About Kelly
Kelly Boys is a mindfulness trainer and consultant, and specializes in the NSDR (non sleep deep rest) practice called yoga nidra. She has worked with the United Nations Foundation where she co-developed and worked to deliver a mindfulness and well-being program called “Peace on Purpose” for UN humanitarian and development workers on the front lines. She has delivered the Peace on Purpose program with UNDP (UN Development Program), UNICEF, UNFPA (UN Population Fund), UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency), and UNRWA (UN Relief for Palestinian Refugees) from New York to the Middle East to Central Asia. She also co-designed a teacher training for Peace on Purpose, and co-delivered it to UNICEF global psychologists at the Garrison Institute in New York. The Peace on Purpose program is now being implemented across UN agencies and is being scaled to their global staff, with the support and guidance of the United Nations Foundation.
Her book The Blind Spot Effect was released July, 2018 in English, May, 2019 in Spanish, and September, 2019 in Chinese.
Kelly was also Director of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute's facilitator training program, launching a program to train trainers from around the world through a yearlong mastery program in the neuroscience-based emotional intelligence and mindfulness program developed at Google. She is the former Director of Operations for the Integrative Restoration Institute, where she co-taught teacher trainings and retreats for the research-based and trauma-sensitive yoga nidra protocol called iRest®.
She spent two years volunteering with James Fox of the Prison Yoga Project to create and deliver a weekly trauma-sensitive NSDR/yoga nidra and yoga program at San Quentin State Prison for incarcerated veterans, and has worked extensively in the field of trauma sensitive mindfulness, teaching yoga nidra to US veterans with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Kelly was mentored for several years by clinical psychologist and founder of iRest Richard Miller, as well as psychotherapist John Prendergast, author of In Touch: How to Tune in to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself, with whom she has taught retreats.
She holds a degree in Intercultural Religious Studies and is a certified iRest® meditation teacher, Search Inside Yourself teacher, and is the founding advisor for the meditation app Simple Habit. Kelly is on the board of the Prison Yoga Project, Unlikely Collaborators, and the Foundation for Mindful Society, and teaches retreats and workshops at spots like the Esalen Institute. She currently works with the Foundation for a Mindful Society, helping them grow their Mindful Cities initiative, and is a regular teacher on the Start Your Day program on Sounds True One.