“Life is amazing. And then it’s awful. And then it’s amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful, it’s ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That’s just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.” -L.R. Knost
About Me
Hi there; I’m Ashley (she/her).
Below is a window into my professional trajectory as you explore whether I would be a good fit for you in a therapeutic role. At the same time, I’d be remiss if I didn’t also share a bit beyond my credentials since our lived experiences are rarely confined to one aspect of our identity and I welcome your whole and full self to our sessions together too!
A Brief Introduction
A lifelong enthusiast of most everything, my insatiable curiosity has led me to delight in the joys of pickling, wooden jigsaw puzzles, the ukulele, insight meditation, folk music, board games, and the flying trapeze, to name a few. At home, my exuberant son, beloved husband, and our intrepid cats keep me on my toes most days but in my more tranquil moments, I love nothing more than curling up with a book (fantasy is my genre of choice), a mug of tea (jasmine or matcha), and some very dark chocolate. Now that my family and I are firmly planted in Vermont, I’ve expanded my local extracurricular repertoire to include attempts at snowboarding, gardening, wooden jigsaw puzzles, and exploring all the Upper Valley has to offer on my e-bike, whom I fondly refer to as “Esmerelda”.
Since 2004, I’ve worked with individuals in some form of transition or major life change, often with trauma histories not too far below the surface. This includes, but is not limited to: court-involved teens aging out of foster care, men and women on hospice (and their caretakers), struggling parents, incarcerated men in prison, college students navigating adulthood, first-generation teenagers navigating rural poverty and so many others holding the weight of this turbulent world on their shoulders/in their hearts these days. In every situation, I’ve found the most transformational interactions to be those rooted in both insight and somatic practices so it is a gift to craft a professional life at that precise intersection.
My Professional/Personal Journey
I first began my training in various modalities within the field of somatic psychotherapy in 2010 through an internship in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) with Dr. Jeff Brantley as I was finishing my PhD at Duke University. I expanded into the world of Dr. Peter Levine’s Somatic Experiencing (SE) soon thereafter in 2014, putting some of that work immediately into practice while teaching mindfulness and socioemotional awareness at the Concord MCI Prison in Massachusetts and volunteering with VNA Hospice of Boston in addition to my full-time work supporting teens with extensive trauma histories who were court-involved and aging out of foster care.
I built on this foundation in my work alongside both college students as well as first-generation, low-income (FGLI) high school students when I moved to the Upper Valley in 2015 to be the Associate Director of Dartmouth’s Center for Social Impact. Seeing the growing need amidst an incredible cohort of young adults, I deepened my therapeutic training as part of an 16-month experiential Vipassana program through the Insight Meditation Society with a phenomenal teaching team of Dawn Scott, Jill Shepherd, William Edelglass, Nicola Redfern, Vance Pryor and the extraordinary Roxanne Dault, who continues to be my primary dharma teacher.
In early 2023, I completed a 4-month program in Somatic Attachment co-directed by Dr. Scott Lyons and Kai Cheng Thom with myriad expert practitioners including Dr. Dan Siegel, Dr. Peter Levine, Manuela Mischke-Reeds, and others. Currently, my therapeutic lens is guided by the gentle power of Somatic Internal Family Systems (IFS) based on the work of Susan McConnell and Dr. Richard Schwartz after completing a Level III training with Frances Booth and into this foundation, I weave additional elements connected with trauma-sensitive mindfulness (David Treleaven) and polyvagal theory for trauma recovery (Dr. Arielle Schwartz).
On a more intimate level, I navigated an eating disorder through high school and early college and found a way to leave a toxic marriage in my mid-20s. It was during that time, I took refuge in the dharma and I have been a meditation practitioner in the Theravada Insight tradition for over two decades and continue to self-nourish with multiple week-long meditation retreats each year. Today, I am married to my beloved husband and am a proud mother to our son who is neurospecialized (sometimes referred to as “neurodivergent” though I prefer the term “neuro-spicy”!), all of which continues to be fertile ground for applying these same powerful practices in my own life and family.
Summary
When reflecting on my unique value-add with clients, I resonate deeply with the beautiful words of Joanna Macy who describes her own engagement with this wildly unpredictable world in her book, Active Hope. Specifically, in any given moment or session, I may be called to act as a hospice worker (supporting the release of something that no longer serves) or as a midwife (ushering in something entirely new that does). Fortunately, the skills required for either are remarkably similar in practice: mindful presence, deep listening, trust in the unknown, tenderness, and honoring the wisdom of the body, mind and heart as a beacon toward transformational healing.