Alumna Ashley Nash has worked through her trauma, blazing the trail for others to find healing and kindness that she didn’t always have.

For Ashley Nash, nothing is accidental. Her life is an homage to the mantra she lives by: be the person you needed when you were younger.

Today, Nash is a 27-year-old doctoral student, Saybrook alumna, twice-published author, and therapeutic art life coach. Her path has been paved by resiliency, underscored by her drive to be and do more for others as a way to right the wrongs she experienced. She has drawn inspiration from her struggles and hardships—from the moments and people that have kept her going and helped her move on.

Nash grew up in South Carolina, living in 12 different cities during her childhood. From the ages of 2 to 14, she was molested four times by four different people. She was depressed from the ages of 7 to 14 and tried to commit suicide. Her parents weren’t around much, and she had to look after her siblings.

One day when she was 11, she had so much pent-up frustration that she put it down on paper. When she showed someone what she wrote, they called it poetry.

“Writing ended up helping me the most by getting my feelings out and on paper, instead of using more negative coping methods,” Nash says. “Even if I didn’t believe that anyone wanted to hear what I had to say or what I needed to say, at least I got it out of my head.”

She started with poetry and nonfiction, until her writing got too dark. She turned to fiction then, liking the feeling of having control over the fate of her characters and the possible paths they could take. For her, the opportunity to unburden herself from her feelings and channel the energy into something else—whether through her writing or later through art therapy—offered her a way out of pain.

She also saw another way out: education. Nash went to South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, when she was 18. While there, she discovered psychology—unknowingly changing her life’s trajectory.

“I was a sophomore when I had my first psychology class,” Nash says. “I was amazed that I could learn the ins and outs of people’s minds, and understand how to help them through some strenuous or difficult things in a healthy way. When I had to go through my own trauma, I was pretty much alone, so I wanted to change this.”

Upon graduating, she realized she wanted to work in psychology, not just use it as a subset in another career. It was then she found Saybrook and began her M.A. in Counseling. While attending, she learned about art therapy, something that helped her make major breakthroughs with some difficult cases.

“It was one of my first clients as an intensive in-home therapist. She was a pregnant 14-year-old girl who witnessed her brother’s murder. She had such severe PTSD that she couldn’t even go to Walmart by herself,” Nash explains. “When we first talked to her about hobbies, she mentioned art and I was able to go back into the art therapy experiences I had. That’s what broke the barrier; I saw how something so simple as giving someone a full range of expression could open someone up. It’s almost like she thought, ‘I did something crazy on this paper, and she did not judge me—maybe she’s okay to talk to.’”

Her Saybrook education informed who she would be as a practitioner. When she was ending her master’s program, she had an ectopic pregnancy with two weeks left in the program. She lost the baby and her fallopian tube and had to have massive surgery. Throughout the experience, however, her Saybrook community was there for her.

“Once you have this education and have the opportunity to help people that are going through something difficult you just help them, innately. It’s on instinct, not out of academic obligation. That’s what my Saybrook professors did,” Nash says. “To the professors I had at the time, it wasn’t a grand decision to help me. It’s was just like, ‘Okay, this is what you need.’ And that meant so much.”

With the kindness she found in this experience, she saw a way to further help others. It made her want to educate other counselors, to be the type of professor she had at Saybrook—one that can be both educator and supporter.

Upon graduating in 2018, Nash started her Ph.D. in Counselor Education at North Carolina State University and works as a graduate assistant at the counseling center on campus. In addition to eventually becoming a professor, Nash—who worked three jobs while completing her Saybrook degree—has already published two books (her latest was published in 2018), became a certified therapeutic art life coach this past summer, now runs a social media outreach called N.A.S.H. (Not All Scars Heal), and has even bigger plans.

“I want to open up a mental health wellness center and get people in the community involved so they can see what mental health care actually is, not what they think it is. I want to help break down the stigma surrounding mental health,” Nash says.

From her writing to her mission to give people the resources she didn’t have in the wake of her own trauma, Nash is poised to be the person scores of people need—the person she needed when she was younger.

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