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IRI Events
Level II Training at Anubhuti (San Francisco Bay Area, Novato, CA)
Fri Jul 5 2013
3-Day Silent Retreat with Joan Ruvinsky (Garrison, NY)
Wed Jul 24 2013
Level I Training at Anubhuti (San Francisco Bay Area, Novato, CA).
Sat Aug 24 2013
Weekend Retreat with Kelly Boys and James Reeves (London, UK)
Sun Aug 25 2013
Retreat at Kripalu with Richard Miller (Stockbridge, MA)
Wed Aug 28 2013
Level I Training (Columbus, Ohio)
Fri Aug 30 2013
Personal Practice Immersion Retreat with Kelly Boys and James Reeves (Herefordshire, UK)
Sun Sep 22 2013
Level II Training 2013 (Kripalu - Stockbridge, MA)
Fri Oct 4 2013
Level I Training (Banff, AB, Canada)
Thu Oct 24 2013
7-Day Retreat with Richard Miller (Edmonton, AB, Canada)
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Executive Team
Director of Operations
Certified iRest Teacher
San Rafael, CA
Kelly Boys graduated from university in British Columbia, Canada with a BA in Intercultural Religious Studies and Third World Development. She is a certified hatha yoga, EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and certified iRest® Yoga Nidra teacher and is currently the Director of Operations for the Integrative Restoration Institute. She recently taught the first iRest Yoga Nidra training that was delivered in-house to a group of mental health care professionals at the VA in southern California.
She has experience working with leadership development companies such as the Tom Peters Company as well as a company that organizes leadership trainings based on The Leadership Challenge written by Jim Kouzes and Barry Pozner.
She has taught iRest Yoga Nidra to US veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI), as well as to women in prisons, cancer survivors, and those with substance abuse addictions. She also participated in a yoga therapy program for active-duty soldiers with PTSD at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC. She began studying with Richard Miller, the founder of iRest, in 2007.
She is currently teaching at the San Bruno jail for male veterans. Click here for a story on this work! She has recently begun teaching a combination of dance and meditation at the various retreats and trainings offered through the Integrative Restoration Institute, as well as locally in the San Francisco Bay area.
“Radiance, joy, love of truth, and the true Spirit of Yoga are alive and well, shining brightly through Kelly Boys and the teachings she brings forward into the world. I highly recommend you spend time partaking in the inner joy you will uncover within yourself as you experience her classes.” ~ Richard Miller, PhD
Visit Kelly's website here
Project Manager
Certified iRest Teacher
San Francisco Bay Area
I’m honored to be part of a team that is bringing forth the life changing practice of iRest Yoga Nidra. Whether I’m publishing the monthly newsletter, helping organize an event or answering emails, as Project Manager for the Integrative Restoration Institute, my responsibilities keep me engaged in the day-to-day activities of work for a non-profit organization.
This work is deeply important to me. When I came to this practice in 2007, I had spent my entire adult life battling chronic depression and a debilitating anxiety disorder. After years of struggle, I found in Richard Miller’s teachings, a way to stop, turn around, and face life in a way I had never done before. This simple act of welcoming was the beginning of a radical transformation that fundamentally changed my life.
Now, as a Certified iRest Teacher, I’m so grateful to be able to share what I’ve learned with others. I have taught iRest Yoga Nidra to populations including veterans and the homeless and I work with individuals suffering from anxiety & depression and substance abuse issues.
I have found that we all have a capacity to meet life as it is and in every moment to recognize our inherent freedom. iRest offers us a direct pointer to that freedom as well as a path. Through my work at IRI, it is my deepest intention to serve others in support of their own recognition of freedom and to continue to contribute to IRI’s mission of helping people resolve their pain and suffering by rediscovering their essential wholeness and their interconnectedness with all of life.
iRest Certified Teacher (Level V Supervisor)
Kimberley, BC, Canada
IRI Director of Certification
YA500 Yoga Teacher
Kirsten has been a student of Richard Miller's since 1998 when she attended her first Retreat into Stillness. After this retreat, she began to find a sense of peace and self acceptance that kept her returning to retreat after retreat, digging deeper for the source of this new-found ease in her life.
The first iRest Level I training in 2006 put a context and a framework to the work that had been changing her life and informing her yoga teaching since she began working with Richard nearly nine years prior. It all began to fall into place.
Kirsten has since become an active member of the iRest team, helping to develop the iRest Trainings, refining the training format and material, and, along with a supportive team, create the iRest Teacher Certification program.
Kirsten’s particular interest in iRest is in effectively spreading these teachings to as many people as possible. There is nothing more delightful to her than watching the incredible transformation that occurs as a student of iRest begins to get a taste of the ease, acceptance, and peace that she began to find for herself so many years ago. In her local community, she offers multi-week iRest courses to yoga students as well as the general public. She travels to offer introductory weekends, retreats, as well as assist at iRest Trainings.
Director of Marketing
Certified iRest Teacher
Oak Park, CA
Samantha has been a life long student of meditation. She began formal study of meditation and Asian texts as a junior in high school. Soon after, she began instruction in Yang Style Tai Chi and Qi Gong. While studying in London in her twenties, she dived into deeper practice at the London Buddhist Center. Around this time is when she discovered Yoga.
Samantha’s 200 hour certification is in Veda Yoga and Ayurveda. Her advanced studies have been with Richard Miller, Lisa Walford, Erich Schiffmann, Tracey Rich and Ganga White, as well as respected leaders in the meditation community. She has completed specialized training to teach to children, at-risk communities, those dealing with Post Traumatic Stress (PTS), insomnia, chronic pain, anxiety, depression, abuse, and in hospice.
As a teacher, she currently offers iRest in group and individual sessions in healthcare facilities, at her studio and in private practice. Samantha is dedicated to supporting her students as they make subtle, yet powerful shifts toward greater health and happiness. iRest, Yoga, and mindfulness practices are integrated creatively and compassionately so that the teachings are accessible and empowering for all regardless of age or ability. Students can successfully incorporate what they learn into everyday life resulting in lower stress, more energy, better sleep, greater ease of being, clarity and peace.
Samantha enjoys hiking, swimming and building sandcastles with her family. She lives in Oak Park, CA and is an active volunteer in her community.
"If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation."
-Krishnamurti
You can reach Samantha at Samantha(at)irest.us or visit her website:
BA in Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology, Sonoma State University
with special training in Child Development, Gestalt Therapy, Art Therapy, EcoPsychology, Rites of Passage, Community Based Research, Counseling Psychology, Nutrition (food and mood, Celiac Disease).
Professional Training:
Integrative Restoration - iRest Yoga Nidra:
Level I, Level II, Level III Certification Program
Yoga Therapy (Ananda Seva)
Pachamama Facilitator: Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream
Memberships:
Psi-Chi: National Honors Society in Psychology
Association of Contextual Behavioral Science
International Association of Yoga Therapists
Research (presented at the Western Psychological Association Conference, May 2003):
Positive and Negative Qualities in Relationships: Perspectives From an Inmate Population
Experience with the following populations/settings:
Homeless women and children
Women and men in recovery from chemical dependency
Severely handicapped children and adults
Children with developmental disabilities
Juvenile hall and probation camp for adjudicated youth
Acute psychiatric unit
Death and Dying
Celiac Disease and nutrition
Dedicated Practitioner:
Soul Motion (authentic movement)
Nondual Wisdom Traditions
Integral Psychology and Spirituality
