Plenty of people swear by yoga, but few doctors heartily recommend it based on scientific evidence.

Some hope that's about to change.

The Mind + Body Project, a new yoga studio at 6 Water Street, Mattapoisett debuted in early July with several yoga offerings that tie the mind and body exercises together under the umbrella of hard scientific data.

"Two years ago, I was at a mind and body conference at Harvard Medical School," said Dr. Lisa Llanas Hagberg, a psychiatrist and co-founder of the project with her husband Robert Hagberg. "I was floored, there was actual data."

Llanas Hagberg had heard her patients swear up and down for years that yoga was an effective treatment for stress or a variety of problems.

"I was supportive but I couldn't recommend or prescribe it," Llanas Hagberg said.

In recent years, however, a number of medical journals have published articles on the benefits of yoga for general wellbeing.  With the growing amount of evidence, Llanas Hagberg began brainstorming what eventually became the Mind + Body Project.

"Over the last nine months we really put pen to paper," said Llanas Hagberg.

"I would call it a project room," said Heather Hobler, of Mattapoisett, one of the teachers at the project, explaining that what she, Llanas Hagberg and others are building goes beyond a traditional yoga studio. "It's a place to grow."

Hobler not only teaches the yoga classes but is a cancer survivor and plans to teach a course with the wellbeing of cancer survivors in mind.

"Being a cancer survivor myself and having yoga as a background, yoga was one of the supportive aspects of my life," said Hobler, who hopes to have about half a dozen student in an upcoming class for cancer survivors.

While at first the customers were only a trickle, business has steadily picked up.

"It was slow for the first three weeks," said Llanas Hagberg. "Something happened the last week of July. The yoga we do on a daily or weekly basis is for the community."