Hello again! I'm Ashley, pleased to meet you.

Nature has played a pivotal role in my life since I first opened my eyes to the wonder of the world.

As a child, I spent hours and hours outside: tracing the patterns and textures of plants, dreaming up mystical fairylands, and singing to the trees in my parent’s backyard. I felt at home in nature and called to tend to her needs. 

Growing up, I also suffered from severe asthma and a potpourri of other health problems ranging from allergies to digestive issues. Doctors prescribed a checklist of steroids, inhalers, and other pharmaceutical medications—but these only temporarily relieved my symptoms, often with side effects. The root cause remained. 

Then my mom took me to see a naturopath. Within six months, my symptoms virtually disappeared. 

Around this time, I realized that plants are as vital to survival as the air we breathe. They nourish the body, mind, and soul in the most magical ways. Experiencing this magic in my own life set me on a quest to weave together the beauty, intelligence, and medicine of the natural world to help other people find the same health and healing. 

Curious how we can work together?

I co-founded Sky House Yoga, a donation-based yoga studio and wellness center in 2011 with my husband Adam Elenbaas. Since opening those sweet doors in Silver Spring, Maryland, I’ve leaned more and more into my calling with the plants. 

In 2019, we closed our physical yoga studio and Sky House Herb School & Apothecary emerged as a place dedicated to helping people unlock a world of health, medicine, and magic. I moved my practice online and was busily consulting with clients, teaching classes in clinical herbal medicine, and serving as a board member for the American Herbalists Guild. 

In 2021 I embarked on a year-long sabbatical. After moving to Minneapolis in the middle of the pandemic with my family, I was depleted and seeking a new direction with my herbal work. After 12 months I finally learned what it meant to relax and my healing process took on a more fervent light.

Now in 2023, I am feeling replenished, grounded in my home state (that I left when I was 5 years old), and am starting to teach courses, present at herbal conferences, and start planting out my new Sky House Community Herb Garden. It is a very exciting time in my life.

About my herbal work, I graduated with my Master of Science in Clinical Herbalism and have had the honor of studying alongside some of the best herbalists in the field, including Matthew Wood and Margi Flint. Other teachers who’ve greatly impacted my career in herbal medicine include Bevin Clare, Camille Freeman, James Snow, Chanchal Cabrera, as well as yoga and the plants. 

I came to yoga as a young adult struggling to understand and trust my mind, body, and spirit after growing up in an alcoholic home. My first yoga class was at the age of 13, in St. Paul, Minnesota with my hip aunt Kathy who lived in Uptown. I returned to practicing when I was 18 years old while attending college and after seeing how yoga changed my patterns of disordered eating, I trained to become a yoga teacher at the age of 24.

After several years of teaching yoga, I was hired by two women to help them open and manage a new yoga studio in the area. Soon after, I began my master’s program in clinical herbalism and I began leading women’s retreats that combined whole foods cooking, yoga, meditation, and mindfulness techniques. I realized my passion was leading groups of people through transformational experiences and so this is what I did!

In 2010 I founded the Body Love Yoga Project to serve teens dealing with body image issues and eating disorders and offered this at school and programs throughout the Maryland/DC area. As a full-time teacher, I was invited to teach yoga in many environments including at a national NA convention to over 500 participants. I have taught yoga in schools, studios, on the National Mall in DC, in private homes, and online. Each place becomes a sanctuary for exploring the inner terrain of our minds and hearts.

Yoga and teaching yoga, saved my life. Through meditation and movement, I began to build confidence and trust in my own mind and the wisdom of my body and my higher power. As I taught yoga, I saw how it helped others find this same peace and serenity.

It is my hope to teach yoga to women in recovery and women struggling with disordered eating. As a regular member of Alanon since 2018, I am no stranger to the traumas of living with the disease of alcoholism and body image/self-worth issues, and it is my hope to guide women through gentle and healing yoga practices to support their recovery journey.

As fellow earthlings, plants teach us how to harness our strengths in creative ways and thrive in challenging conditions — whether it’s observing a fragrant herb thriving in the sun or an ancient tree standing strong amidst a burnt forest. 

As our elders who predate even the earliest mammals by an estimated 275 million years, plants contain an inherent intelligence. Chemicals and energetic patterns. Science and wisdom. 

When working with plants and people, I always look for a match between the person and the "essence" of a plant — whether phytochemical or energetic. 

When we begin to connect with plants, a new world of possibility opens. We see ourselves not just surrounded by a jungle of green — but also surrounded by trustworthy friends.

I’m here to steward and share this world of possibility with you.