Social worker Elizabeth Auten leads a yoga session at Argus House, a group home for at-risk teenage boys in Arlington County. Photo courtesy of the Washington Post.

Cheers to the Washington Post for this article about a yoga program for youth created by social worker Elizabeth Auten, MSW.

Auten, 32, began practicing yoga three years ago. She began working with rural youth in Nicaragua and discovered that sharing yoga exercises created an excellent opportunity to talk to them about other issues.

“As we worked on poses together, we could talk about life lessons and how to try something new that you’ve never tried before — how to be uncomfortable,” she said.

Auten has taken her yoga program to a group home for at-risk teen boys in Arlington, Va. and last year created the Shakti Youth Project, a nonprofit dedicated to the idea that yoga can empower young people and build connections between people of different backgrounds.

Social workers help youth overcome life’s challenges. To learn more visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Kids and Families website.