Aimee has trained extensively and humbly with Baron Baptiste, Coeli Marsh, Gregor Singleton, Claire Estes McDonald, Brandon Compagnone, Sean Corn, Beryl Bender Birch, and Mimi Loureiro. In addition, Aimee is an energy healer, Intuitive and Intuitive Counselor. Aimee constantly and extensively trains in yoga at BPYI, energy medicine modalities, metaphysics, chakra study, self-realization, self-empowerment and meditation.
Aimee's unique personal meditation and yoga path has given her the critical tools to undo trauma history and a lifetime of mental, emotional and physical lock-down of self-hate and powerlessness. Aimee's classes are an art form of yoga, asana, metaphysics, motivatioinal and insprational speaking to teach self-love, empowering and uplifting one's own human spirit. RHEMp is the VIP pass to ultimate Self-Acceptance, Self-Love and Rewriting Destiny's...
The Long and Short of Aimee DeRoehn and the Making of Road Home Power
I spent the majority of my life ALLOWING an early childhood trauma to create and recreate a daily DEEP self loathing and a sense of worthlessness, thereby giving MANY characters in my life an engraved invitation to treat me in a way that ONLY mirrored esteem that was stuck in the toilet.
Deep depression, emotional eating, and abusive relationships were just a few staples that further fueled a daily diet of more powerlessness and self sabotage and a vital need to keep self punishing. With that as a foundation, from a young age, it meant an adult life that could still NEVER fully get off the ground. However, the Gods had a different plan for me.
“ YOGA’s INITIAL ATTEMPT TO FIND ME”
In the mid 90’s, I took a field trip with a bunch of high school students I worked with and we spent the day exploring the internet, when it was still brand new to all of us, and for whatever reason, I typed in the word YOGA. Keep in mind, I KNEW NO ONE who did yoga, especially in Warren, NH and I personally knew nothing about yoga and barely did any kind of exercise. Heck, I huffed and puffed to jog a quarter of a mile and yet, I cannot fully describe to you the feeling I had as I kept reading and printing PAGES and PAGES of yoga. It was a feeling like I was waking up out of a coma, to do what I was meant to do, and that my search for work that served the well beings of others was finally RIGHT THERE IN FRONt OF ME! I always cared way more to help anyone than myself, so it was perfect to feed my inner mother Teresa, but how? I knew N O T H I N G!!! And I mean nothing, yet I spent the entire time researching a Canadian yoga website and raced to my second job that night at a convenience store, anxious to tell my co-worker that I had found and figured out what I was going to do. She responded with something along the lines of “But what do YOU know about yoga? Who do you know who does it? HOW would you do that?” All questions that my esteem had NO kind of answer for and automatically that old familiar inner critic in my head said “GET REAL! Use your head for something besides a hat rack.” After all, at that time I was working three jobs, and STILL could barely take care of my kids as a single mom, who the hell was I kidding to be able to afford ANY schooling? Who was I kidding that I could find any more time in the day or night to GO TO SCHOOL? Once the inner critic gets a hold of me, all enthusiasm, possibility, and motivation for creative new ideas injected by God, gets left curb side. Never the less, I found a way to scrape together a few dollars to buy Beryl Bender Birch’s book POWER YOGA. Just holding it in my hands made me feel better, but then, I read it, I didn’t understand anything and feeling stupid, frustrated, and TOTALLY intimidated to be reading anything ABOUT POWER I tossed the book on the closet shelf, got back to reality and completely FORGOT anything about that powerful, inspirational day. I felt my life was good as it got…uh oh! However the Gods had a different plan for me…..
“ WHAT YOU RESIST PERSISTS……”
In 2002, I again felt a longing for wanting to create a better life for my kids, and I applied for and was accepted to massage school. I had sat and contemplated and decided if I was to ever feel comfortable offering massage to men, it was high time to go back into therapy and deal with the childhood sexual abuse I tried to bury and repress with food, cigarettes, antidepressants, retail therapy, abusive men, living life at a pace to fast for childhood crap to slow down and catch up with me, and usually living in some present crisis or drama, and the classic, helping everyone solve their issues TO AVOID MINE. Anxiously, I went back to my intital beloved therapist, Dr. Nancy Strapko, who was available to see me for one session, prior to her departure for a Colorado vacation. On her way out, she offered me a birthday present, A COURAGE TO HEAL and its workbook, A well known incest bible…. I did my usual Aimee “I Don’t NEED anybody “ thing, and decided if I had to survive it growing up in silence, I could HEAL this on my own, perhaps write her a thesus on the subject and set her free to work with those who needed her more, so, as not to be a burden, and therefore, be on MY way to school.. After all, “ I HAD SHIT TO DO IN THIS WORLD!” That was my firm, private , personal affirmation, and I was not going to allow this stuff to derail me any more than I had. I wish I could tell you a happy ending from there.. However, my life had to get far worse, before I could finally surrender and let yoga find me. I kept up all stoic appearances as always, parenting as a single mom, working fulltime in Special Ed at PRHS, taking courses in Special Ed work, and did I mention I worked out excessively? I would get up at 4 am and begin boxing, running.. then, later again in the afternoon, evenings too were spent running with my kids… Meanwhile, like the Great Oz, behind the scenes, after getting my kids to bed, and banging out the housework, I would settle down with the COURAGE TO HEAL BOOKS BEFORE BED.. NOT RECOMMENDED BEDTIME STORY READING!!! To read such graphic material before bed, only sets me up for nightmares, insomnia and trauma… A closet door I spent my whole life tryin g to keep shut , opened up, through the late night reading, and without warning, I suddenly had lost the ability to keep it shut. Terrified, I was losing my mind and having NO ONE to talk to about it, for fear of the response, Nightmares and flashbacks haunted me constantly, and the harder I tried to keep it together and put on my mask to the world about the Pandora’s box, I could not close, more and more, I began to unravel… Alarmingly, I began disassociating, finding ways to disengage mind from body, a survival tool I remembered I picked up to survive the abuse as it was occurring… I began to see and smell my father all over the place, I picked up newspapers and always my eyes would land on a sexual abuse case involving a priest.. I began to feel nauseaus, and would excuse myself at work to go outside and vomit.. ALL the while , I kept trying to hold it all together , and hold it in.. from my children, isolated myself from my own family, and friends, not wanting to have them go through any more of the daddy drama with me, and terrified to lose them, or even custody of my children if my daughter’s father found out. During that time, I remember the actor, Russel Crowe, winning the award for A BEAUTIFUL MIND.. but in our little picturesque town, this kinda shit would NOT FLY.. AT night, I would avoid sleep, to avoid nightmares and the sweats.. I began to shut down, all physical energy depleted, a battle to find any kind of life force to tow me through my day, and kept dragging myself around work, the grocery store, etc.. crying or vomiting when no one was looking…. Doctors began to run massive amounts of tests to determine if there was a physical illness, perhaps, even a tumor.. Still determined , I was going to get through this, I kept trying to plow through this stuff silent, alone.. I felt my life was ending… It was, I could not keep going the way I was going.. full of masking , shame, secrets , and denial .. In truth, I had no idea, Life was really finally about TO BEGIN, well almost.. Dr. Strapko came back a month later, and instead of handing her a thesus, I was hospitalized. I remember Speare Hospital nurses trying to assist me, and I insisted I could not be touched because I was cloaked with years of filth and dirty shame. Sadly, they looked at me tearfully, but nothing they told me could get through my ego mind. Dr. strapko came to see me and tearfully told me I needed to go to a hospital that could help me work through this trauma.. It all felt so surreal.. One minute I was the popular Miss D at PRHS, running the streets at night with my kids, doing hallduty, getting ready to embrace fears that I had the potential to go to school, I was determined I had a plan for A LIFE.. THIS WAS NOT MY PLAN… I could not believe how it all unfolded, For that matter, no one else could either..my family, once they finally learned the truth was devastated, they said I was the one that held it all together. .. HOW could I possibly have had a BREAKDOWN? Not wanting to disappoint anyone or embarrass them, I sat in my bed at night, determined I would find a way to fix all this to appease everyone’s upsets, embarrassment… The magic answer as to HOW exactly I would do that would not come.. Instead, I sat at the hospital, making stupid birdhouses, taking all my pills like a good girl.. and helping everyone else in there solve their issues..Mean while , I sat in the hospital, feeling lost, aching for my kids, and to have it all be normal again.. but still at a loss to get back to ME.. I knew I was NOT CRAZY.. but I did not know how to fit in the real world anymore either.. I also FELT numb to the entire experience, and disconnected from everyone… and to compound my diagnosis of anxiety, I sat frozen , mortified of my little community finding out and the outcome of that, the fear of losing a job to support my kids, losing my friends, wondering if my kids would be taken away from me.. I was put on heavy psychotropic drugs for anxiety, and flashbacks, paranoia, sleep aids for nightmares, and antidepressants.. They coded me with Clinical Depression, Anxiety, Delayed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder… all those labels felt HEAVY, and permanent.. and my life as I knew it , seemed to come to a screeching halt… Since you are reading this, you know that my life didn’t END, in truth this is where it finally starting to begin. My mom, in desperation, brought in a yoga video, insisting that she knew if I could not get exercise , I would not make it.. Having literally NOTHING left to lose, and NOTHING to do while My new psychiatric friends were out smoking.. I said Fuck it! And angrily, jammed the yoga video in the hospital VCR.. I UNDERSTOOD NOTHING!!!! TRUTH? I HATED IT!!!!!!!! It was to fast, and the whole thing made me look and feel and sound stupid.. I HATED IT!!! I attempted Warrior poses and felt like such a weak loser, all those hours powerlifting, and on a yoga mat, my legs were shaking like a seizure patient.. Yet, as much as I resisted it, I noticed I felt different afterwards.. I kept at it, despite the laughter and teasing from the other patients, eventually, however they too, got down on the floor to try it.. Next thing I knew I was being asked to teach them stuff.. HUH? I insisted I could not, I had NO CLUE what I was DOING.. I finally ADMITTED for the first time in my life, I was IN NO POSITION TO HELP ANYONE when I could not help myself understand it.. Still, I kept jamming the tape in the VCR, and eventually, even a few of the nurses, forgoed their Camel lights to attempt their hand at CAMEL POSE.. I kept on, I kept us all getting down on the living room floor, and eventually when I left the hospital, I left a video on the VCR for those who had not yet thought to contemplate a different life.. I went back home to my parents, took a huge leave of absence from school, (forever indebted to Rick Knowles) and worked on my putting my own inner Humpty Dumpty back together again..although I had NO IDEA the depth of the journey of the self I was about to embark on. GOOD THING, I never would have had the courage or esteem to take it.
To avoid more trips to the hospital, I began to do more yoga, I would put myself in Child Pose after a grueling therapy session, I would have nightmares, and run, not walk to the mat! I would feel sick to my stomach, not knowing how to handle the questions and gossip from others, about my “being in the bin”, and the mat became my only “TRUE NORTH”. Yoga woke me up to how in pain I was, in my groin, hips, buttocks, and through my research I began to understand how our repressed emotions get stuffed down, often in the body tissue, at a cellual level, and I knew through my own body that to be true, I felt my lower body was like cement.. I could not touch my KNEES, much less touch my toes.. I was IN LOCKDOWN.. all over the place, from head to heart to heels… Yoga annoyingly got me feeling things I NEVER wanted to feel, and although I hated yoga for that, I NEEDED the yoga to get me to FEEL again, I used the mat as therapy, I FELT like a different version of me on the mat, a ME unique to ME and naturally, to everyone who knew me.. For the first time, I felt STRONG, mentally, emotionally, and little by little, physically.. and I FELT EMPOWERED for the first time ever, I began to wonder if there was more to this yoga thing, than just a trendy exercise, and slowly, privately, I began to contemplate the idea of SURVIVORHOOD, and less of the VICTIIM.. I began to envision the possibility of healing the OLD STORY, and REWRITING my own SCRIPT; on my mat in Warrior poses, I began to consider myself, for the first time, as a SURVIVOR, not a victim. For the first time in my entire life, I began to feel STRENGTH and a proud SURVIVORSHIP for what I had gone through as a kid and came out the OTHER side, even if I DID come out emotionally mangled, numb, fearful and traumatized… Until yoga, I only HATED myself and felt weak for not being able to find a way to fend off, or flee.. I felt broken, worthless, guilty, etc.. and yoga made me face that stuff, and then find something deeper.. Once I began to feel , I felt that all that medicine was useless, kept me numb, to me it was only bandaiding all my stuff, NOT REALLY DEALING WITH ANY OF IT.. and I had already DONE THAT perfected that one to mastery! Feeling frustrated, I began to debate with my family, and team of doctors , about the need for all of that .. Despite their protest that realistically and logically, I should be a lifer at the local pharmacy, due to my years of low level serotonin, coupled with years of trauma, I thanked them for their concern, and took myself off all of it.. using yoga as my daily vitamin to heal depression, nervous tension, emotional pain, and to get me a little yoga butt in the process..It baffled me that this yoga thing gave me more strength and tone than all the hours in the weightroom. More and more, I had this deep sense that yoga was not in my life by mistake and the very things I didn’t want to deal with were going to have to be for me to have any kind of different life. Eventually, I ventured out , and found Karen Price, one of the greatest yoga teachers, healers I have ever known.. Through Karen’s personal classes with me, and our limitless conversation, I felt safe enough to go deeper into parts unknown.. and then I kept going, I wanted my yoga to be a strong workout, and after I threw that thought out there, I found Baron Baptiste videos, it resonated with me and the initial reason I gave him a shot was he wore a “do rag” the way I did when I was weightlifting and working out. I read his book Journey into Power cover to cover. I FELT the words on each page but I felt like he owned a sense of something within, a personal deep knowing and love for himself that I had no way of grasping or cultivating for myself…Sitting on my couch in small town USA, I never dreamed I would ever meet the man on the cover making Crow Pose look so effortless, and therefore, there was NO way I could envision that about 2 years later, I was to find him, or be accepted to study with him. AGAIN, NeVER SAY NEVER!! And if I can teach you anything can tell you that Buddha says “your mind creates your world” so, if Your thinking is or was as THIRDWORLD as mine, then I hope after reading this, you can COMPASSIONATELY use my experience to SEE YOUR OWN BETTER. You too, may long for a different life you feel is out there, yet, desperately remains on Layaway…
I moved back to my own home, and kept practicing solely in my living room, to a different Baron video every day… At the time I could afford three so, I kept revolving them…It was the rare hour of my day, that I made critical for myself. A steady yoga practice constantly got me researching and believing that I could heal my own self…I kept reading, researching, and practicing yoga…not having a clue what I was doing…not trusting myself, and still missing LARGELY the whole point of yoga.. Hey, little bit at a time.. A friend of mine came forth and kept insisting I teach yoga to kids in an after school program.. I kept trying to convince her, I knew Nothing about anything…She ignored my pleas, my begging to consider someone else.. Truth? I was terrified, I had lost a connection with my community members, who were not sure how to deal with what I was dealing with.. That loss and shame for being hospitalized only created even more fear in me to put myself out there in the world again…. I was TERRIFED to go back out there to people.. having had to explain honestly where I had been , what was going on , and that if given the chance , I could work and be part of things again.. Somehow, I just lost the ability to argue with her.. I went in and from day one, the kids loved yoga so much, but more importantly, they saw how much better their school day was, their mood, their focus, their energy, they felt happier…and they wanted it for every adult they knew and observed being wiped out, depressed, sore, anxious, scattered…I began teaching, still insisting I KNEW NOTHING…I WAS NOT A TEACHER. “YOU GOT THE WRONG GIRL!”
That is, in fact, a statement, I STILL TRY HARD to convince the God and the Yoga Gods who set this all up long before Little Aimee DeRoehn…What’s meant for you DOES NOT pass by you! If you are meant to meet someone, the gods will make sure…IRONY? The last relationship to wake me up to how poorly I felt about myself, was in fact, the very MAN god made sure GOT me to Baron Baptiste’s zipcode. My first class with Baron..and I knew I was NEVER to be the same.
“When the Student is READY, the teacher appears”
Enter Baron Baptiste and Baptiste Power Vinyasa Institute as the ultimate teacher and arena to school me on something FAR BEYOND physical exercise or alignment or technical yoga instruction. Baron and his team taught me BY LIVING EXAMPLE about empowerment, and little by little, guided me to go inside myself and FACE ME head on, on and off the mat.. and work to chisel the statue from the stone of a outmoded , outdated, version of my esteem and ego. HOURS and HOURS of training, workshops, classes, and trips to Cambridge, trekking down in my 20 year old Super NOVA… linked me more closely with Baron, Coeli Marsh, Gregor Singleton, Brandon Compagnone, Claire Estes MacDonald, Jane Cargill, and a” yoga family” of students and teaching assistants that also helped soften the pain and loss of relationship with my own relatives.. Only later did I realize that they all provided me with a real life classroom to retrieve my body, my spirit, and my esteem out of lost and found, reawakening me to something I had never owned.. SELF LOVE AND SELF RESPECT. For the remainder of my life, I will ALWAYS remember WHO and WHERE it all began to unfold.
My teaching today is only ACTIVELY going to be my going into the boundless container of gratitude for Baron, Seane Corn, Baptiste teachers, my intital students and job opportunities , all of which gave me a platform for me to discover the AIMEE I was always meant to be. I remind ALL OF YOU, that if you are still breathing and still have a pulse, IT IS NEVER TO LATE TO BE WHO YOU MIGHT HAVE ALWAYS BEEN. Know what else? I recently heard from awesome Baptiste teacher, Jenna that “by the time your head comesup with what you think is a GENIUS idea.. YOUR SOUL was already guiding you along that way, the entire time..largely needing the time for your head to incubate the idea, and the possibility of our wildest, greatest dreams could indeed become REALITY! Allow me to teach you this, YOUR INTUITION comes up with all novel ideas that will bring in the best people, and opportunities to you… you just gotta wrap your head around THAT truth. But don’t take my word for it, apply that concept in your OWN life, and write to me in amazement later on.
“But what is the POINT?”
The meaning behind Road Home is symbolic of my courageous journey to go deep within and begin an unending process of getting personal with fear and my self loathing and go deep to explore that pain, ultimately empowering me heal the self… From the VERY ROOT cause of where my own destiny got derailed. To GET ME BACK TO THE GOOD LIFE, I had to practice self forgiveness and forgive others, and GET BACK ON BOARD that despite it all, despite all the outside criticism, etc.. with the thought that I WAS GOOD and that singlehandedly, with a little love and support, I could FIND MY WAY BACK HOME to a me I could be proud of, and share with others..
If you have any hate for self, any sense of dislike, your inner and outer world will always be in turnmoil, you will never feel comfortable in your own skin, and you will subconsciously, sabotage all good things.. For me, yoga and breathing gave me a platform and space to MOVE energy, and MOVE OUT repressed emotional residue from yesterday’s and yesteryears OLD story that I was still carting around with me in my daily life.. Yoga gave me a safe way to FEEL , what a concept for one who experienced such pain, and who ran from anything edgy, painful , uncomfortable the whole of her life.. What a concept for me to let go of the chatter of other’s opinion of me and finally listen to my own voice inside. What a concept for me to stop running from ME!
To this day, I use yoga as the tool to MOVE further from my ego, and kindly and gently ask myself, where I NEED MENDING, correcting, strengthening, where do I need to refine myself? ON my mat, I uncover a bigger version of me I didn’t know was in there. Upward dog forces me to wider open my own heart, and to keep going on, despite the old story, despite mistakes one made toward me or mistakes I made as a result of no love for self.THAT TO ME IS TRUE COURAGE.. On a yoga mat, I have the quiet to see things as they are, see where I learned things, ask what needs to now be unlearned to better improve upon my life. When you learn your lessons, you REALLY do get to move on. A funny thing happens on the yoga mat, it becomes your mirror for how you do everything in life. ON a mat, you become aware, that how you treat YOU is how you will treat others, how nothing kills your yoga practice faster than to practice with a hard head, inner critic, guilt , shame.. All these qualities do is DISEMPOWER a human being. Forgiveness, compassion, and the power of SELF LOVE EMPOWER and HEAL the human spirit. When you have the balls to get in touch with your own humanity, you can see how there is little room to put down anothers.
We are all doing the best we know how, and when we KNOW better, or LEARN better, we DO better! When we feel good about ourselves and love ourselves more fully, we instinctively do loving, good things. PERIOD! END OF STORY!
The NEW IS ALWAYS BETTER THAN THE OLD…..
My mission NOW is to take this unique Life time Drama story, take the painful chapters I had to read fully, and use it as fertilizer and personal life education that gives me the opportunity to Empower another . To put to use, every good bit of my training with THE BARON, Seane Corn, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, and to the incredible healers and teachers (Gayle Hannan, Julie Pike Edmond, Eva Selhub and Rebecca Lovejoy, Fanny Whitman, and Amy Leigh )that I INTUITVELY handpicked that were committed to see me through the blackest, bleakest darkness of my life and self doubt, and break on through to the OTHER SIDE. They have guided me with their own wisdom, background, and life experience , validated MY own abilities and rode my yoga ass until I could begin to SEE them myself, stayed with me unendingly to show me the light within and create a career that allows me to be the spiritual waitress: an instrument for GOD , in offering my own contribution towards well being of our community, nation, and Global Brady Bunch. I seek to teach yoga, provide intuitive work , write and breathe in a way that honors the hours I devoted to my own soul retrieval… gives back to the hours and change counted to buy books on anything related to spiritual growth, transformation, raising consciousness, chakra study, metaphysics, Buddhism, guided healing etc.. To give back now to myself through my work for the work I put into teaching MYSELF yoga,( BEFORE I felt worthy enough to enlist the help and support and knowledge of the Baptiste Swat team…) meditation, therapy, healing.. but most of all, to NOW use my life and purpose, to GIVE BACK TO that in which I could not SEE, the invisible force that guided me to type in the word YOGA on that day, to keep me on point to KEEP on keeping on with my own path and purpose of psychic digging… to then, get over myself and be a teacher, healer, spiritual ACTIVIST who truly knows what the HELL she is talking about. My mission to take every person and little big thing that showed up in my life and give everyone in my life all due credit for loving me, for not loving me, for supporting me, for turning me away, for challenging me.. All of it has held a pivotal role for me to find MY ROAD HOME, so that maybe now I could be of REAL PURPOSE to inspire, empower, assist another. As a spiritual waitress, to be the unconditional cheerleader that serves as many as I can to hold space for one to empower not just one’s physicality, BUT the HUMAN SPIRIT, be a true teacher of the practice of self love and self respect, shave off a little bit of suffering for another by courageously sharing some hard earned learned wisdom of my own life experiences. To give people an arena to see themselves as BIG as I do, and yeah to practice building on the physical strength and flexibility to boot.
If you walk out of my classes, feeling a little better than how I found you, AND you walk out Reawakened to the fact that who you are is a VITAL CONTRIBUTION to your loved ones, your work, to ME.. IF you walk out being grateful for your body and breathing, and seeking to LIVE in a way that FEEDS your soul NOW , not later Then I taught you reasonably well.. IF you walk out, and you hug your kids harder, thank your spouse for making it possible for you to give back to yourself, if you spend a few extra minutes actually FULLY LISTENING to those you love, if you are moved out of your ego mind enough to pick up a phone and forgive someone and move on and move forward in your life, then I know my time with you was worth so much more than an exercise class, If you walk out deciding to start talking yourself UP and turn down the volume of an inner critic THEN I TAUGHT YOU WHAT I HAD TO TAKE ALL THIS TIME TO LEARN.
When You CARE ENOUGH TO THANK THE VERY BEST….
I want to express gratitude for my incredible world renowned master, and teacher, Seane Corn. (Dave Farmar, and Nicky) Seane, you gave me an amazing, container to more fully explore my own divinity and spirituality through the sweat on my mat. To Beryl Bender Birch, the pioneer chic of POWER YOGA whose book first opened my eyes up to a world of Empowerment, who finally told me upon our meeting, “Honey, Road HOME POWER YOGA? YOU, my dear are sitting on a GOLD MINE, why didn’t I come up with that name?” Thanks Beryl, my esteem was no where near where you saw me , but I never forgot it… or you that fateful day together in Hanover, NH. To Dharma Mittra, To the Goddesses of Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, and to Mimi Loureiro. To Bethany Reed, my beloved friend, teacher, thanks for believing in me , when no one else did, myself included.. I remain one of your biggest fans. To Asa Dunlap, also an great NH teacher, who really held a great arena for me to peel back layers of me, and to EMBRACE armbalances and headstands…, Coeli, Baron, Gregor, Claire and Brandon..you all gave me a family in the Baptiste community that I never found anywhere.. You have taught me well, and I keep working to not just teach yoga at your caliber, but also to LIVE at your caliber, you will NEVER be able to fully know, what you did for my soul to come back from the dead and LIVE an awakened life.. MY Kids are forever grateful also.
Aimee proudly teaches yoga to ALL beings and all bodies, from the elite athlete, to those seeking to rise above terminal illness, addictions, abusive relationships, to anyone in between. I am IN AWE of the people that I have found since I began this path in life. I could never see any of this occurring, and work NEVER feels like work. In addition, Aimee spent MANY hours studying and working with medical intuitives , and energy healers, and energy medicine from the very greatest healers. Aimee also received mediumship training from TV’s GHOST WHISPERER creator/ producer, James Van Praagh. In winter of 09, Aimee met and was encouraged to study and train with Amy Leigh towards her own medicine path of Native American Medicine, Reiki, Shamanic Healing. “Both Amy Leigh and healer, Julie Pike Edmond helped me to heal and retrieve huge pieces of me that were in the lost and found, helped me to UNLOCK my own natural gifts and abilities as healer, and finally toss aside the doubt, and fear of who I naturally Am..These two teachers go t me to now begin my own private practice as a healer, intuitive counselor, and empowerment coach. Aimee will continue working with Amy Leigh to further her Reiki, and to become a medical intuitive.
No, REALLY. I got SHIT TO DO IN THIS WORLD!!!....
I am honoring my old story and using it as fertilizer to work and hold space for women and children of abuse and sexual violence, and to ANYone out there who also feels derailed and stuck in the past, and overwhelmed by how to go about rewriting that destiny. I will step in the fire with you and empower you to the other side and RISE up out of your ash and begin again.
Aim’s greatest and BEST teachers to date, are hands down, my own kids, Mike and Lizzy. The two of them school me ON ME daily and motivate me to create a different life for my grandchildren. Mike and Liz have stuck by me unconditionally, through this whole process, from my first day in the hospital, to my healing my depression, through my training and teaching. NONE Of this would be possible without their constantly cheering me on and go as far as I could go. Aside from the spirit realm, I work with, they are the TWO VERY LIVE angels that I get the privilege to live with and learn from every day, They are the biggest reason and motivators for my making myself get on my mat every day, to SIMPLY REMEMBER and keep seeing them that way.
I also owe a world of inherent gratitude to my dear beloved childhood friend, Jason Belyea. Iron J, Has TIRELESSLY been on a campaign for over two decades, to get me to see the survivor in me and to see me as he did. He has rooted for me when NO one else did. Jason, you were my ultimate early life ed teacher to try to show me self love and to get me to laugh at myself A LOT. For the remainder of my life, I will always stay awake to THE BElYEA, that was there long before the Baron team showed up.
Thanks to some very close friends, RINGLEINS, Adam and Melissa Burnell, Harold Roy, Rocky Mendes, Darla Pina, Karen Price, Rebecca Lovejoy, Bethany Reed, Julie Pike, Troy Watts, Coeli Marsh, Brandon Compagnone, Miss Patty, Renee, Peggy and Shari Smith, Cheryl Davis, Tracey, Tom and Joanne Camara, Sadie, Molly, Mo Mo, Piper, and Pokey, Sara Palifka, Susie Page, John Brochu, Aaron Dumaine, Nancy Strapko, Donna Sullivan, Fanny Whitman, Carrie Soper.
"Mike French, Mike, I humbly thank you for all that time spent at your kitchen table on Pleasant Street working with me on that logo! At that time of my life, I THOUGHT I was still very insistent on remaining OBSCURE n OBSOLETE! Yet, my soul had a different life in mind as I ended up choosing a humble, modest dude who does AMAZING ART! I chose a guy whose NATURAL skill as an artist is susposed to be OUT there as much as my yoga/ healing skill is! I thank you for all the time spent while I hemmed and hawed about THE perfect FEEL for what ROAD HOME meant.. You captured it exactly RIGHT! I am proud that you were part of MANY baby steps for RHPY , or I might have NOT taken even a single step on this path! I thank you for your art, your infinite patience, your fantastic insights, and friendship! I am proud of your finally DOING something that you good at and getting yourself out there! I hope whenever you see the logo for RHPY , you feel PROUD and get a reminder of your natural talents! They are indeed your personal BEST! Wherever RHPY ends up, know that you helped me to get GOING there! Know too that your ALWAYS welcome!
Jae Demers, Girl! You took on the very beginings Road Home becoming more than just a thought! You created the FIRST schedule, the posters, the sticker for my car.. You sat at your computer BUSY as HELL for the rest of the world ..but you took SO MUCH time with me, to really GET IT RIGHT! You ALSO saw BEYOND all the work , you saw a girl who had NO idea of what she was getting herself into! You shared with me your personal story about how you started out .. Those talks KEPT resonating with me , long after the work was done.. You went above and beyond.. you believed in me, and you took on the task of being God's messenger to keep me hanging in there to many times to count! Finally, you took the outstanding logo Mike French and I designed a few years back.. and YOU BROUGHT IT TO LIFE!!! When you put color into it, it was an edgy , emotional, fearful thing for me.. IT MEANT I had to BE OUT THERE... You did it with such a subtle suggestion , and I trusted you.. Little by little, it IS getting out there! Thank you for the push! Jae, my heart is filled with thanks!
Donna Sullivan, Donna! Donna is my AWESOME web designer for Road Home's website! Donna has worked patiently n tirelessly with me to create something earthy, and so beautiful , and soul uplifting every time I click on my OWN site! Donna, when we first sat down on the couch and spoke, I thought it was going to be good, but THIS GOOD! I could never have imagined! Donna has a DIVINE, SAINTLY ability to LISTEN.. beyond what is being said for all purpose technical instruction! She listens INTENTLY to my every little HEART's request! She is busy as hell with lots of other work, but she has always made me feel really important.. That is a trait that is HARD to find in the busyness of business.. and even in relationships of this world today!
I do not think ANY of these people I just paid homage to REALLY have a CLUE how good their work is.. Donna, you especially, and maybe THAT is why I am in YOUR life! Whenever you need a genuine reminder about your purpose in this world.. call on me.. I will keep praising you long after Road Home becomes global.. and I will bring YOU ALL on OPRAH with me!
To all my parents and siblings, all of you, I love you, I am at peace with you, and you are my greatest challengers and teachers. Dad, It has been nice seeing a different version of you, the you that ALWAYS was in there, keep looking inside and sharing yourself.. and thanks for insisting you saw something in me that would change the world.. Mom, thanks for all the good you brought to my life, thanks for the true nurturer/ healer/ nurse that came outta you when I was sick, thanks for all the good times on the mountain bikes out at Week’s Crossing, and all the bowls of popcorn and rice pudding you made.. The door remains open. To Franklin, thanks for showing me the way a father could be, and thanks for always getting your point across to me in a way that always BOOSTED me , never belittled me..Thanks for all the talks, and all your help and great messages about forgiveness and moving on, your teaching is not forgotten, neither are you. To Tim and Mike DeRoehn, and two of the greatest, admirable and inspirational men I have ever known and was privileged to call family. Be so proud of what YOU have OVERCOME. Thanks for showing me the way… To Melanie, and Nicole, Thanks for trying to hang on as long as you could. I hope you take all your great gifts and share them with the world. Nicole, before I took on all these trainings about intuitive listening , I should have just remembered how well you listened and held space for me as a sister… The times with you long ago, will remain as some of the very best in my life, especially at that time,. I am just sorry I didn’t own this kind of wisdom and had paid more attention. To Jenn, Matt, Kyle, and David.. I have enjoyed having you all be a part of my life, and to further redefine and extend my definition of family….TO Aunt Cindy, you are one of the most incredible, nurturing people I know. I pray one day you SEE yourself the way I always did,despite anything.. Have the courage to forgive yourself, clear a new path for yourself and move on.. Trust me, It can be done… The new is ALWAYS better than the old. And we could all use the karma.. To my family in heaven, I hope you are looking down feeling good about me and what I am trying to do with the time I am here living.. I wish you were a LIVE part of it.. you all checked out way to soon!
To the Camara’s, Ringleins, Audrey Sites… Thatcher’s .. Flowersmith’s, thanks for creating a space for me in your lives and in your families.. I am who I am now because of that love and support. To Tracey, your death derailed me.. and opened me back up to see how I was NOT living FULLY.. and opened the doors to paths I NEVER would had the nuts to choose, and also led me to the man I am with.. I would give anything for you to be a part of this AIMEE NOW, but somehow, I know you are. Be at Peace.. You are loved.. and Still SEEN in the light I always saw you in over a bowl of Cookies and Cream icecream…
Katie McKinnon, and Mike French.. thanks for being on my path to push me TO MY PATH.. Alex Chapman, Liz Naro, John Brochu, Kristen Hahn, Janet Lenentine.. Thanks for your enthusiasm about the way I taught yoga back in the day when we were all just messing around.. YOU helped get me to where I am NOW..and where I am going. Harold Roy, you have stuck by me regardless of a zipcode, and you helped catapult me to truly Become that individual you once wrote about. Thanks for the trip. Rocky and Sharon Mendes.. you have been my friends through ALL OF THIS, and went above and beyond to support me , slumber me at your home, teach me to ride the Subway while in training.. Rock, you taught what friendship IS.. Greg Maggi, .. wow! A lot has changed since you sat down and asked Baron what I had to do to become a teacher, You and Yoga to the People brought a unknown dream of Road HOMe TO FULL TECHNICOLOR! Be proud of yourself for all you have shown to my family.. and for being one to CONTRIBUT E to my esteem to get me to this place.. Marilyn O’Connell , Sissy, Wholesome Folsom, NEVER will I forget the days I got to teach you in THE VALLEY…. Those Tuesday AM’s with the Valley girls.. were NECESSARY training for my teaching. Thank you for being my friends and part of my journey. Karen Price, God threw you in my life at a time, NO ONE could relate to me, could handle being around me, you saw all that, yet you saw so much more, you got me to SEE yoga as a limitless trip towards healing and viewing the self with LOVE, not criticism.. I am so overjoyed that we are going to Redefine that bond NOW with Contact Yoga… TO all teachers and to all healers, I am in admiration of you and what you INDIVIDUALLY offer to the yoga community.. Many are called , but FEW are chosen.. Be so proud and privileged to share this work.. It is not a slight thing to be part of a student’s life.. Sara Palifka, I am thrilled we found each other again.. You are MY teacher in the definition of falling apart to be put back together again.. I love you Sara, Carrie, Deb Gray, Davis.. you also.. I am feeling such a necessary bond with you, despite the zipcode..and your friendships make my YOGA WORLD BETTER. Welcome back.. Holly and Cort, through thick and thin, we have EXCEEDED the single mom stereotype, Cort, you have exceeded definition of a friend to my entire family.. YOU two are MY FAMILY.. and we will ALL KEEP RISING AND ROOTING FOR EACH OTHER.. all the way.. I am your greatest fan!!!! I can not thank you enough for all your blessings and prodding me to keep going when I thought I could not be anymore than I was or stay faithful when it was pissing rain on me.
Finally, to AlL MY students, past, present and the ones I am dying to meet and teach, YOU ALL HELPED ME DEVELOP the ORIGINAL teacher and all my training ONLY EVER COMES TO LIFE with all of you IN THE ROOM with me.. Keep bringing it, and TOGETHER we will continue to go to places we would all be afraid to go by ourselves.
I love you God, and my entire spirit family. I am done pretending you don’t exist, and I will strive to make others believers once again.
ENOUGH about me, ha ha.. TELL ME YOUR STORY of how Yoga FOUND YOU … I am all ears… You're worth listening to.
Namaste, Aim