MONK • FILMMAKER • TEACHER
Sadhvi Siddhali Shree
Stories, teachings, and conversations for those seeking truth, deeper awareness, healing, and inner peace.
BEYOND A SINGLE TITLE
A life shaped by practice, storytelling, and service.
My path has taken me from military service to monastic life, and from spiritual practice to documentary filmmaking. Across it all is a commitment to bring awareness to what people carry within—and to the experiences the world too often overlooks.
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Monk
Nearly two decades as the first North American female Jain monk, grounded in meditation, nonviolence, self-awareness, and service.
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Filmmaker
Directing and producing award-winning documentaries that bring overlooked experiences into public conversation—from human trafficking and animal welfare to women’s health.
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Teacher
Retreats, talks, podcasts, and spiritual conversations that make ancient wisdom practical, relatable, and relevant to modern life.
THE QUESTION BENEATH THE WORK
How can we reduce suffering—within ourselves and in the world around us?
The answers are rarely simple, but this question guides my spiritual practice, the films I make, the conversations I have, and the way I try to live.
FILMMAKING
Stories that ask us to look closer.
As a director and producer, I lead documentary projects from early research and field production through editorial, distribution, release, and social impact—bringing overlooked experiences into public view.
DIRECTOR · PRODUCER · 2026
BALANCE: A Perimenopause Journey
Two female monks confront perimenopause and uncover a larger story about misinformation, stigma, medical education, and women's right to informed care.
DIRECTOR · PRODUCER · 2022
Surviving Sex Trafficking
DIRECTOR · PRODUCER · 2017
Stopping Traffic
CO-DIRECTOR · PRODUCER · 2023
For The Animals
BEHIND THE WORK
Impact through storytelling
Films are only the beginning. Screenings, education, partnerships, and conversations extend the work beyond the screen.
TEACHINGS & RETREATS
Spirituality begins with knowing who you really are.
As Spiritual Director of Siddhayatan Tirth & Spiritual Retreat, I lead retreats and share teachings rooted in soul awakening, meditation, healing, nonviolence, and the practical work of spiritual growth.
Soul Awakening and Deep Meditation
Knowing who we are beyond identity and using meditation to deepen our connection with the soul.
Pain, Trauma, and Inner Freedom
Spiritual practices and lived understanding for facing what we carry, healing without being defined by the past, and moving toward greater inner freedom..
Nonviolence and Compassion
Bringing nonviolence into thought, speech, action, relationships, and our care for all living beings.
Women's Midlife Health
Bringing together research, lived experience, and insights from leading menopause experts to advance understanding of perimenopause, menopause, mental health, and informed care.
PODCASTS & REFLECTIONS
Questions worth sitting with.
Some questions are brought to a spiritual master. Others unfold through candid conversation or arise in the quiet rhythm of a walk. Each series follows the questions wherever they lead.
WEEKLY PODCAST
Conversations with a Master
Honest questions from modern life brought to my teacher, Acharya Shree Yogeesh, whose answers are direct, practical, and often unexpected.
CO-HOSTED PODCAST
Living in Balance
Candid conversations with Sadhvi Anubhuti about health, identity, spiritual life, filmmaking, and the experiences shaping us in real time.
COMING SOON
Something More Personal
A forthcoming solo series of personal stories, spiritual insights, and reflections on healing, purpose, and inner freedom.
SPEAKING
Conversations that stay with people.
For conferences, universities, workplaces, health organizations, retreats, screenings, and communities seeking honest, thoughtful conversations grounded in lived experience.
Living Spiritually in a Noisy World
How self-awareness, nonviolence, and spiritual practice help us navigate pressure, ambition, identity, change, and uncertainty.
From Combat Medic to Jain Monk
A personal journey through early loss, war, trauma, spiritual awakening, the search for purpose—and the decision to choose a radically different life.
Perimenopause, Mental Health and the Stories We Don’t Tell
What directing BALANCE and navigating perimenopause revealed about mental health, silence, gaps in education and care, and the importance of informed decisions.
Storytelling for Social Impact
Lessons from years of documentary filmmaking about trust, human dignity, difficult subjects, ethical storytelling, and moving audiences toward action.
PRESS & MEDIA
Featured in
My work and perspective have been featured across national media in conversations about spirituality, documentary storytelling, social impact, and women’s health.
BIOGRAPHY
The titles are different.
The purpose beneath them is not.
Sadhvi Siddhali Shree is the first North American female Jain monk, a U.S. Army combat medic who served in Iraq, an award-winning documentary director and producer, author, teacher, and TEDx speaker. She serves as Spiritual Director of Siddhayatan Tirth & Spiritual Retreat, where she leads retreats and teaches.
She combines lived spiritual depth with an unusual ability to turn ambitious ideas into meaningful public work. From military service and monastic life to Oscar- and Emmy-qualifying documentaries, international speaking, retreats, and social-impact campaigns, she has repeatedly earned trust around difficult stories and carried them from vision to audiences.
Her work is guided by one central question: How can we reduce suffering within ourselves and in the world around us? Through spiritual teaching, documentary film, and public conversations, she helps people face what they carry, reconnect with who they truly are, and move toward greater purpose, peace, and inner freedom.
GUIDED BY A MASTER
A path shaped by a master.
I was blessed to meet Acharya Shree Yogeesh, whose wisdom and guidance changed the course of my life and led me onto the path of the soul. His teachings have transformed how I understand myself, suffering, freedom, and the purpose of this life.
They are the foundation of my spiritual practice and the purpose beneath my service. To carry his teachings forward—and share them with those seeking truth, awakening, and liberation—is among the deepest responsibilities of my life.
CONNECT
For speaking, media, films, podcasts, and collaborations.
Choose the area that best fits your inquiry and reach the right person directly.
SPEAKING INQUIRIES
For keynotes, panels, screenings, retreats, and conversations centered on spirituality, women’s health, resilience, purpose, and social impact. Click here.
PRESS & MEDIA
For interviews, podcasts, press features, commentary, and other media requests. Click here.
FILM & PARTNERSHIPS
For screenings, film collaborations, educational initiatives, impact campaigns, and aligned partnerships. Click here.
GENERAL CONTACT
For other professional or organizational inquiries that do not fit within the categories above. Click here. For retreat information, please visit Siddhayatan.