Yoga's Arc founder says mobile, trauma-informed yoga is reaching prisons, shelters and community parks in Chandler

Carrie Sankule, founder and owner of Yoga's Arc, told WomenRise that she developed a mobile yoga concept to bring instruction into living rooms, workplaces and community sites to remove barriers posed by studio environments.

"I started as a special ed teacher and noticed that when I was bringing the techniques from yoga into my classroom that the kids were much calmer," Sankule said, describing a multi-decade teaching background and the decision to offer yoga outside traditional studio settings.

Sankule said Yoga's Arc pivoted during the COVID-19 pandemic toward behavioral-health and addiction-recovery settings and later formed a nonprofit to expand donation-based offerings in homeless shelters and prisons. "We were the first services coming back in when COVID... because they were missing the yoga more than any of their services," she said.

Sankule discussed work at Perryville, a women's facility, saying three graduates of the program have since been hired as teachers. She said the practice helps participants "slow down enough to take a breath before making a decision," and described the approach as trauma-informed or somatic healing that minimizes triggers for participants.

"Yoga is really about breath," Sankule said. "So when people just spend 15 minutes breathing, they automatically feel better." She explained specific adaptations used in nonstudio settings, such as avoiding trigger words (one participant had been triggered by the word "meditation") and training teachers to customize classes for each group's needs.

Sankule also outlined donation-based outdoor classes held in Chandler parks from November through April at 10 a.m., a teacher-training program with international accreditation, and a master's yoga program in which trainees provide monthly free practicum. She said Yoga's Arc has about five external sites on a waiting list and has applied for several grants to expand services, including adolescent programming in Pinal County.

Asked about funding and workforce development, Sankule said the nonprofit seeks donations and scholarships to help formerly incarcerated women obtain certifications and careers in teaching. "No one has to go without until we can find more money to bring more," she said, describing scholarship and practicum pathways for participants.

Sankule framed the program as an effort to increase access to breathwork and trauma-informed practices for underserved populations, emergency responders and other groups unlikely to attend studio classes. She asked listeners who wish to donate or volunteer to contact Yoga's Arc Foundation.