Adult Education
Adult Education
Faculty
Adult Education
Online
email SarahSarah Kinsley is grateful to live on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen (Esquimalt and Songhees) and W̱SÁNEĆ nations on beautiful Vancouver Island. Sarah is a guest and teacher on traditional territories of the Stó:lō (People of the river) on which the University of Fraser Valley is located.
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Indigenous Studies from Trent University and has had the privilege to study and train with Indigenous Elders and Traditional Indigenous Knowledge holders in the field of healing.
Sarah is a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with the B.C. Association of Clinical Counsellors and provides counselling services for First Nations Health Authority. She holds a Bachelor of Education from Queen’s University and a Master of Education in Counselling from the University of Victoria. Sarah is a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (SETM) certified through the Somatic Experiencing® Trauma Institute.
Sarah has extensive training in Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) including Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). She has completed the MBCT Facilitation Certificate and the Advanced Teacher Training Intensive at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies in Toronto. Sarah has offered MBCT courses at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies and various locations in Victoria.
Sarah is a former Primary School teacher and served as a senior facilitator at Mindfulness Without Borders, an organization that brings practices in mindfulness and social-emotional learning to advance mental health and well-being in youth, their educators, school teams and health professionals.
At the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies, she co-created, coordinated and facilitated the Embodied Mind stream of the Certificate of Applied Specialization in Mindfulness Meditation. Sarah continues to facilitate workshops at the University of Toronto and has presented at the Mindful Society Conference in Toronto.
In 2014, Sarah approached Royal Roads University with the idea to create a similar certificate to the one offered at the University of Toronto. Sarah co-created the Integrated Mindfulness Certificate in Professional and Continuing Studies. Today, she continues to teach the core and elective courses. Recently, Sarah presented on the ‘Attitude of Gratitude’ at the B.C. Mindfulness Summit at the University of Victoria.
Along with formal Mindfulness training, Sarah has been a student of Buddhism for over twenty years and is grateful for her teachers in the Zen, Vajrayana and Theravadan traditions. She has been fortunate to participate in many retreats with various teachers from True North Insight including Molly Swan, Norman Feldman and Pascal Auclair. For the last 10 years, she has facilitated Yoga at various retreats for True North Insight.
Sarah has received teachings from the His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and Thích Nhất Hạnh.
Other influential teachers include: Christopher Titmuss, Pema Chödrön, Lama Rodney Devenish, Carly Forest, Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche, Ajahn Viradhammo, Ajahn Kusalo and various teachers at Open Dharma in India including Ajay Singh.
One of Sarah’s many passions is sharing the practices of Yoga as a mindfulness-based practice. Sarah is a registered Yoga teacher for adults and children (E-RYT 500, RCYT). She has completed four Yoga Teacher Training courses and has studied with various schools in North America and Asia, including Yoga Vidya Gurukul: Institute for Research and Education in Yoga, The Sanada Devi School of Yoga, Yoga in Your School and Insight Yoga with Carly Forest.
Most recently, she studied Trauma Sensitive Yoga with David Emerson and Bessel van der Kolk. Sarah is grateful for her time at The Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria where she received a fellowship to write “Yoga Therapy: Ancient Therapy for Today’s Body, Mind and Spirit”, a textbook chapter used in counselling programs throughout North America. She enjoys teaching Yoga classes and Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher trainings courses in Victoria and Toronto.
While many are still adapting to online learning, Adult Education at UFV has been leading the way! I’ve taken online courses from other institutions, and UFV’s dedication to technologies made for my best overall online learning experience. The most important thing about my experience at UFV is the feeling that I mattered to the school and my instructors. I wasn’t just a faceless student, even in an online environment.