About me

I’m Ash, a graduate student at Lewis & Clark with a focus in family and relational therapy. Bios are hard for me to write because I contain multitudes and have lived many lives. To keep it real…

I’m a first-generation college student, white, southern, queer, and also a high school dropout and former teenage runaway. I grew up in extreme poverty, born to teenage parents within a racially, culturally, and socioeconomically complex family system. I was raised across multiple environments within a large extended family, and as a child experienced many periods of houselessness and instability. I bounced around the country, attending twelve schools, all shaping me into the dynamic person I am today.

Among the struggle, I also know immense joy. I laugh big, love deeply, and feel most grounded in connection with my community and in tending the land. I’ve been farming for nearly eight years, not only because I love manual labor and being outdoors, but because being involved with food from seed to table feels relational, grounding, and sacred to me. 

I tend to experience the world holistically and through cycles. I come from a long line of land tenders, and I believe that lineage has deeply shaped the way I move through life and relate to others. There is something meaningful about participating in cycles of growth, nourishment, death, and renewal, and I find that this way of understanding the world runs through almost everything I do.

Every part of my history has brought me to this work. I am not afraid to get into the weeds with you, whether that’s grief, pain, stuckness, confusion, desire, passion, or yearning. My hope is that, by knowing a bit about me, you can come into this work feeling met by another person who is open to holding the fullness and multiplicity of your experiences and you. unique insights and understanding to my work.

Read more below to learn about how I work, as well as the populations I’m drawn to and specialties areas I have.