Meet Ashley Neese

TEACHER. MOTHER. AUTHOR.

The moment that changed everything for me was the day I admitted, out loud, that I couldn't do my life alone anymore. I was in the grip of alcohol and drug addiction, running from myself in every direction. Getting sober didn't just save my life — it showed me that healing cannot happen in a vacuum. We need each other. That truth has shaped everything I've done since.

I've spent the last fifteen years studying and teaching breathwork and somatics. I'm also the author of two books, How to Breathe and Permission to Rest.

  • Ashley creates a space where you immediately feel safe, seen, and supported. Her work has transformed the way I relate to stress and to myself.

    TK

How I Work

My approach is highly relational. I don't sit with clients in neutrality — we're co-creating something together. I might share a thread from my own experience if I feel it's useful. I might say "I'm really sorry that happened to you" and mean it. This comes directly from years of sponsoring in AA and Al-Anon, where I learned that we heal by being in relationship with someone who's been in the territory before us, not someone observing from a safe distance.

What Informs My Practice

My work is deeply informed by the most current research on developmental and relational trauma — the understanding that so much of what we carry was shaped in relationship, and so much of what heals us happens there too. My own healing journey, foster parenting, tending land and rescued horses, and my ongoing practice — all of it informs how I show up.

I am also a deep believer in the mood altering power of a good playlist, that much can be shifted after a deep cry or a deeper laugh, and that sometimes the best medicine really is drinking enough water, getting out into nature, and dancing with with my kids under the light of the full moon. I currently live with my family between Marin, California and our 30-acre sanctuary in the Sierra Foothills.

Selected Training

SOMATIC EXPERIENCING, CERTIFIED IN BERKELEY, CA

NeuroAffective Touch — Dr. Aline LaPierre, Los Angeles, CA

Psychedelic Somatic Institute — intermediate level, LOS ANGELES, CA

PRE & PERINATAL TRAUMA WITH RAY CASTELLINO, OJAI, CA

HOLISTIC ANATOMY, THE ROSEN INSTITUTE, BERKELEY, CA

NON-violent communication with oren sofer, online

CAlifornia college of the arts, MFA, san francisco, ca

Whatever brought you here,

you

don’t have to carry it alone.

I’d be honored to support you.

let’s work together