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Neura members can now book video appointments with Ashly Gray, APRN, NP

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At Neura Health, we’re excited to introduce Ashly Gray, a Neurology Nurse Practitioner with over 20 years of nursing experience and a strong background in general neurology and internal medicine. Her clinical expertise includes dementia, epilepsy, sleep disorders, concussion and traumatic brain injury, and vestibular disorders. Ashly takes a patient-centered approach to care, focusing on treating the whole person and ensuring every patient feels heard, validated, and supported. Her passion for neurology was inspired by her grandfather’s journey with Alzheimer’s disease, which continues to shape her compassionate approach to helping patients and families navigate complex neurological conditions. 

Video Transcript:

I'm Ashly Gray, and I am one of the nurse practitioners here at Neura Health. 

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What is your professional background?

I've been a nurse for over 20 years. I started out in long-term care because my grandpa had dementia. He had Alzheimer's, actually. And at the time, my family had no idea what to do with that diagnosis. And at the time, I did neither. I was learning along with them, and it got me thinking that I wished I knew more. I wished I could help them more through that diagnosis, and actually I was in nursing school just starting out as a licensed practical nurse. And then he ended up going into a nursing home and I actually ended up working at the nursing home where he was a resident. So I got to spend more time with him there, and that started my whole neurologic journey.

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What is your special interest within your specific field?

A variety of different things here at Neura Health. I started out just really enjoying memory, but I also really enjoy treating vestibular migraine because I myself have them. I also enjoy treating epilepsy. I treated a lot of epilepsy when I worked in outpatient neurology. I also treat general neurology as well. I treat sleep medicine as well, stroke, and, honestly, most things besides migraine. 

Migraine is the only thing I don't treat at the moment. Just headache, migraine. I also see concussion and TBI patients. I enjoy all of it. I like seeing a diverse amount of people. It's fun. 

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What is your approach to treating patients?

I really think patients need to feel validated and heard. Whenever they come to see us, I have heard a lot that they have seen several neurologists, or they've seen their primary care doctor, and they just haven't felt like they were heard, like their symptoms were validated. And I feel like that's what they need out of their provider. They need to feel like their provider believes in them, that their provider believes their symptoms are real because they are. 

They're real to them, no matter what the symptoms are, they're real. And it's up to us to find out what's causing those symptoms. 

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What is your POV on patient-first care?

I've always been a patient-first type of provider. I'm always about treating the patient first and treating the patient as a whole patient and not just focusing on even just the neurologic conditions. feel like fixating on just that one thing is that you're losing part of the whole story. If you do that, you actually need the whole picture. You need their whole history in order to know exactly what's going on with that patient. 

I feel like putting the whole patient in perspective is really treating them in the best way possible because then if there was something missed that another provider didn't know about, maybe they will feel comfortable sharing that with you. I feel like it's a whole patient picture, and a lot of providers get to where they just focus on the neurology or just their specialty. And I think you're missing out if you do that.

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Do you have a chronic condition?

Yes, I have vestibular migraine, and I have migraine actually. I have neck pain, chronic neck pain that often turns into migraine attacks. And I have vestibular migraine that, if I didn't take medication daily, would be there constantly. So I know exactly what people are suffering when they come to us with migraine, and I commiserate with them. Because of that, I want to help them as much as possible. 

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How do you manage?

There are a lot of things that we tell people. I mean, exercise, and stuff. And I wish I could say that I do that, but I don't. I wish I could say that I exercise because that is very important with managing these, and I should be doing that. But exercise is important. Sleep is extremely important. I make sure that I get at least seven hours of sleep at night because if I don't sleep well, I feel terrible the next day. And I will probably get a headache if I don't sleep well. 

I'm also on preventative medication. I take Ajovy and Topiramate. And I also have mediate treatments like Ubrelvy, and I have ibuprofen. It's a dual-action ibuprofen Tylenol that they sell now. And so I just buy that and take that if I need it, but obviously not overuse, just if needed for neck pain and such. Also, Baclofen. I have a muscle relaxer too. I’m a pharmacy, a walking pharmacy.

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