Ashley Gutierrez is an award-winning filmmaker, associate therapist, and the founder of Cliff Co., an impact storytelling group that specializes in creating media for non-profit organizations. With over a decade of experience in cross-cultural storytelling, she leans into the intersectionality of systems, social justice, mental health, and storytelling.

Ashley and the team at Cliff Co. focus on ethical storytelling. They prioritize the person before “the story” through collaborative filmmaking alongside the people whose stories they witness. The team commits itself to create dignifying films representative of the realities people experience. Ashley integrates trauma-informed collaborative and narrative therapy techniques prioritizing survivor/participant-led filmmaking. The Cliff Co. team believes in creatively supporting organizations working for a better world, like International Justice Mission, Operation Smile, charity: water, and Yamba Malawi, amongst others. The films have won awards, been displayed in Times Square, and helped organizations raise awareness and millions of dollars. Most notably, the films are often an integral healing step for the people who courageously decide to share their stories on camera.

Ashley has further translated her love of story by now sitting alongside people in therapeutic spaces as an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist. She believes relationships with ourselves, loved ones, and sociocultural systems can harm and heal, and that these relationships influence the stories people tell about their lives, and ultimately the quality of their lives. Ashley is passionate about helping people explore their preferences, identities, growth initiatives, and heal from trauma. She draws from collaborative, narrative, and attachment theories and uses the Gottman method to support her work. With extensive multicultural experiences suffering and resiliency, Ashley clinically practices with a recovery-oriented and culturally sensitive lens.

Whether storytelling with a film crew or in a therapeutic space, Ashley hopes every person experiences love, safety, and independence-- whatever that means to them.

Get in touch with Ashley to talk about work or say hi: hello@cliff.co