Friday Weekly Class Replay:
Herbalism as Remembering:
Ancestral Ways for Modern Lives
Casa Curativa educator Ashley explores the history of herbalism and ancestral relationships with plants. Trace human and plant connections from foraging and fire to agriculture and early medicinal traditions, and consider the roles plants have played in nourishment, healing, ceremony, and community. Reflect on your own lineage, seasonal cycles, and ways to reconnect with plants in modern life.
Recorded Live on Friday, October 30, 2026
Casa Curativa: Tzununá, Lake Atitlán Guatemala
Hosted by: Ashley McDonnell
Herbalism as Remembering Replay:
Class Notes & Materials:
Meet Ashley: Casa Curativa’s Director of Education
Clinical Herbalist • Natural Builder • Birth Keeper • Educator
Ashley McDonell is a clinical herbalist, natural builder, and full-spectrum doula whose work bridges science, spirit, and ecology. As Director of Education at Casa Curativa, she guides a growing network of teachers, practitioners, and students devoted to restoring relationship-based herbalism to its rightful place at the heart of community health.
With over a decade of experience in clinical practice and herbal education, Ashley’s teaching merges physiological precision with ecological literacy, inviting students to understand the body as an ecosystem and the ecosystem as an extension of the body. She weaves rigorous study with story, song, and earth-based ritual—creating spaces where learning becomes an act of remembrance, and medicine becomes relationship.
In her clinical work, Ashley specializes in nervous system and hormonal regulation, digestive health, and women’s reproductive wellness, supporting clients through comprehensive assessment and plant-based protocols that honor the body’s innate capacity for repair and renewal. Her practice is rooted in reciprocity, reverence, and respect for the living world—guided by the belief that each act of healing contributes to the reweaving of our species back into the ecological web of life.
Upcoming Casa Curativa Offerings:
Return to the roots of herbal medicine through in-depth trainings, hands-on practices, and immersive experiences designed to reconnect you with the wisdom of plants, your body, and traditional healing arts.
Hands-on herbal medicine education rooted in traditional knowledge, practical skills, and direct experience with plants
Learn how to identify, prepare, and work with herbs through teas, tinctures, oils, salves, and other preparations
Build a strong foundation in herbal medicine and deepen your personal practice over time
Explore the relationship between plants, the body, and wellness
Learn from experienced herbalists through immersive teachings, demonstrations, and practical application
Create your own herbal remedies and develop the skills to build a home apothecary
Connect with a community of students, practitioners, and plant lovers from around the world
Experience learning through a blend of classroom teachings, hands-on medicine making, and time with the plants
Take your next step in herbal medicine through foundational trainings, advanced studies, and specialty immersions
The Wise Womb Wheel:
Woman’s Health & Changing Seasons
This free resource is a glimpse into the way we explore women’s health at Casa Curativa: through cycles, plant allies, and the changing seasons of womanhood. Meet the Eight Archetypes that map the different phases of a woman’s life, discover the herbs and organ systems associated with each, and begin to understand how the rhythms of the body, the natural world, and a lifetime of change weave together.
This is for you if you want to:
Understand your body, deepen your knowledge of women's health and physiology.
Understand your cycles, explore the relationship between menstruation, the seasons of life, and the natural world.
Explore plant allies, discover herbs traditionally associated with women's health.
Connect the dots, explore the relationship between hormones, organ systems, and the body's changing needs.
Reclaim your knowledge, build a more informed and empowered relationship with your body, your cycles, and the plants that grow alongside us.