About Nicki

About Nicki

 With a background as both a lawyer and an academic, Nicki’s discovery of yoga was epiphanic. She moved from South Africa where she was born and raised, to Antwerp, Belgium at a moment where the local practice of yoga was in its infancy. Her life’s path shifted profoundly as she began to explore yoga through intense practice and theoretical study.

Nicki was fortunate to learn and practice under various teachers and masters over the course of 2 decades. She is a registered yoga teacher (E-RYT) of the Yoga Alliance, certified in diverse yogic lineages including Ashtanga Vinyasa, Vinyasa Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Yin Yoga and is a certified Kundalini Yoga and Meditation Teacher through Kundalini Research Institute (KRI) as well as a prenatal yoga teacher trained in the Khalsa Way and other prenatal practices. She has also been trained in teaching yoga to children.

With a background as both a lawyer and an academic, Nicki’s discovery of yoga was epiphanic. She moved from South Africa where she was born and raised, to Antwerp, Belgium at a moment where the local practice of yoga was in its infancy. Her life’s path shifted profoundly as she began to explore yoga through intense practice and theoretical study.

Nicki was fortunate to learn and practice under various teachers and masters over the course of 2 decades. She is a registered yoga teacher (E-RYT) of the Yoga Alliance, certified in diverse yogic lineages including Ashtanga Vinyasa, Vinyasa Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Yin Yoga and is a certified Kundalini Yoga and Meditation Teacher through Kundalini Research Institute (KRI) as well as a prenatal yoga teacher trained in the Khalsa Way and other prenatal practices. She has also been trained in teaching yoga to children.

Nicki Forman founded Aruna Yoga, a syncretic yoga practice, drawing on multiple yogic lineages with a focus on releasing stress, tension, trauma and emotional blocks.  Aruna Yoga is a practice of self enquiry and integrates syncretic modalities beyond yoga, using TRE, art and creativity to bring the practitioner to a state of optimal well-being. 

Nicki Forman developed the Yoga Alliance (200 and 500 hours) registered Aruna Yoga Teacher Training, with over 100 graduates registered according to the YA standards and offering accredited Yoga Alliance continuing education (YACEP®). She is the author of The Aruna Yoga Teacher Training Manual, The Aruna Yoga Manual on Āsana or Yoga Poses and The Fluidity of Form (due 2025). She created the extensive online academic yoga training platform, www.arunayoga.online.

She is a certified Trauma Release Provider as developed by Dr David Berceli as well as a certified Journey Practitioner of The Journey Method, as developed by Brandon Bays.

In addition to the Teacher Training program, Nicki offers Trainings for TRE for personal use, Aruna Yoga mentorship programs, Trainings for Yoga and TRE for Multiple Sclerosis, and works to integrate Aruna Yoga as a conjunctive treatment for cancer and autoimmune disease.

Nicki has developed, teaches and mentors an ongoing program for Ezer Mitzion, an Israel based NGO, focusing on optimising healing for women with MS. She also leads Aruna Yoga and TRE workshops for soldiers.

Nicki also leads bespoke retreats for various Israeli and Palestinian peacebuilding NGOs bringing the tools of Aruna Yoga to peacebuidling strategists in the Middle East.

Nicki has also led an Aruna Yoga and TRE® for Personal Use Training for the Nobel Women’s Initiative: Sister to Sister Mentorship Program: December 2021.

Nicki is a core faculty member of the One to One Future Leaders Program which offers leadership programs for world changers from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, from its inception in 2021 until today. Nicki teaches as part of the core curriculum in the seasonal cohorts as well as offering monthly yoga sessions for the alumni.

Nicki’s academic qualifications include a BA (University of Witwatersand); LL B (University of Witwatersand), MA (University of Antwerp); and admission as a lawyer to the South African Board of Attorneys. She worked briefly as a lawyer on the development of the South African Constitution in post-Apartheid South Africa and in a Women’s Rights NGO in Brussels in 1998. She was an academic at the University of Antwerp from 1999-2001.

Nicki is also an artist who uses art and the creation of yantra (sacred symbol) and sacred geometry as a practice of meditation. She includes art as part of the Aruna process as an additional tool in the practice of self enquiry.

Nicki is also a mother of 3 and lives in Israel where she runs Beit Aruna and she teaches Aruna Yoga offering weekly classes, trainings, local and international retreats and workshops with a focus on disseminating the practice both for personal use and as a teacher training to leaders in various areas, including conflict areas, health and education.