Maestra Dr. Ashley Tomasino, DAOM, LAc

Maestra Dr. Ashley Tomasino, DAOM is one of the only Shipibo-trained Acupuncturists in the world. She completed over 3 years of isolation and dieta in the Shipibo tradition, dieting over 10 master plants, sitting in over 900 ceremonies and obtaining over 13 years of study in the Shipibo way. She has survived and thrived after intense periods of integration back into life. She is one of the only practitioners in the world who completed the arduous One-year dieta in the Shipibo way, to earn her ability to serve ayahuasca and complete her initiation studies within the lineage. She completed her one year isolation diet in 2018 under the tutilage of Maestro Ricardo Amaringo, a Shipibo curandero and vegetalista working in Iquitos at Nihue Rao Centro Espiritual. It was at this center that she was able to incorporate her acupuncture and ayahuasca practice while undergoing her training. This training is much like the crucible in the Marines, but in the spiritual world of curanderismo that only those who withstand test after test in conditions of depletion in order to learn the way of the shaman and maintain their integrity-end up passing through to the ‘other side.’

Since then, she has studied and received healing as well as completed dietas under several other curanderos/as, such as Maestra Manuela Mahua, Don Jorge Lopez, Don Enrique Lopez, Michael Sonn and shamanic acupuncturist, Dr. Richard Grossman. Her initial shamanic teachers in the Celtic and Colombian Spider Medicine arts were Mary Kay Ryan, LAc, also a shamanic acupuncturist, and for the past 20 years Lizette Rodriguez a Colombian Modern Medicine Woman from Medellin, Colombia.

Dr. Tomasino is a graduate from National University of Health Sciences, Lombard IL. She earned her Bachelors in Biomedical Science and Neurology in 2009. She earned her Masters in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine at Pacific College of Oriental Studies (now Pacific College of Health Sciences), and completed her Doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine at Emperors College of Traditional Oriental Medicine in 2016. She received her license to practice Acupuncture and Herbology in 2016 from California. License #16953.

She is the author of several books, including The Path Between Zen and Now, a Journey Through the Modern Shamanic Matrix, and The Journey, Shamanic Tools for Psychospiritual Navigation. Dr. Tomasino’s doctoral research from Emperor’s College of Traditional Chinese Medicine is on the study of Ayahuasca and Acupuncture for the treatment of Depression, a peer reviewed case study examining the neurophysiological affect that both ayahuasca and acupuncture have on the brain regarding regulating the default mode network (DMN), and it’s affect on emotional healing when both acupuncture and ayahuasca work together.

She is the founder and lead Maestra at the Inner Compass Church, (www.innercompasschurch.org) the first and only TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and TAPM (Traditional Amazonian Plant Medicine) church in the world that combines the philosophy of acupuncture and Taoism with the cosmology of Shipibo shamanism and Celtic-core shamanic practices.

Dr. Tomasino has been teaching and working in the shamanic healing arts since 2009, and has been working as a pain management specialist in urgent care since 2016. She has taught and trained over 80 apprentices in her specialty of shamanic journey techniques and curanderismo through her school, The Advocates Institute for Shamanic Studies (www.advocatesinstitute.com). She is the President and Founder of this institute, teaching students internationally about the practices of Chinese Medicine, Esoteric Sciences, Mysticism and Shipibo shamanism.

She continues to teach, hold space for and help others heal from around the world. For fun, Dr. Tomasino loves to ski, travel, play sports like soccer and tennis, write, paint, hike, spend time with her dog Luca and read.