OUR STORY
It began with breath.
Three classes a week. One room in Phoenix. A practice that kept proving itself until it outgrew the walls that held it.
Where it began
Asé Flow started as a breath-centered training system: a founder-led studio, three weekly breathwork sessions, and Gungfu at the Dojo. Small rooms, consistent practice, and people who kept coming back changed.
The practice worked. That was the problem worth having. The people who most needed the work could not always reach the room, and the room could not reach them. The old model served the early vision. It could not serve the long one.
What the name means
Asé is the power to make things happen. The work is breath. The work is discipline. The work is power: the one the name has always carried.
The turn
So Asé Flow became something larger: a nonprofit healing ecosystem. Classes became Healing Circles, structured cohorts with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Attendance became outcomes. A single teacher became a platform of vetted practitioners. And a single address became a delivery model that travels: the practice now moves to wherever the community already gathers. A community resource space in downtown Phoenix. A dojo. A community center. A park. Every cohort receives a full itinerary naming the place and time for every stage of the arc.
This is not a studio trying to grow. This is a movement building the infrastructure to sustain itself.
The mission
To awaken the body, regulate the nervous system, and restore personal power: through breathwork, movement, and community-based healing delivered at scale by a vetted practitioner ecosystem and sustained by a community of donors.
The mission points where the need is greatest: holistic education for underserved communities across the Phoenix Metro area, funded by donors so the people who need the tools most never pay at the door.
The three sides
Participants
Not students buying classes. Community members entering structured programs built around real outcomes, with donor-funded seats for those who need them.
See the Healing CirclesPractitioners
The healers and sages the community already holds: yogis, sound healers, energy workers, martial artists, herbalists. Identified, vetted, funded, and amplified under one umbrella.
Meet the rosterDonors
Not passive supporters. Every gift is tied to a seat, a participant, or a cohort. The floor the whole ecosystem stands on.
Sponsor a seatHow the wheel turns
- Practitioner
- Circle
- Campaign
- Donor
- Program
- Content
- Growth
Every turn makes the next one easier. Nobody pays at the door because the wheel already turned.
What never changes
- Breath as the foundation.
- The sensei voice: direct, grounded, attentive.
- The Hive and the Dojo as home base.
- Phoenix as home.
- The practice itself: Breathe. Move. Transform.
The five Healing Circles
- Nervous System RecoveryEight sessions for the body that lives in survival mode.
- Youth ResetSix sessions for ages 12 to 18, breath and regulation before the pressure lands.
- Women's EmpowermentTen sessions of embodied confidence and foundational self-defense.
- Senior MobilityEight sessions for ages 60 and up: breath capacity, mobility, and community.
- Fatherhood & MasculinityTen sessions on regulation, responsibility, and the men who hold others.
The Voice of Asé Flow
James "Overkill" Sesay is the founder of Asé Flow, a breathwork and movement teacher, martial arts instructor, community builder, and former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant. His approach is shaped by discipline, service, and the belief that healing should leave people with practical tools they can carry into everyday life.
A devoted martial artist with more than two decades of experience, James holds a black sash in Gungfu from Uneed Martial Arts. His journey has also included extensive training in Pencak Silat, Tai Chi, boxing, Jiu Jitsu, and 7 Circles Shaolin Kung Fu. He continues to be guided by his teacher, Sifu Joe Martinelli, whose mentorship remains an important influence on his practice and teaching. James also carries deep gratitude for the wisdom shared by Master Mike Selmon, Master Phil Selmon, Baba Seifu Umar Sharieff, and Cranston Forte'.
Beyond martial arts, James has studied yoga through the Isha Foundation and explored the relationship between breath, movement, alignment, and balance. His teachings bring these disciplines together through the principles of geometry, frequency, and Asé, the vital energy that gives life, movement, and purpose to all things.
James began Asé Flow in Phoenix as a small, breath-centered practice. What started with a few weekly classes grew into a nonprofit platform connecting participants, practitioners, and donors through structured Healing Circles. He continues to teach at The Hive Collective while guiding program design, practitioner alignment, community partnerships, and the voice of the movement.
At the heart of his work is a simple conviction: everyone has the right to feel grounded in their body, connected to their inner strength, and capable of protecting themselves. As a teacher, James helps others discover their personal flow and develop greater balance, confidence, and self-awareness.
James does not see himself as the center of Asé Flow. He sees himself as a steward of its foundation. His role is to hold the standard, protect the integrity of the work, and help build an organization strong enough to carry the practice beyond any one teacher.
"Build the foundation. Hold the standard. Let the work move through many hands."
Board and leadership
Governance listing will live here.
Financials and transparency
990 filings and annual reports will be published here. EIN: 99-4879759.
Asé Flow is not a business trying to look like a movement. It is a movement building the infrastructure it needs to survive long enough to matter.