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Ayurvedic Practitioner · Death Doula · Licensed Veterinary Technician
Hi, I'm Kim Nicholetti
MY STORY
A path born from illness, transformed by healing
Hi, I'm Kim. I'm a Board Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, a trained Death Doula, and a Licensed Veterinary Technician, and yes, people always ask how those three fit together. The honest answer is that I've spent my whole life caring for bodies, human and animal, in sickness, in health, and at the very end. Everything I do grew from that.
This work didn't start in a classroom. It started in a hospital bed. I was a sick kid. I spent years of my childhood in and out of hospitals, on long courses of medication, being tested and treated by people who were good at their jobs but never really saw me. I was a chart with a diagnosis on it.
I found Ayurveda, and for the first time someone approached my health with slowness and curiosity instead of a checklist. It helped my body. More than that, it gave me a way of understanding myself that I never got from a prescription pad.
AYURVEDIC TRAINING
A 5,000 year old system that still works
I trained formally at the YogaVeda Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine (accredited by the Ayurvedic Accreditation Commission) and became Board Certified through the National Ayurvedic Medical Association. I went on to study Panchakarma, Ayurveda's traditional system of deep cleansing, with Wahneta Trotter, along with the classical body therapies: Abhyanga, Shirodhara, Nasya, Udvartana, Pinda Swedana, and external Basti.​
Abhyanga - therapeutic oil massage
Shirodhara - forehead oil therapy
Nasya - nasal therapy
Udvartana - herbal powder exfoliation
Pinda Swedana - bolus-based therapy
External Basti treatments
If those words mean nothing to you, that's fine. Most of my clients don't come in speaking Sanskrit. They come in saying "I can't sleep" or "my stomach is a wreck" or "I'm so burned out I can't think."
MY PHILOSOPHY
Meeting you where you are, without shame or overwhelm
Here's what I actually believe: a wellness plan has to survive contact with your real life. Your work schedule, your kids, your budget, the fact that you're already exhausted. I don't do rigid protocols. I've seen too many people handed a beautiful plan they could never realistically follow, and then blame themselves when it falls apart. That's a plan that was never built for a real person.
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So we start small. Maybe it's changing when you eat before we change what you eat. Maybe it's one ritual in the morning instead of six. Ayurveda has an enormous toolbox, and part of my job is knowing which tools to leave in the box for now. We build routines you can actually keep, and we adjust as we go, because life changes and your care should change with it.
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I also believe this work should be within reach no matter what your finances look like. Some of the most powerful practices in Ayurveda cost nothing at all If you've ever felt like wellness was a club you couldn't afford to join, I want you to know it doesn't have to be that way.
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No shame, no overwhelm, no pretending you have three free hours a day or an unlimited budget. Just steady, honest work at whatever pace your life allows.
Healing isn't always a fix. Sometimes it's subtraction. Less noise, less forcing, fewer things pulling you away from yourself.
VETERINARY MEDICINE
Trained to notice what goes unsaid
Before any of this, I was a veterinary technician. Still am. I've been in the field since 2008, with a degree from Purdue University and my New York State license, plus Human-Animal Bond Certification through HABRI.
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Vet med teaches you something no other training does: how to read a patient who can't tell you what hurts. You learn to watch. The breathing, the posture, the small shift in how a body holds itself. I use that skill every day, with my human clients and especially with the animals I help through their final days.
2008
IN PRACTICE SINCE
DEATH DOULA WORK
Practical, steady support through the dying process
I'm also a trained death doula through INELDA, and I sit with both people and animals as they die.
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I know that sentence stops some people cold. Most of us were raised to look away from death, to hand it over to hospitals and funeral homes and hope we never have to think about it. I understand that. I went the other direction, but not because I have it all figured out. I don't think anyone does.
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What does a death doula actually do? It depends on what you need. Sometimes it's legacy work, helping someone record their stories, write letters, or leave something behind in their own words. Sometimes it's vigil planning, thinking through who should be in the room, what music plays, what happens in the hours after. Sometimes it's comfort care for a body that's tired. And sometimes it's just staying. Not fixing anything, not saying the right thing, just being someone who doesn't leave the room when it gets hard.
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I've held hands at the end and I've knelt on clinic floors and living room carpets saying goodbye to beloved pets alongside their families. Nearly twenty years in veterinary medicine meant I met death early and often, and I'm still learning from it. Every death is different. Some are quiet. Some are messy and complicated and nothing goes the way anyone planned. What I've seen again and again is that having someone prepared and present changes what the experience is like for everyone in the room. Families tell me afterward that it was nothing like what they feared.
COMTEMPLATIVE INFLUENCES
Tibetan Death Practices & the Bardos
Alongside my formal training, I've studied Tibetan death practices and the bardos, an ancient contemplative lineage describing the transitional states between life and death.
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These teachings offer profound insight into how we can meet dying with awareness, presence, and how the moments of transition themselves hold the potential for transformation and peace. This knowledge continues to inform how I weave presence with contemplative awareness in my work at the threshold.
CURRENTLY ADVANCING MY STUDIES
Indriya Sthana
I'm currently deepening my study of Indriya Sthana. A section of the Caraka Samhita, one of the foundational classical texts of Ayurvedic medicine, focused on the sense organs and their relationship to prognosis and the dying process.
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This ongoing study sharpens my understanding of how the senses relate to the mind, the body, and the subtle signs of imbalance, knowledge I bring into both my wellness and end of life work.
Sacred Crossings Death Midwifery
I am currently completing my Death Midwifery certification through Sacred Crossings end of life care training.
INELDA Certification
​I am also currently working toward full INELDA certification. A distinction beyond the foundational training that requires documented hours, case experience, and a deeper commitment to the standards of end of life care.
COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
Founding President of NYAYA
When I'm not with clients, I'm building community. I'm the Founding President of NYAYA, the New York Ayurveda & Yoga Association, a nonprofit connecting practitioners, teachers, and students across New York State.
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NYAYA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and advancing the wisdom of Ayurveda & Yoga, making it accessible in modern life through education, collaboration, and advocacy in New York.
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MY WORK SUPPORTS
Who I walk beside
Digestive Health & Hormonal Support
WELLNESS
Getting your gut and your life back on speaking terms
Chronic Conditions
& Autoimmunity
WELLNESS
Gentle, root level support for what's been going on far too long
Anxiety, Insomnia & Burnout
WELLNESS
Calming a nervous system that's been running on fumes
Grief, Trauma & Emotional Healing
WELLNESS
​Support for the heavy seasons
Human End of Life Support
END OF LIFE
Non-medical guidance, ritual, and presence for the final transition
Animal End of Life
Care
END OF LIFE
​For companion animals and the people who love them
Ritual Creation & Life Transitions
CEREMONY
Custom ceremony for loss, illness, and identity shifts
Living in Rhythm
LIFESTYLE
Daily and seasonal routines that actually stick
IN KIM'S WORDS
I don't hand out answers. Mostly I ask questions and listen, because your body usually knows what it needs before either of us does. And I'm not interested in perfection. Perfect is another job on your to do list. I'm interested in you feeling more like yourself.
-KIM NICHOLETTI, GOLDEN THREAD AYURVEDA
2025 RECOGNITION
Women of Distinction Award
Honored by NYS Assemblyman Michael Durso & Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino for contributions to holistic wellness and death care on Long Island.
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2026 PRESS
Newsday · LI Life Cover Story
Featured by reporter Kevin J. Redding, exploring my journey, my work walking alongside people at the end of life, and my belief that true wellness honors every season of our story, including the final one.
WHERE TO FIND ME
You'll find me at:
Strega Rose Tattoo Arts
in North Babylon
The studio I co-own with my husband Shane. Yes, an Ayurveda & death care practice inside a tattoo shop. It makes perfect sense once you're here.