Ashley Ludman – Breathwork Facilitator & Founder of The Body of Breath

The Body of Breath Breathwork Facilitator & Founder

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About Ashley

In 2019, Ashley Ludman, Founder and Creative Director of The Body of Breath, sat before the Pacific Ocean in Nosara, Costa Rica, meditating on images that had shaped her decades of personal practice and teaching. The grooves of a record, the rings of a tree, the threads of a spider’s web, the patterns of an iris, and the swirls of a fingerprint all revealed a map of life’s patterns — inspiring the creation of The Body of Breath Method.

Rooted in adaptive and progressive breathwork, this method integrates tantric philosophy, nervous system repatterning, movement inquiry, and contemplative journaling into an accessible practice for transformation.

Ashley brings over 30 years of professional experience as an Occupational Therapist, combining her clinical training with expertise in breathwork, yoga therapy, energy medicine, bodywork, and expressive arts. Her therapeutic, trauma-informed approach is shaped by her studies in clinical counseling and decades of guiding clients through the process of nervous system regulation, somatic awareness, and embodied healing.

As an adoptee, Ashley’s own healing journey has been deeply shaped by breathwork and plant medicine. After reconnecting with her biological family in 2021 through DNA testing, she has expanded her focus to include epigenetic and ancestral healing. She continues to live and teach in Nosara, Costa Rica, offering online and in-person breathwork classes, retreats, and facilitator training. Ashley is currently completing a memoir chronicling her path through breathwork, psychedelics, and plant medicine.

Trainings and Certifications

GPBA registered Breathwork Professional 400 hours
GPBA registered Breathwork School, The Body of Breath
Occupational Therapist 1996-2004
Graduate coursework in Occupational Therapy, program planning and development
Graduate coursework in client centered, strengths based Clinical Counseling
Yoga Education with Nosara Yoga Institute (1999) and Anusara Yoga (2004-2011)
Vedic Conservatory, Vedic Thai Bodywork (2008-present)
Neelakantha Meditation (2008-2009)
Clarity Breathwork Certification (2012)
Plant Medicine study
- Lotus Root 2004-06
- Santo Daime 2005
- Iboga Root 2012-2014
- Aya, Kambo, Bufo support 2017-2019
- Psilocybin 2019-present.

“I may have told you this way back but I want you to know again – that for close to 40 years I’ve been training in breath work and truly, I prefer to be guided by you. You give the freedom and mindfulness to explore what is. And the kindness you bring is a balm for the soul.”

There have been huge changes in a short amount of time and yet I never felt pressured or that I was pressed against any deadlines. I never felt pressure to be at the same pace as anyone else in the group (sometimes that happens in training groups.) And, yet, somehow we moved faster than “normal” both with the breathwork sessions and my own inner work.

My relationship to myself has shifted through my work with Ashley and that in turn has shifted other relationships in my life. I see things through a different lens.

What I admire most is that Ash doesn’t teach from perfection, but from her own path of fire and rebirth. Her light doesn’t dazzle — it transforms. A sweet and fierce alchemy at once.