About
Land Acknowledgement
Mindful Restoration respectfully acknowledges that we are settlers, living and working on the unceded territories and ancestral homelands of the Syilx Okanagan Nation who have known, occupied and protected these lands. To understand, reflect on and acknowledge the history of the land you live on, visit whoseland.
Sonya Thomlinson
Sonya Thomlinson (Uchita) HHC ERYT-500, C-IAYT (Certified Yoga Therapist), was co-director and co-founder of Tandava Yoga and Trinity Yoga Centers in Kelowna and Vernon, British Columbia from 2003-2015. An avid student of Tibetan Buddhism and yoga since 1994, and teaching since 1998, Sonya leads trainings, retreats, workshops and classes throughout Western Canada and works individually with those interested in dynamic health and healing and spiritual awakening.
A well-respected teacher, Sonya lived, studied and taught at the acclaimed Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Western Massachusettes from 1998-2003, studying with revered teachers such as Yoganand Michael Carrol, Shiva Rea, Donna Farhi, Stephen Cope, Rodney Yee, Angela Farmer, Rod Stryker, Erich Schiffman, Emily Conrad, Julia Butterfly Hill, Thomas Ashley Farrand, Ana Forrest and many more.
From 2000-2003 Sonya served as Director of Program Operations for Kripalu Center, producing over 500 yoga, meditation, and health workshops and trainings per year, International Conferences, as well as directing her own hot yoga programs.
In 2003 Sonya completed Landmark Education’s Graduate Programs in NYC and Boston which included The Forum, The Advanced Course as well as Self Expression and Leadership Training. At this same time she became a certified Holistic Health Counselor from the acclaimed Institute for Integrative Nutrition in NYC. She has been offering vegetarian, vegan, ayurvedic and raw food classes as well as private and group lifestyle coaching in Massachusetts and BC for over 20 years.
Sonya has studied with Richard Miller and Yogi Amrit Desai and is Advanced Certified in both iRest Yoga Nidra, and in the Amrit Method of Yoga Nidra. She is the co-creator of Mindful Rest Yoga Nidra Certifications and 200 Hour Meditation Teacher Trainings.
Sonya has been co-directing 200, 300, and 500 Hour Yoga Teacher Training programs since 2004 and facilitating since 1999. Her practice on and off the mat continues to evolve with the nondual teachings of Michael Singer and Gurudev Shri Amritji (Yogi Amrit Desai) with whom she was initiated by in 2012 and given the name Uchita. In 2014 Sonya took Boddhisattva Vows and Avalokiteshvara Initiation from H.H. The Dalai Lama, and Vajrasattva Initiation in 2016 from the Venerable Zasep Tulku Rinpoche
Sonya was Lululemon Kelowna's first Yoga Teacher Ambassador in 2005 and 2006, and has appeared on the Polo Ralph Lauren website, in Shape magazine, the Kripalu Program Guide as well as the cover photo for Stephen Cope's second book Will Yoga and Meditation Really Change My Life?