Leicester) and I have been teaching yoga for 18 years now (practicing it for over 20 years), of which 12 years full-time. I left my academic career (Belgium & USA) in 2011 to focus on teaching Yoga and offering holistic therapies as a full-time practice after teaching yoga alongside my academic work for almost 5 years first. Alongside teaching daily yoga classes I also ran 3- and 8-day yoga retreats nearly every month (about 10-12 per year) for 7 years prior to Covid, and I taught in teacher trainings around Europe. Since 2020 I have stopped travelling so intensively and my yoga teaching now mostly takes the form of regular group classes (online & in-person) and lots of 1-2-1 work alongside the holistic treatments I offer and my running of trainings in Restorative Massages and Closing the Bones work.
One of my focuses throughout has been working with women. I have been running women’s circles & women’s retreats for over a decade, and my passion for working with women guided me to become a Closing the Bones practitioner & Closing the Bones trainer for the UK & Europe over 8 years ago, and directed my focus in yoga, nutrition, aromatherapy and herbal medicine on different areas of women’s lives and womb work. A lot of what I offer is centered around fertility problems, PCOS, endometriosis, painful periods, as well as sexual and/or birth trauma, but also anxiety, depression, various mental health problems, and of course health in all its facets, as I'm also a a nutrition & health coach, a massage therapist, a (mainly postnatal) doula, life & yoga coach, and an aromatherapist who makes (bespoke) organic homemade skincare & cleaning products.
For 8 years in a row now (2017-2024), ThreeBestRated awarded me with their ‘Badge of Excellence’ as ‘Best Business of the Year’ for the category Yoga Classes in Leicester, testifying to the consistent quality of classes and services offered. I have continued studying in Ayurveda, Functional Medicine, Yin Yoga, Chinese 5 Element Theory and Meridians, Gurmat (Sikh teachings) & Brahmvidya (Advaith teachings).
Partly thanks to over a decade of working in academia writing a PhD, doing 7 years of postdoctoral research, combined with teaching and holding a Chair at Penn University in Philadelphia (US), I have build up a strong reputation for my rich knowledge and my ability to bring deeply complex teachings in a way that is very easy to understand and grasp for all, whether students have any prior knowledge or not. I am deeply spiritual yet at the same time very down-to- earth and ‘real’, and know how to make the yogic teachings practical, tangible and easy to integrate in a modern Western life. I am very open and direct in my teachings and will cut to the essence, but will always do so with a lot of love for and always in service of the students.
If you want to get to know me a bit better, here are some podcasts with myself that you might enjoy:
- Youtube Podcast from February 2025 with BosTV (Basics of Sikhi TV) on my journey into Sikhi - and really my life in total
- Youtube Podcast from March 2022 with Flawed, Foolish & Fantastic on my journey into Sikhi, life and work
- "Born for This" Podcast from July 2024 on my Closing the Bones work - Apple podcast -- Spotify podcast
Teacher
Formal Qualifications
- Kundalini Research Institute (KRI) and International Kundalini Yoga Teachers Association (IKYTA) certified Kundalini Yoga teacher (Aquarian Teacher Level 1 - 200 hrs with Gurumarka Singh & Aquarian Teacher Level 2 - 300 hrs with Karam Kriya School)
- Previously served as an Intern Teacher Trainer of the KRI Aquarian Trainer Academy, through Karam Kriya School under lead trainer Shiv Charan Singh - now resigned since July 2020.
- Certified baby, toddler, children and teenagers Yoga teacher - Radiant Child Yoga Program RCYP Level 1 & 2 (20 hrs) with Cristin Melissa Tighe, 2009
- Certified Facilitator for the Kundalini Yoga Women's Program 'Excel & Celebrate - The Radiance of Woman' (20 hrs) with Pritpal Kaur, 2009
- Certified teacher Mastering the Addictive Personality (60 hrs - KYTA certified) with Carolyn Cowan, 2014
- Specialised pregnancy (prenatal) and postnatal yoga teacher and postnatal doula (The Mother's Journey - 50 hrs), 2016
- Restorative (Yogic) Massage therapist since 2013 and trainer since 2016
- Closing the Bones Practitioner since September 2016
- Closing the Bones Trainer since October 2018
- Certified Aromatherapist
- Currently training as a Yin Yoga teacher
- Currently training as an EFT Practitioner
- PhD in Literary Studies from the K.U.Leuven (Catholic University of Leuven), Belgium, 30 May 2007.
- Masters in Germanic Languages & Literature from the K.U.Leuven, 2001.
- Bachelor in Germanic Languages & Literature from the K.U.Leuven, 1999.
Awards Won
- For 8 years in a row (2017-2024), ThreeBestRated has awarded Shuniya Kundalini Yoga with their ‘Badge of Excellence’ as ‘Best Business of the Year’ for the category ‘Yoga Classes in Leicester', testifying to the consistent prime quality of classes and services offered: https://threebestrated.co.uk/yoga-classes-in-leicester
- In 2020 - after almost a full year of online classes due to Leicester's year of lockdown - GHP (Global Health Pharma) awarded Shuniya Kundalini Yoga with their Fitness & Nutrition Awards for "Yoga School of the Year - Leicestershire": https://www.ghp-news.com/winners-list/ and https://www.ghp-news.com/winners/shuniya-kundalini-yoga/
- Shuniya Kundalini Yoga got chosen as the 2021-2022 winner 'Yoga Studio of the Year' in the Central England's Prestige Awards, and the same organisation awarded her for 2022-2023 the title 'Yoga Specialist of the Year' and for 2023-2024 'Specialist Yoga Studio of the Year'.