Siri Bhagvati / Billie Atherstone has been working in the field of health sciences and yoga for 20 years.  She is a Kundalini Yoga Therapist and teacher, a Professional KRI Teacher Trainer and works as a Kinesiologist and Bowen Therapist.  She lives in Melbourne, Australia and is the co-owner of Kundalini House, a Complementary Health Clinic and Yoga Studio.  She and her sister opened the business in 2006 with the vision to create a centre where people could be supported to meet their health and wellbeing outcomes with yoga and a wide range of body and talking therapies, including acupuncture, psychology and yoga therapy. (www.kundalinihouse.com.au)

Since 2014, Siri Bhagvati has focused on Yoga Therapy with the Guru Ram Das Center (grdcenter.org) and is a member of the faculty team, teaching open courses and courses within its professional accredited Kundalini Yoga Therapy training.  In her clinical work, she has been successfully running specialised courses and one on ones for people in the recovery of trauma, PTSD and health recovery.

“Co- facilitate a 45-minute breakout room workshop on the application of Kundalini Yoga for trauma”

Kundalini Yoga is known to be effective for the nervous system. In this breakout room we will explore using Kundalini Yoga therapeutically as an approach to address trauma and the disregulation of the autonomic nervous system, drawing on insights from Kundalini Yoga Therapy and the Polyvagal Theory.

The Science and Research on Kundalini Yoga for Anxiety

Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa, PhD, C-IAYT, YACEP, brings the ancient teachings of Kundalini Yoga into modern medicine. She directs the 1,120 hour IAYT accredited International Kundalini Yoga Therapy Professional Training and coordinates outcome studies on the medical effects of yoga practice. Dr. Khalsa’s Yoga Therapy program for people living with HIV is featured in Yoga as Medicine by Timothy McCall, and her groundbreaking work in Kundalini Yoga Therapy is featured in Yoga Therapy and Integrative Medicine: Where Ancient Science Meets Modern Medicine.

Keval Kaur Khalsa, MA, RYT-500, YACEP, is a Kundalini Yoga Teacher, Teacher Trainer and Mentoring Coach, Y.O.G.A. for Youth Teacher Trainer, and Professor Emerita at Duke University where she taught for 32 years and served as Director of the Dance Program for 7 years. Keval Kaur has coordinated Y.O.G.A. for Youth programming in North Carolina for 16 years and developed and implemented the online version of the Y.O.G.A. for Youth specialty training. Along with Dr. Michele Tracy Berger, Prof. Khalsa conducted a multi-year research study on the effects of yoga and meditation on public middle school students supported by Duke University’s Bass Connections Initiative. Keval Kaur is the owner of Kundalini Yoga Durham, a donation-based studio in Durham, North Carolina. Keval Kaur is committed to the utilization of the embodied practices of yoga, dance and theater as tools for personal and social transformation, particularly with communities often identified as “underserved” or “at risk”.

15-minute Research Lecture: Prof. Khalsa will overview the design, implementation and results of a research study conducted with adolescents participating in Kundalini yoga-based Y.O.G.A. for Youth programming as part of afterschool programs in public middle schools in Orange County, North Carolina.

45-minute Youth Breakout Session: Yoga for Youth Yoga is becoming recognized as a promising tool for developing social emotional learning, physical fitness and mindfulness in children, and is being implemented both formally and informally in educational settings. This breakout session will be an open space to discuss best practices for delivering yoga programming to youth in educational settings, conducting research in educational settings, and challenges and opportunities within the yoga in education field.