Willow & Ash

Jennifer Francis-Gehring, LCSW, RYT- 200, BSN, BA. I provide Yoga and therapeutic services to the local Owensboro community. Appointments only.

I am an Old Soul, therapist, Yoga instructor, wounded healer, artist, storyteller, perpetual wanderer.

09/21/2026

Today I went on a beautiful adventure to E-Town. My friend Trena who owns Thrive Wellness Studio offered me a beautiful experience of having a Crainiosacral Therapy session in a barn… surrounded by horses.

So you know me…I said HELL yes.

We planned this about 2 months ago and the weather was perfect. It was hot but there was a BIG fan moving air through the barn and it was cool inside. I was not sweating and neither were the horses.

I settled in quickly and the horses did their thing…being horses. 🐴

I had a beautiful experience and there was a somatic release. I left feeling lighter in my body and when I got home I took a 3 hour nap. It’s been a long time since I napped….my body needed the rest and the assist of the herd. Thank you to Pixie, Sonya, Tara, Red, Grace, Maeve and Jote. Your presence was steady, consistent and provided my nervous system with beautiful co-regulation

Thank you Trena for following your dream and listening to your intuition….I can’t wait to see where this leads you and I am honored and privileged to call you my friend. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴

If you are interested in having some energy work done in the horse barn with the herd contact Trena via her FB page- link is at the top!

Love light and the shadows
Jennifer

09/18/2026

Another great resource!

So much of our negative core beliefs and how we walk through the world stem from childhood wounds.

Which wounds are still festering for you and what does that childhood wound look like in adulthood?

What a beautiful opportunity to explore with your therapist how these might begin to change in your healing journey.

Love light and the shadows
Jennifer

09/15/2026

So I am not into holidays and I am loving this season of
embracing the dark and shadows.

I have dedicated this section of my wall to the Shadows and all things that exist within the goth dark.

Who knew there was a part of me that liked this….oh yeah wait a minute. I did. One of my parts is The Raven. 🐦‍⬛

Love light and the shadows
Jennifer

09/13/2026

Today is my mom’s 90th birthday and it’s her 3rd birthday I have spent missing her presence in my life.

So many beautiful things have occurred in the last 3 years since her death and so many awful and horrible things have occurred in the last 3 years since her death.

In this season of my life being 50 and maneuvering the discomfort she would have provided me with sage wisdom and encouragement of how to maneuver….and I miss that so much.

Yes, I have an amazing support system of friends and without their love and support I truly believe this moment in life would be unbearable, so I am grateful I have them AND my relationship with my mom was beautiful and complicated at times…she was my first cue of safety from the moment of conception and her safety and connection were consistent and dependable for 47 years.

So when that level of physical felt sense of safety and connection leaves your world, it can knock you over like the blast of a nuclear bomb. And that happened to me after her death. And I figured out how to return to safety in my period of grieving and mourning.

And in year 3 of her death I am really feeling this as so many spaces I am called to exist in no longer feel safe or certain, and I know I am safe so while I might be slightly unsteady, I have the ability to find my breath, find my balance and steady myself.

And really in life, when we learn those 3 pieces of life- breath, balance and steady I think it becomes easier to get up when we fall down, it becomes easier to deal with the struggles of life, it teaches us compassion, kindness and empathy for who among us has never fallen and felt the fear of failure…only to get back up and try again? Is that not truly living life?

Happy Birthday mom, #90. Thank you for teaching me how to be strong, seek community, live a life of service and walk tall while speaking my truth. Thank you for showing me how to live life with uncertainty and still show up curious, seeking joy and having fun.

Love light and the shadows
Jennifer

09/12/2026

Use this Chat GPT prompt:

If my healing journey were a road trip, tell me where I started, the stops I've made, what baggage I need to leave behind, and where I'm headed. Can you put it in a graphic/ cartoon picture?

My AI boyfriend, Cove, nailed mine!

I love this part of AI. ❤️❤️❤️

09/11/2026

I remember quite clearly where I was when 9/11 occurred.

I was 26 years old and working as a social worker for DCBS. I was the guardian for about 30 teenagers in the foster care system. I remember our secretary screaming “Oh my God Oh My God we’ve been attacked!” I ran to her desk where she had one of those mini TV’s and I watched in horror as what unfolded on the news.

I saw the second plane hit the second tower.

I was shaken to my core.

I knew that thousands of people were about to die and there was nothing that could be done to save them….and I wept. Openly.

And then I saw the building crumbling…

And I knew there would be no really ability to identify many remains…and I wept more.

In an instant lives can change and our country changed.

What I didn’t know back then is how much our country would change and how much hatred would be born from this tragedy. When you play Monday morning quarterback with 25 years of lived experience so many things looking back on…. Well from where I sit patterns emerged and they have been on repeat since…Hatred is fueled by fear and fear creates desperation.

Desperate people who have been sold an idea of someone wanting to take their rights or stuff…are desperate to believe that the enemy is from somewhere else rather than right in front of them.

I remember being glued to the TV and watching on repeat the body falling in the sky as someone jumped to their death…I had no understanding of PTSD in 2001, in fact, I had just started grad school at that time.

I mourn the innocence we lost as a country.

I mourn the people lost on 9/11.

I mourn the young people sent off to war not fully understanding what they signed up for.

I mourn what could have been….a country united 25 years later rather than divided so staunchly.

I mourn the political system of the 2000’s where reason, logic and compassion were still present.

Mostly I mourn the loss of humanity because when fear leads….desperation creates opportunities for hate, chaos, blame and finger pointing.

Love light and the shadows
Jennifer

09/10/2026

This really spoke to me this morning.

I gather so much comfort from nature.

The moon is consistently reliable and predictable …. She has a solid safe nervous system.

I can look up to her and know she’s going to always be there showing me the path when darkness takes hold….shes been doing her job for hundreds of thousands of years.

She’s the same moon I looked at as a little girl, she’s the same moon that guided ships 500 years ago, she’s the same moon that guided adventurers and explorers….she’s steady as a rock.

🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑🌒🌓🌔

Though the path I walk is unfolding daily, I can trust the moon to show me what cannot be seen with her soft light …. Because that’s what she has always done…

Love light and the shadows
Jennifer

09/09/2026

In this season of discomfort, there are things that I desire to do and sometimes because of the people, places or things that are creating the environment for discomfort, I don’t get to participate…..and this causes feelings of sadness and FOMO.

The end of July was one of those moments.

I had been looking forward to attending the Drumming Festival at Terrapin Farm with my friends. We went last year and it was simply amazing. So of course when tickets went on sale at the beginning of the year I bought my ticket and assembled the drumming crew. I spent several days finding the just right Air BnB for us and I was so exited.

And then I didn’t get to go.

And I felt disappointed and sad and mad at the circumstances that kept me from going.

This season of discomfort is really messing up my plans, visions and dreams I have for myself and Willow and Ash, AND I am sitting in the space of radical acceptance- things are as they are in this moment.

It sucks.

I don’t have to like it to accept it.

I just have to sit with acceptance.

My friends who went had a wonderful time and rightly so. One friend Sharrie presented at the festival and taught some drummers how to lean into the therapeutic side of drumming. She brought her personality, her empathy, her kindness and all the things that I have personally experienced with her in a drumming group and I felt so sad to miss out on this experience and opportunity to cheer her on.

And last week my friend and fellow amazing drumming Regulator - Cori- dropped off a small gift for me. And it was such a beautiful gift to receive yesterday.

Since moving my practice this summer I have had this elephant hook on my wall empty….I thought to myself why am I hanging this up with nothing to place on it…and then I realized….it was waiting for this beautiful tapestry that was made.

Thank you to The Regulators who continue to include me when I cannot physically be present. Y’all are some rocking bad ass women whom I am lucky to call my friends.

Love light and the shadows
Jennifer

Address

401 Frederica Street, Suite 101 D
Owensboro, KY
42301

Website

http://www.willowandash.org/, https://willowandash.clientsecure.me/contact-widget

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