About Ava
Ava is a multidisciplinary artist, therapeutic practitioner, & mission driven entrepreneur born on the unceded territory of the Amah Mutsun people in Santa Cruz, California, with ancestral lines from Ireland and a wee bit from Portugal and Germany.
Prior to establishing Embodied Arts, she co-founded Ceu do Novo Mundo, INC, a church non-profit dedicated to preserving indigenous traditions. For six years, she co-guided ceremonial gatherings with the entheogenic Grandmother medicine, Ayahuasca, while also hosting women’s retreats and online programs focused on womb connection, sexual healing, and vocal liberation.
Ava’s artistic passion emerged through her healing journey of returning to her natural creative impulses and poetic way. As such the heartbeat & motivation within her artistic process is healing and evolution, and being a channel for the poems, songs, dances and stories that are asking for expression through her.
Education // Trainings
2024: 14 month Collective Trauma Facilitator Training with Thomas Hübl
2024: The Voice Keeps the Score & Somatic Regulation Techniques with Linda Thai
2023: Innate Somatic Intelligence Trauma Therapy Training with Manuela Miscke-Reeds
2023: School of the Sacred Wild : 1 year apprenticeship in folk herbalism, earth care and regenerative living
2022-2023: Academy of Inner Sciences 2-year Timeless Wisdom Training: Transformation and individual/ancestral/collective trauma healing
2022: In process: Ubiquity University: PhD in Wisdom Studies
2022: Mexico: Biodynamic Trauma Release Breathwork Facilitator Training
2020: 10 day dieta working with snake saliva and the energy of the serpent
2019: College of Botanical Healing Arts: Essential Oils & Healing
2018: Ojai, CA: Kundalini Yoga Level 1 Teacher Training with Mehtab Behnton
2017: Miami, FL: Khalsa Way Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training
2017: Sofia University: Masters in Transpersonal Psychology; specialization in Creative Expression
2016: One month Dieta in Brazil with Tata, Paje of the Yawanawa Tribe
2015: Bali: Tantra Vinyasa / A Sacred Journey into the Sacred Feminine Yoga Teacher Training
2015: Peru: Hatha Yoga Teacher Training
2015: Peru: Reiki Level 1 Training
2010: University of San Diego: Bachelors in Business Administration; Academic Scholar Recipient
Other teachers with whom I have learned from:
Sarita Ma Ananda (Tantra Essence)
School of Lost Borders (Vision Quest & Earth Based practice)
International School of Temple Arts (L1 & L2)
Nacho Arimany (voicework)
Rahi Chun (sexual somatic bodywork)
To all the Ayurvedic practitioners, Vedic astrologers, voice teachers, dance teachers, bodyworkers; to all the friends, animals, plants and flowers who have taught me, and whose teachings continue to unfurl in me - thank you.