When Dr. Beth Reese’s then 6-year-old daughter started hurling chairs at her in a busy airport, Beth knew something was up. Realizing that what she was learning on her yoga mat could help her daughter “off the mat,” she founded Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® (YYY) in 2008.
In the last 17 years, YYY has offered kids’ yoga and mindfulness classes in numerous cities and states and a training program for adults, including the RCYT internationally recognized credential. They also have authored award-winning, bilingual resources including MOSST (Mindful and OHMazing® Strategies for Students and teachers), an on demand mindfulness, movement, SEL, Spanish, neuroscience, and social justice curriculum for teachers, therapists, other professionals, parents, and families. Learn about YYY’s work in schools in this Houston Chronicle article, Houston-area schools adopt mindfulness practices to increase learning.
Beth leads professional development for libraries, schools, and other organizations, and teaches mindfulness and yoga part-time at The Post Oak School. In addition to having advanced trainings in art, yoga, and mindfulness, Beth is a Licensed Professional Counselor-Associate. Beth treasures her 3 mostly-grown kids, 2 dogs, and an old, sleepy cat.
If you would like to connect with her in the context of counseling, you can email her at elizreese@gmail.com.
One of the first practices Beth created for her daughter—and now used by 1000s— was Flower Power Breath: breathing in and imagining you are smelling a flower, then breathing out a slow audible ahhhhhh. Beth’s daughter found these life-skills, like “Flower Power Breath,” so helpful that she shared them with classmates. Teachers became curious and invited Beth to school to share with the whole class, where they experienced fun, mindful games and tools to learn to be calm, focused, and relaxed. Watch a video showing Flower Power breath here.
Beth saw the ripple effect. Clear that there was something meaningful to create, she left her job as an art professor/university galleries director to follow her passion to build a program that would give kids, parents, and teachers OHMazing® tools for life. In 2008 she founded Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® and led her first Teacher Training soon after.
Beth’s daughter is now an award-winning filmmaker who graduated cum laude from the School of Theater, Film, and Television at UCLA, and a YYY team member. Learn more about Beth and Jordan’s story on this podcast where she was the guest: Dr. Beth Reese: Flower Power and the Dalai Lama on Exiting the ASAP Lane with Alan Steelman, a former member of the US Congress.)
More about Beth: A teacher with over 30 years of experience with preK-12 grades in art, windsurfing, skiing, and yoga, she is also a researcher and published writer. Having authored numerous chapters in academic texts along with a four-year weekly newspaper column, Beth has a PhD in art museum education and has taught art history, art museum education and museum studies at the University-level. In 2024 Beth completed a graduate degree in Clinical Mental Health and is trained in EMDR, DBT, and certified in AutPlay.
