About Ashlee

I am an Ayurvedic Practitioner (Svastha Acharya, Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist), an Ayurvedic body worker, an Innate Traditions Provider, a Birth Stories Listening student, a teacher at the Center for Sacred Window Studies, a student of self discovery and living wisdom, a mother, a daughter, a friend, a community member, a lover of life, and a dedicated birth worker working toward a shift in our cultural paradigm for birthers, parents, children, and ultimately our future generations to come.  I believe this work, nourishing new families is transformative, sacred, needed, and revolutionary.   I am a current board member and prenatal yoga instructor at The Nest Family Resource Center in Nevada City where we work to provide community, resources, support, and connection for the local families of Nevada County. I love our community and I feel honored to be a part of the Nest and the birth professionals we support. 

I have been fascinated and inspired by birth, babies, and pregnant mama bellies since I was a little girl.  Growing up, I had an extraordinary opportunity to witness the miracle of baby animals being birthed into this world at my mom's Veterinary hospital in Georgetown CA.  Each litter of puppies or kittens or birthing of calves I was able to witness inspired my fascination and appreciation for mamas and the process of birth . After I graduated from high school I followed my passion for food rather than birth, and  I left home to study food and nutrition, eventually earning a BS in Clinical Nutrition at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.  The journey to graduation was a hard one for me, I wasn't receiving the holistic perspective on health and nutrition I craved to inspire my spirit and engage my whole being.  I was grateful to graduate but knew there was something more engaging and inspiring out there for me.  
     Following graduation I had the opportunity to travel abroad to southeast Asia for 6 months.  The time spent traveling changed my life and provided me with the epiphany of what I was to study next, Ayurvedic Medicine at the California College of Ayurveda in Nevada City.  Studying Ayurveda lit up my soul and provided the holistic, food, lifestyle, herbalism, body movement, and spiritual pieces of health and wellbeing I had been craving and missing.  I graduated in 2011 as a Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist, Pancha Karma Specialist, and also became certified as a Massage Therapist (CMT).  After graduation the late Ysha Oaks, the founder of the Sacred Window School of Maternal and Infant Health, taught an in person Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula training program which I was fortunate to attend .  I completed the training program to become an AyuDoula, which is an Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula who provides Ayurvedic education, consultations, in home Ayurvedic massage, nourishing cooking, and herbal support for pregnant and postpartum mamas.   Ysha was incredibly generous with her wisdom and knowledge and when she passed in 2014,  I was part of a group of her students who dedicated ourselves to carrying her work forward to continue to train/educate inspired students in the way of Ayurvedic Postpartum Care.  I currently teach the Ayurvedic Postpartum Cooking Module in our online and soon to be in person program through the Center for Sacred Window Studies. I love teaching and staying in the conversation about postpartum nutrition, cooking, and how our students can bring these practices into their communities.  
    I worked at the college for two years in the herb department and Pancha Karma department doing body therapies.  Then in 2012, I had the opportunity to witness my sister's first daughter be birthed into this world and my passion for all things related to birth was deeply re-inspired.  I took some time out from the spa to work on my husband Pablo's organic farm reconnecting to the earth and to the source of my food while I dreamed and plotted of how I was going to support birthers during the transformative time becoming a parent.  At the end of the farming season I took a DONA Labor Doula training with Connie Sultana CD(DONA) in Sebastopol and have since attended 50 + births, mostly in Nevada County.  
    In 2014 I was inspired to participate in Elena Vladimirova's Birth into Being Facilitator training in Chico- it was a profound experience of healing and exploration into the deeper subconscious experiences of my own birth and my self.  I continue to be inspired by the opportunity pregnancy, birth, and postpartum offers us to evolve, transform, and create who we are as people and as parents.  It is part of my mission to continue to explore the transformative opportunity and to provide clients, friends and families with the tools to go deeper and experience more as people, parents and families. In 2021 I completed the Innate Traditions Practitioner Training program with Rachel Seliga-Garcia which provided an in depth dive into the physiologic postpartum practices as well as the science behind why traditional cultures adhere to similar postpartum practices worldwide.  It was a great course.      
I am a lover of learning.  Since graduating from CCA, I have continued my Ayurvedic studies at AYU Academy with my teacher Vaidya Jessiva Vellela, BAMS- completing the Svastha Acharya program with an emphasis on the classical Ayurvedic texts Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita, Ashtanga Hrdaya, and Bhava Prakasha and I went on to teach an introductory program for AYU Academy for the 2020-2021 academic year.  I hope to always continue to study Ayurveda, the Science of Life, and to delve deeper into my clinical practice. 
    Since completing my doula training and Ayudoula training, I have had the fortunate opportunity to work locally with mamas in  Nevada County as well as with mamas throughout California, Arizona, Nevada, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Oregon.          
    To all the mamas, birthing people, and families I have worked with, I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to learn, grow, and serve you during this incredible, intense, powerful, and transformative time in your lives.  To all parents out there, I am also grateful for your reflections and expertise as you transform into parents for your children and for our communities.       
    You may have gathered that I am passionate about people having beautiful, empowering, and supported birthing experiences and transitions into parenthood.  I am deeply honored to support families during the sacred window of transformation following pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.  Congratulations on embarking on the journey, and birthing Blessings to you and your family!

Education and Training:

Nutrition:
2002-2007 CSU Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: BS Nutrition

Ayurvedic Medicine:
2008-2011 California College of Ayurveda: Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist, Pancha Karma Specialist, Ayurvedic Herbalist
2011 Center for Sacred Window Studies: Ayudoula, Ayurvedic Postpartum Doula
2017-2020 AYU Academy Svastha Acharya
2013-2015 The Wild Temple School - Sage Roots: Tantra Yoga + Yoga Therapy 200 hour training

Labor and Birth:
2012 DONA Labor Doula training with Connie Sultana CD(DONA) in Sebastopol 
2014 Birth into Being 10 day intensive, Chico, CA
2016 Spinning Babies Workshop, Grass Valley, CA
2021 Birth Story Listening Level 1 and 2
2021 Innate Traditions Practitioner training, online
2023 Closing of the Bones, online training with Sophie Messager

Teaching Experience:
2023- present Prenatal Yoga at The Nest Family Resource in Nevada City, CA
2018-present Center for Sacred Window Studies- Ayurvedic Postpartum Cooking and Nutrition
2022- present Shakti School - Conscious Pregnancy with Ayurveda and Ayurvedic Postpartum Care within the Ayurveda 1 course
2021- present YogaVeda - Conscious Postpartum Caregiver - Postpartum Cooking and Nutrition
2020-2021 AYU Academy - Ayurvedic Health Counselor Course




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