The Art of Yoga Project's (AYP) mission is to bring mindfulness-based practices to system-involved and other marginalized youth for their healing and empowerment.
Their model includes specially trained trauma-informed teachers who bring tools for self-awareness and self-regulation to move youth from vulnerability into resilience.
[vi] Their program is based on the Child Trauma Academy’s evidence-based Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) [v] to address the particular needs of system-involved youth.
The Neuroscience of Mindfulness video: http://theartofyogaproject.org/news/our-videos/ Mary Lynn Fitton founded the Art of Yoga Project after noticing the widespread body image issues, teen pregnancies, and physical and sexual abuse among teenage girls she worked with as a nurse practitioner.
The Art of Yoga Project quarterly surveys show at least 80% of youth consistently reporting improvements in interpersonal skills, pro-social behavior, and emotional regulation outside of class Qualitative results suggest that the youth benefit greatly from an opportunity to feel safe and calm, a chance to learn how to best deal with their anger or negative emotions, and to spend time ‘being fully present in their bodies’ each day versus the typical dissociation trauma can bring.