By Arianna Maysonave
July 31, 2025
"Mindfulness is a simple, powerful tool that can help rewire the brain during adolescence, and it’s so accessible that it can be used in virtually any learning environment."
Noelle Kaplan is the director of education, training, and outreach for The Art of Yoga Project (AYP). She began studying meditation and yoga in 2002, and in 2013 she joined AYP as a yoga instructor. She has run programming for incarcerated youth in San Mateo County and now facilitates training and professional development for teachers and leaders within the organization. She also leads all community outreach including the National Affiliate Program, helping organizations across the country implement trauma-informed mindfulness in their communities. When she’s not advocating for the healing effects of mindfulness, she can be found cooking, writing, and adventuring with her daughters. She holds a BA in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and a MSEd in education from the University of Pennsylvania.
The Art of Yoga Project’s mission is to bring mindfulness-based practices to justice system-involved and other marginalized youth for their healing and empowerment. AYP understands that youth require a predictable, safe, and supportive environment to heal. Their model includes specially trained, trauma-informed teachers who bring tools for self-awareness and self-regulation to help move youth from vulnerability into resilience.
AYP is a leader in the movement to ensure mindfulness-based practices are accessible to all, creating innovative collaborations within systems that serve youth.
I’d love to hear a bit about the background of The Art of Yoga Project and the initial inspiration for its creation.
Noelle Kaplan (NK): AYP was founded in 2005 by Mary Lynn Fitton, a family nurse practitioner who worked with adolescent girls impacted by mental health challenges such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. She was also a yoga practitioner and saw how much her patients benefited when she suggested the integration of yoga into their healing journey. Inspired by this work, she piloted a yoga and arts program at an inner-city middle school, and then the first formal program at Camp Kemp, a San Mateo County juvenile detention facility for girls. This early offering was one of the first gender-responsive programs of its kind. Since then, AYP has expanded programming to serve youth of all genders, while still tailoring the curriculum to gender-specific needs.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role with The Art of Yoga Project?
NK: When I encountered AYP, it was a total lightbulb moment for me. The organization’s model of combining mindfulness and creative expression to heal trauma for marginalized and system-involved youth married my background in yoga and passion for education and social justice. I knew this was what I wanted to do.
At the time, I wasn’t a yoga teacher, but I was so inspired that I went on to complete my yoga teacher training and then shortly after began teaching with our organization. That was 13 years ago! Our work has a strong social justice angle and is rooted in psychoeducation—helping young people understand their own brains and how mindfulness can be a transformative tool.
Today, I run internal and external professional development and still teach in the classroom about once a month. It helps me stay connected and bring new insights back to the organization.
What’s your educational background, and how does it inform your approach?
NK: My background has always focused on education as a tool for empowerment. I believe knowledge is power, especially when it comes to disrupting cycles of oppression. I’m committed to providing tools and resources so young people—particularly those from historically marginalized communities—can transform their own lives.
How do you connect with marginalized communities and provide resources for transformation?
NK: We primarily work with marginalized and system-involved youth to provide yoga and expressive arts classes that are fun, engaging, and designed to bring youth back into balance. We see individual growth over time—through the course of a year, a student might go from being disengaged from our classes to being a leader in the classroom seeking mentorship from our team. This work is not a short-term fix, rather it helps youth integrate the capacity to self-regulate and calm their nervous systems, which is a skill that will serve them throughout their entire lives.
Can you elaborate a bit about the therapeutic model you use?
NK: Our program is grounded in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) developed by Dr. Bruce Perry. Informed by neuroscience, this model aligns the therapeutic process with the sequential model of brain development. Trauma affects the brain starting at the brainstem, so that’s where healing needs to begin. We start with self-regulation—the core of what we do with yoga and art. Mindfulness and asana are inherently self-regulating, and neuroscience supports that these practices can help rewire the brain. We teach simple, digestible tools that youth can carry into their lives beyond the classroom.
The Art of Yoga Project participants develop balance, trust, and teamwork through trauma-informed mind-body exercises.
What is the scale of the Art of Yoga Project’s work today?
NK: Since 2005, we have served over 17,500 youth across the San Francisco Bay area. We currently run close to 30 classes a week in the region. Our partners include juvenile detention centers, aftercare programs, Level 14 mental health facilities, and schools. AYP’s programming was designed for girls with histories of trauma in juvenile detention, however our work has expanded to meet the needs of the communities we serve, which now includes youth of all genders, work in early intervention and prevention with younger children, as well as with transitional-age youth, as we work to break cycles of violence and victimization.
We also have a well-established National Affiliate Program in which organizations from across the country can learn our model of trauma-informed yoga to integrate this work into their local communities. We now have 25 to 30 affiliates across the United States and internationally, including in Canada and Australia. It’s amazing to connect with other like-minded organizations doing this important work!
How would you describe the differences between boys and girls in terms of trauma and how it manifests?
NK: We understand that gender is not a binary but rather on a spectrum, however, using gender categories can be helpful in terms of understanding how to best meet the needs of our students. Research indicates that girls tend to experience relational trauma from people they say “I love you” to, whereas boys typically experience more physical violence. For example, the self-reported data shows that 95-99% of girls within the juvenile justice system have experienced sexual abuse, and many have been part of the child welfare system and experienced housing insecurity.
Girls and boys often display different trauma responses as well and, for this reason, girls tend to have more acute mental health needs. We support girls in our programming by focusing our curriculum on establishing healthy relationships and developing self-respect and self-awareness, which can support confidence building and boundary setting.
Our curriculum also integrates a lot of women’s empowerment, highlighting female artists and writers who have made a big impact in the world. For boys, we emphasize topics such as healthy masculinity, living peacefully, self-control, and self-awareness. We take into consideration the unique experiences and needs of all genders when developing our curriculum, with all classes based on the NMT.
It’s a rewarding yet complicated time to be doing nonprofit work. What are the greatest challenges and opportunities you see today?
NK: To be honest, the biggest challenge for us is meeting the demand for our programming. We have found that folks increasingly recognize the benefits of mindfulness and creative expression as valuable tools for prevention and early intervention of trauma. The biggest opportunity for us is to continue to raise awareness around the value of intentionally taught mindfulness-based practices as a cost-effective and engaging tool for healing. Mindfulness is a simple, powerful tool that can help rewire the brain during adolescence, and it’s so accessible that it can be used in virtually any learning environment. When students are regulated, they can more effectively learn, build relationships, and ultimately thrive.
What kinds of transformation have you seen in the youth you serve?
NK: Our goal is to meet students where they are and respect their own timeline for engaging in our programming. Transformation might look like a student moving from being disengaged to a leader in the yoga circle as they build trust in their teachers and begin to recognize the joy and benefits of the practice, or it could look like a student teaching yoga to their mom or taking their grandma to yoga class. Often we see students seeking out mentorship opportunities with our teachers, a reflection of the trust instilled in these spaces. We love when our programming comes full circle and folks who participated in our programs as youth go on to advocate for mindfulness as a tool for trauma healing in both their personal and professional lives. For example, one of our longtime yoga teachers was a formerly incarcerated participant as a teen.
We are undoubtedly living through unprecedented times. What brings you hope?
NK: The kids, honestly. I truly believe in the model and the capacity for creative expression and mindfulness to be powerful healing tools. These modalities aren’t going to solve all of our problems in the world, but they’re one leg of the stool! Every time I see the kids or have the opportunity to connect with a new teacher who learns the model, I’m fired up and inspired.
In life more broadly, yoga gives me perspective. I think of myself as a wave in the ocean—this is a really difficult time we’re living through and raising children in while striving to make a positive impact. I try to remember that we are all on this journey together, and that I can contribute by expanding opportunities for young people to exercise agency, reduce suffering, and foster healing and connection.
The Art of Yoga Project holds an annual training for yoga teachers, educators, therapists, and anyone who wants to expand their skill set working with youth who have experienced trauma.
This interview is part of the Nova Institute for Health’s Insight Collaborative for Mental Well-Being project. The Insight Collaborative is supported by a generous seed grant from the Mental Insight Foundation.
