A Trauma-Informed, Mindfulness-Based Yoga Intervention with Justice-Involved

Youth: A Feasibility Study Examining Challenges and Successes of a Yoga

Intervention in Multi-Site Juvenile Justice Facilities
Ashli Owen-Smith, PhD; Michaela Cotner, MA; Lynn DeBar, PhD; Ralph DiClemente, PhD; Julian Ford, PhD; Matt Hayat, P

UND
recidivism among youth in the juvenile
ffectiveness.
key predictor of recidivism, trauma-
posure to traumatic events is
URPOSE
med, mindfulness-based yoga (TIMBY)
uth
current implementation of the
cale implementation of the
DS
stakeholders from various roles within
Q
THEMES
“…there was one youth that used to really get just
Stakeholder’s Perceived Impact of Yoga on Youth hot tempered. He was always argumentative with
Ø Improved Anger management everything. Then—he was one of our longer-
standing kids in the TIMBY project and yoga. He wa
Ø Calming effect just more pick your battle type guy…he wasn’t as
Ø Better Emotion/Mood regulation quick to anger. He definitely wasn’t as impulsive.”
Ø Relief of trauma symptoms
Ø Yoga as a trigger for trauma symptoms
Ø Enhances other DJJ programs
“I can count on one hand, where it brings back some trau
memories and some flashbacks of things that have bee
upsetting that they come back when they get quiet,
especially during savasana. Then that’s when it’s potent
Facilitators to Implementing Yoga Classes in the Facility upset for them because they’re remembering things.
That…isn’t a bad thing. It’s just something that we have t
Ø Sufficient staffing to support yoga classes aware of as clinicians so that we can follow up with the
Ø Collaboration between departments within the facility
and make sure they get some debriefing or counseling
afterwards.

out the Department of Juvenile Justice “I think that the collaborat

Y study
ure Facilities (N=1)
port Services (N=1)
a DJJ facility (N=3)
IS
standard qualitative content analysis
ing NVivo text-analysis software.
monstrate high intra-rater reliability,
alitative categories and themes
on of the findings, and discuss and
TS
on youth, such as improved behavioral
ementation of yoga classes
m expansion
ON
ve impact on youth; challenges that
Obstacles to Implementing Yoga Classes in the Facility
Ø Lack of security staffing to support program
Ø Staff perception of and attitude towards yoga (e.g.
resistant to change, unable to see beneftis)
will help them. Bad attitudes…people who are not open to
Factors Impacting Youth Participation in Yoga
Ø Characteristics of youth (e.g. youth enjoy yoga, interest in
developing leadership skills)
Ø Teacher qualities (e.g. patient, calming, welcoming)
Ø Other program responsibilities
Facilitators to Yoga Program Expansion
Ø Staff and leadership buy-in to yoga
Ø More outcomes showing benefits of yoga
Ø Outcomes specific to populations other than justice-involved
youth (e.g. non-incarcerated youth)
Ø Youth buy-in
teamwork across our divisio
make it work, to take those ba
and try and find solutions fo
“People who may not be open to change. People who
don’t want to try different things and new things. If you
want the best for your kids, you’re gonna try things that
something different, that would definitely hinder the
success of a yoga program.”
“In terms of kids wanting to be in the program,
like I said, some kids are real receptive right
away, and some they just they know for sure
they don’t wanna do it. The kids that are more
on the fence, we try to encourage them a little
bit more to just try it and see if they liked it. It’s
no commitment.”
“…I just think the buy-in of the staff, especially
mental health staff, is huge. It doesn’t succeed
unless there’s people that are promoting it and
championing it. That’s crucial to me. If you
wanted to take us into a bigger space, I think
that’s one of the things you can do that would be
really helpful in terms of having it catch on.”

expansion of the program both depend

ff support and retention
ce for the positive impact of trauma-
r to streamline the implementation of
e for future expansion of the program
needed to address lack of access to
Obstacles to Yoga Program Expansion
“I think other challenges might be location of
Ø Limited access to yoga service providers the facilities. Some of our long-term facilities are
Ø Staffing at each facility further south in the state…there might not be
access to the providers that might—the physical
Ø Facility capability location of the facility might be a challenge for
Ø Systemic issues of the justice system (e.g. Punishment vs. recruitment of teachers or instructors.”
Rehabilitation)

Acknowledgments: Research reported in this publicatio

Integrative Health of the National Institute Health under Aw
responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily repre