Testimonials
“Working with Ashnie is solidifying to my soul…Her encouragement to dig deeper into my racial lens and layers has helped bring powerful presence to my work in the world as a black woman. I am thankful for the clarity, focus and wisdom you share sister.”
–Velda Thomas
Author, Artist, Healer
“Ashnie is a trusted problem-solver, especially for socially complex issues. She listens for things that are underneath what is being said and can focus on the heart of an issue. When I have consulted with her, she has helped me to stay centered within myself and to work through a problem with clarity and compassion, with my heart and mind together.”
— Carol Iwata, project manager
Clouds in Water Zen Center
“Ashnie has a gift in getting to the core of what I am saying, even in moments where I am struggling to put words to my experience. She somehow manages to hold the line of heartfelt empathy with expected accountability; a skill she balances with ease. As someone who struggles to separate their thinking mind from their experience, Ashnie helped me build a practice of connecting to my body and to my breath. It is with this building practice that I am learning to ask my body what it needs and lead from there.
I started coaching with Ashnie at a time when I was struggling. Struggling with being one of a few women of color in a white-led organization, struggling with feeling like I was ever doing enough, and struggling with understanding how to dismantle my own internalized white supremacy. Ashnie taught me that existing as I am is enough and how the path of radical self-acceptance is critical to my own liberation; as well as cultivating a sense of safety in speaking up when I see white supremacy showing up in others. And she also helped me cultivate the practice of looking inward and exploring where white supremacy may live inside me, as only when we turn inwards can we make inroads to dismantling white supremacy.”
— Fatima Jawaid
“I came to the work with Ashnie hoping to see my “blind-spots,” but learned so much more than that. A few highlights: Finding your unique strengths for dismantling racism, the recognition that each individuals’ relationship to culture is nuanced, that my own ancestry and lineage interacts with my day-to-day life, how to train for difficult & honest conversations…a daily practice for learning to trust my own wisdom, an increased ability to understand others’ experiences from their perspective, and less fear that I’ll “say the wrong thing” …for starters. I recommend this work for anyone who is truly interested in seeing and changing the ways in which they may perpetuate white supremacy, often without knowing it.“ – Rachel Brice
“Working with Ashnie has connected me more deeply to my humanity and helped me better understand ways in which my liberation is bound up with others. Ashnie listens closely: extending empathy and asking crucial questions that tease out and pull apart the assumptions from the truth, the social conditioning from core, the whiteness from the human. Ashnie makes me feel seen and held accountable. She beckons me toward love for my whole self, which inevitably ripples out toward love for all.”
— Alison Kileen