Kristin Cooper-Gulak, ERYT500
The founder of the Kunga Yoga School is Kristin Cooper-Gulak, ERYT500. Kristin is a personal development coach and social entrepreneur. She is the creator of Rhythmic Flow Yoga w/the Kunga Drummers and Kunga Journeys service retreats. Rhythmic Flow workshops and Kunga Journeys are led by Kristin and her percussionist husband, Loren Gulak. Kristin was the Founder of the Wilmington Yoga Center (est 2000), which she and her husband Loren sold in 2014. She and Loren are the parents of an amazing little boy and they are grateful to practice a natural parenting and laid-back lifestyle by the sea in Wilmington, NC.
Kristin is an experienced teacher, training thousands of students and yoga teachers internationally for over 18 years. She has worked with children, seniors, and students living with cancer and HIV, and is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). Kristin has worked privately with celebrity clients including Katie Holmes and Ashley Judd, as well as corporate executives and professional athletes.
Kristin is honored to acknowledge her teachers and share the tremendous inspiration and gifts received from her teacher Donna Gardner over the course of over 15 years of friendship, mentorship and study. Donna has taught Kristin through her joyful living example the depth of a decades long meditation practice, living yoga “off the mat’, the complexities and beauty of the practice of ahimsa/non-harming, and most of all, how to maintain a sense of humor while wavering to make spiritual choices during everyday life. Kristin is also extremely grateful for her teacher Shiva Rea for her lead-by-example trail-blazing, for offering her deep body of creative works to the world, and for Shiva’s encouragement early on in Kristin’s career. Kristin is honored to have served as an assistant, mentor, and drummer for Shiva’s students during the creation of Prana Flow. Shiva is a tremendous catalyst for positive change in the world for many and is a true artist.
Kristin is a guest presenter for various teacher trainings in the U.S. and has presented at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, Yoga Works Los Angeles and other studios and resorts within the U.S. Kristin is on the teaching faculty for the Ayurvedic Health Education school. Kristin has contributed to various publications, and her interviews and writings have been featured in Yoga Journal, Huffington Post, and Live South. Kristin was the 2013 recipient of the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award for her social entrepreneurship work with orphaned girls in developing countries.
She began her studies in 1996 and her training background includes several trips to India and Thailand, with ongoing study in Thai Yoga Massage in the Lek Chaiya tradition. Her training also includes ongoing studies in the fields of Ayurveda, vegan living and macrobiotics at the Kushi Institute. She has enjoyed the benefits of a vegan diet and cruelty-free lifestyle since 1994 along with her husband and son, and shares her love of all things plant-based with passion. Her primary vinyasa studies began with Shiva Rea in 2000 and have continued for many years, and she has completed many certifications and trainings around the world in a wide-range of subjects including meditation, advanced pranayama, therapeutics, Non-Violent Communication, PTSD, and nutrition. She has been a percussionist for over 20 years and has had the honor of performing at various venues and festivals internationally with the Playing for Change Band, Joey Lugassi & Lisa Bonet, Dave Stringer, Shaman’s Dream, Daphne Tse, The Kripalu Drummers, John de Kadt, and Masankho Banda. She enjoys incorporating music and many teaching modalities into her trainings and feels that all forms inform one another and have the same goal of union, or “yoga”.
Kristin is so grateful for the endless love and friendship from her husband Loren Gulak and Noelle Whittington-her rocks of support- from the early creation years of the Kunga Yoga School to it’s evolution today. Kristin and the Kunga Yoga School team are thankful for the opportunity to use yoga, nature, food, art, play and music as the “universal languages” and platforms for collaboration, education, and peace-making around the world.
For more information on Kristin and upcoming programs and service events, please fill out the form below: