Healing Justice is pilot program created for the Kansas City Wellness Court to provide somatic wellness in a therapeutic setting for individuals in the justice system. Debonie Lewis, Casey Bodenhausen, and Nettie Zan have formulated an eight-week program combining meditation, yoga and CBT for these clients — this is Healing Justice.

KC Wellness Court is itself a groundbreaking concept. Judge Wachal has instituted a voluntary platform for people facing non-violent or mental health based criminal charges which provides a whole-person response to the causes of legal troubles. When a client chooses the Wellness Court avenue, they are connected with housing, jobs, mental health resources … and now, somatic therapy as well! Upon completion of the Wellness Court, the individuals have their records wiped clean.

Read more about the Wellness Court here and here.

We are so excited to be engaging with these at-risk and hard-to-reach populations with our data driven somatic program. We, as long time practitioners of yoga and meditation, understand deeply and personally how these traditions positively impact well-being. We also understand that most yoga studios are financially inaccessible to low-income folks. So our program is fully funded by the KC Health Department and offered for free to those clients based in the Wellness Court.

The Healing Justice project is also taking metrics and IRB approved measurements to test our program’s efficacy. We are rooted in Self-determination Theory with a side dish of Interoception Theory. We are offering five cohorts in 2026, and seeking publication of our results in the following year. Our hearts’ intention is scalability and expansion for this important program of both providing equity in the justice system and engaging at-risk folks with somatic wellness.

Our first cohort begins in January and is hosted by AIMwell Yoga. AIMwell is a black-woman owned community hub featuring multiple wellness modalities located at 55th and Troost. Nettie hosts their long-standing weekly meditation practice there every Thursday at 9 am. Join anytime!

Questions about the Healing Justice program can be directed to Debonie Lewis at debonie@aim-well.org