Friday Weekly Class Replay:
Nourish Your Nerves:
Plant Medicine for the Overworked, Overstimulated & Under-Nourished
This class explores the nervous system's central role in sleep, mood, digestion, and hormonal balance through the lens of herbal medicine. Students learn how chronic stress dysregulates the body from the HPA axis to the vagus nerve. Nurture your nerves with 9 nervine herbs, practical formulas, and daily practices that nourish and restore.
Recorded Live on Friday, June 12, 2026
Casa Curativa: Tzununá, Lake Atitlán Guatemala
Hosted by: Ashley McDonell | Casa Curativa’s Director of Education
Nourish Your Nerves Replay:
Class Notes:
Meet Ashley: Casa Curativa’s Director of Education…
Clinical Herbalist • Natural Builder • Birth Keeper • Educator • Connect on Instagram
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:
Herbal Apprenticeship:
October 1 - December 18, 2026 | May 1 - July 30, 2027
The Casa Curativa Apprenticeship is an immersive opportunity to step into the living practice of herbal medicine. Visit for 12-weeks and leave transformed.
Immersive, hands-on herbal medicine apprenticeship
Learn herbal preparation, formulation, and small-batch medicine making
Work directly with medicinal plants, gardens, and the apothecary
Gain real-world experience inside a functioning herbal school and community space
Explore how herbal medicine is grown, crafted, and shared
Build practical herbalism skills through daily experiential learning
Participate in the rhythms of a working herbal apothecary
Ideal for students seeking deeper plant connection and hands-on experience
Ready to learn more with Casa Curativa?
A free 4-part Connection with Plant Series with owner & founder of Casa Curativa, Julia Bentely.
Inside this series, you will:
Learn how to connect with plants as allies and companions.
Recognize subtle messages, synchronicities, and plant communication.
Use your senses to receive guidance and become a better herbalist.
Integrate plant wisdom into your daily life with reciprocity and respect.