Summary

Jennie Wadsten Sharma was born in Sweden 1977. She fell in love with yoga in 1997 and has been teaching yoga since 2005. Following her fascination for yoga, she has completed several teacher trainings and workshops of different styles and approaches over the years, including: Yoga Nidra, Anusara yoga, Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, Virya yoga, Vinyasa flow, Yin yoga, Meditation, Pranayama, Ayurvedic yoga massage, Nutrition and Anatomy.

She is also studying psychology: mainly ACT and how yoga effects mental health.
Right now (2024) she’s focusing on Trauma Informed Yoga and on deepening her knowledge about the brain and consciousness (Linköping University).

Jennie is the owner and manager of four companies: YogaLeela (Sweden), Yoga Treat Retreat Ltd (UK), Yoga Treat Online Ltd (UK) and Leela Network (India). 

Qualifications & Expertise

From 2012 to 2015 she was the manager of Brahmani Yoga drop-in centre at Tito’s. Back then, Brahmani was the biggest drop-in yoga studio in North Goa; founded by Julie Martin in 2003.

In 2016 she moved to South Goa and nowadays she works as a freelance business consultant, she studies psychology and trauma informed yoga and she runs retreats, workshops and teacher trainings, mainly in Ibiza, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Finland, UK, Greece, Norway and Sweden.  She also teaches yoga at studios and at corporate events, mainly in Sweden. She’s based in Goa, India and Stockholm, Sweden.

She runs very popular teacher training courses with her colleagues Melanie Cooper, Josefin Wikström, Stu Girling and Angelica Henriksson and Johanna Alvin and she’s one of the senior teachers at the advanced teacher training course at The Shala, London.

Jennie is E-RYT 500 (Experienced Yoga Teacher by Yoga Alliance, USA), YACEP (Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider), Trauma Informed Yoga Teacher (TAY) and Senior Teacher (Yoga Professionals UK). She’s also a member of IAYT (International Association of Yoga Therapists)

With her wide knowledge and extensive experience in both corporate and yoga worlds, Jennie has a unique ability to tune into the specific, individual needs of both groups; her career as an economist enables her to see group dynamics, broader perspectives, and help companies with setting up and accomplishing health care visions and goals.

Education

University courses of relevance

• Accounting, Finance (Stockholm University)
• Finance (Mittuniversitetet)
• Interactive design and media (Södertörns högskola)
• Law (Stockholm University)
• Various states of consciousness (Skövde University)
• Hindi and the Culture of India (Uppsala University),
• Consciousness and the Brain (Linköping University, present

Other courses of relevance

• Business/IT (Nackademin)
• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy for depression and anxiety (Russ Harris)
• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy for Trauma (Russ Harris)
• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy for People Pleasing and Perfectionism (Russ Harris)
• Coaching with the ACT-model, Compassion focused Coaching (Coachstjärnan)
• Nutritionist (Paulun)
• Lic. Gym instructor (SAFE)
• Pilates instructor (Gymnastikförbundet)
• Ayurvedic Yoga Massage (Dr Kumar, Mysore)
• Thai Massage (Itzhak Helman)
• Bollywood dance teacher training (Josefin Wikström)
• Mindfulness (Åsa Åhman)
• Menopause Coach/Stark genom klimakteriet (Monika Björn)

Yoga courses

• Virya Yoga
  Virya Yoga Level 1
  Virya Yoga Level 2
  Yoga & Ayurveda
  Yoga for Seniors
  Vinyasa Flow
  Therapeutic Yoga
  Sequencing
  Yoga Philosophy
  (Nordic Yoga Institute: Josephine Selander, Doug Keller etc)
• Brahmani Yoga
  Vinyasa Flow Level 1,
  Vinyasa Flow Level 2
  Restorative Yoga
  Adjustments
  Sequencing
  Pranayama & meditation
  (Brahmani Yoga: Julie Martin, Melanie Cooper, Helen Noakes, Emil Wendel, Jodi Boone, Rhys Beynon, Anouk Petzholdt, Josefin Wikström etc)
• Anusara Yoga, immersions and trainings
  (with John Friend, Jonas Westring, Neesha Zollinger, Ulla Lundgren, Todd Norian etc.)
• Yin Yoga
  (Ulrica Norberg, Paul Grilley, Sarah Powers, Melanie Cooper, Beta Lisboa, Norman Blair)
• Prenatal Yoga
  (Jodie Bone, Satsanga, Goa)

   

• Restorative Yoga
  (Jodie Bone, Satsanga, Goa)
  
• Astanga Vinyasa Yoga
  (Saraswati Jois in Mysore)
• Yoga for PTSD
  (Heather Mason, The Minded Institute)

   

• Yoga for Anxiety
  (Heather Mason, The Minded Institute)
• Prison Yoga
  (Josefin Wikström, Mumbai)
• Trauma Informed Yoga 300 hrs
  (ongoing, Josefin Wikström)
• Yoga Nidra
  (Uma Dinsmore-Tuli and Nirlipta Tuli)

   

• iRest Yoga Nidra
  (Richard Miller)

   

• Yoga Nidra & Neuroscience
  (Nirlipta Tuli)

   

• Pranayama
  (Melanie Cooper, The Shala London)

   

• SUP-Yoga
  (Nellie Rolf)

   

• Sequencing
  (Adell Bridges)

   

• Neuro-Biomechanics for Yoga Teachers
  (Celest Pereira)

   

• Yoga for Sleep disorders
  The Minded Institute 

Workshops of relevance 1997 – 2024

• Acro Yoga
• Adjustments
• Anatomy workshops
• Ashtanga Second series
• Biomechanics
• Chair Yoga
• Chakra Yoga
• Five Rhythms
• Inversions
• Iyengar Yoga
• Jivamukti Yoga
• Kundalini Yoga
• Meditation
• Pelvic Floor & yoga
• Prana Flow
• Pranayama
• Reflexology
• Restorative Yoga
• Sacred Dance
• Scaravelli Yoga
• Sequencing
• Thai Yoga massage
• Theming
• Yin yoga
• Yin Yoga for Ashtanga
• Yoga & Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
• Yoga for Anxiety
• Yoga & Ayurveda
• Yoga & Business
• Yoga & Mental health
• Yoga & Neuroscience
• Yoga & Non Violent Communication
• Yoga Philosophy
• Yoga for PTSD
• Yoga for Seniors
  
  

Workshop teachers

Her love for yoga has led her to in-depth studies with many teachers over the years – just to mention a few:

Johanna Alvin, Monika Björn, Veronika Jäderlund, Julie Martin, Josefin Wikström, Melanie Cooper, Stu Girling, Josephine Selander, Lisa Dale, Daniel Scott, Ashley Bond, Ulrica Norberg, Neesha Zollinger, Suzee and Paul Grilley, Sarah Powers, Helena Wintre, Josephine Selander, John Friend, Shiva Rea, Sarah Powers, Biff M, Norman Blair, Jonas Westring, Liz Warrington, Emil Wendel, Helen Noakes, David Life, Sharon Gannon, Nathan Gray, Todd Norian, Jonas Klingberg, Jo Cobbet, Anja Bergh, Vinn Marti, Julia Muller, Heather Mason, Celest Pereira, Adell Bridges etc.

Language skills

Swedish (fluent), English (fluent), Hindi (intermediate), German (basic), French (basic).

More about Jennie

+ She loves cats, her sons Felix & Elliot, her motorcycle (a Royal Enfield), Scandinavian design and her husband Sahil Sharma (Maybe not in that specific order…) 🙂
Ask her about her cats and she’ll love you!

– She doesn’t enjoy cooking, and she has a bad habit of eating most of her meals in front of her computer. (…with her cats.) Good thing is – her lack of cooking skills means she always eats out in India – and that’s how she met her husband! It pretty much sums up her approach to life: turning “negative” stuff into something positive. 🙂