As a labor and delivery nurse for 20 years, Paola K. Wong shepherded thousands of births. “I remind her of her royalty,” Paola says of the many mothers she tended to in prenatal education, birth, and postpartum care. Now retired from that role, Paola leads women on different kinds of journeys, both physical and spiritual, through ceremony and on retreats like her annual Egypt retreat. “These are journeys we’ve dreamt of all our lives,” Paola says, “Embodied expression of our truth.”
Sandra Dawn met Paola at a perimenopause workshop Paola led at the Spirit Weavers Gathering this past June. Sandra and I both participated in a ceremony Paola led there to introduce a circle of women to Oshun, the Yoruba Orisha of sweet waters. The container Paola created for us, a group of strangers, to feel open and vulnerable in our participation, was a powerful web of song, drumming, flowers, honey, and objects connected to Paola’s ancestry and the river where we gathered. Working with Paola felt sensual, beautiful, and transformative.
Based in Los Angeles, Paola sees clients 1:1 for spiritual cleansing and reiki. She leads postpartum ceremonies, Blessing Ways, and online circles, integrating Haitian folkloric and Afro-Cuban inspired womb dance with connections to plant allies in her ceremonies. She says of her work, “This nurturing spirit brings great comfort to anyone going through their personal thresholds of life.” She teaches nurses how to stay connected with their humanity in the sterile setting of a medical hospital. She’s developing a podcast for women to share stories of their birth experience. She hosts sacred journeys and online workshops, and shares her wisdom on Instagram as paola.asthar.
