Dr. Christine Slavik is Department Head and an Associate Professor in the Child, Youth, and Family Studies Department at the University of the Fraser Valley. Previously she was the Director of Child Life at British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital. She has been employed as a Child and Youth Care Counsellor, and as a nurse in psychiatry/mental health. Christine teaches the Child Life and Community Health course as the foundation for the Child Life Specialization and is faculty liaison for the Child Life Internship.
Dr. Slavik holds a Certificate in Appreciative Inquiry Facilitation and is a Certified Trainer of the Appreciative Leadership Development Program. She is a Qualified Facilitator in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction through the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts. She developed and teaches the Wellness and Mindfulness-Based Practices course which is required in the CYC degree program and is open to students across the university. Students from criminology, psychology, kinesiology, social work, philosophy, and teacher education, as well as community members have registered in the course.
Christine has completed a series of research projects exploring mindfulness-based practices and contemplative pedagogy in both the K-12 and university settings, and teaches the Introduction to MBSR and neurobiology of mindfulness regularly on campus and in the community. Most recently Christine completed her Labyrinth Facilitator training through Veriditas, and is working with campus planning to develop a permanent labyrinth installation on the grounds of UFV.