A decade ago, Natural Awakenings spotlighted the efforts of Dr. Daniel J. Libby as he focused on bringing the healing powers of yoga to veterans. He was a postdoctoral fellow with the Yale University Department of Psychiatry at the West Haven VA Medical Center in Connecticut. In his psychotherapy work with PTSD, he observed how some veterans’ self-regulating practices enabled them to deal better with stress and symptoms. He launched Veterans Yoga Project (VYP) as a way to give skills and knowledge to yoga instructors to teach the modality with veterans’ unique challenges and adaptations in mind. What began as teaching yoga teachers has expanded to encourage veterans to teach yoga, and now includes monthly continuing education training, local and international classes, and much more.

VYP has grown immensely since its first Mindful Yoga Therapy training in October 2010 in Connecticut. The first VYP veterans retreat happened in 2013 before the organization had its first training in Canada in July 2014, followed by the First Veterans Gratitude week raising about $20,000 from 96 classes across 25 states that November. The organization continued to grow with grants, additional classes and participation in various studies on veterans, yoga, pain and more. The first advanced training summit took place in June 2017, followed by another milestone reaching 20,000 veteran visits for the year in December 2018. The Veterans Yoga Project Teacher Alliance started in 2019, resulting in Veterans Gratitude Week holding over 600 classes in 50 states and three continents that year.

The first 200-hour Mindful Resilience Yoga Teacher Training program for veterans, by veterans, launched in 2020. With the pandemic, the organization debuted its Online Streaming Classes virtual programming with free live classes for veterans, first responders, caregivers, active duty, families and communities. That year alone, they live[1]streamed more than 1,800 classes.

From 2021 to the present, VYP introduced its online Mindful Resilience for Compassion Fatigue course as well as an online studio and phone app. Brianna Renner was named as CEO. By the end of 2023, it reached over 47,000 veteran, service member, military family and community member encounters. In addition to signing collaborative agreements with DogTag and Student Veterans of America in 2024, VYP signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the VA in July.

VYP’s growth is a testament to the need out there and the hard work of the organization’s founder, CEO, staff and yoga teachers