ABOUT US

ABOUT
THE AUM INSTITUTE

We came to this work personally before we came to it professionally.

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The AUM Institute was founded by Aaron Rosso and Alissa King, partners in life and work, parents in a blended family of eight, and practitioners who know something about the territory we work with from the inside.

Our lives have included addiction, trauma, difficult relationships, divorce, parenting, sexual difficulties, illness, spiritual seeking, rebuilding, and the complicated work of learning how to stay connected to ourselves and each other when life gets difficult.

We didn’t create AUM because we thought people needed another wellness brand.

We created it because insight alone had not been enough in our own lives.

We wanted a place where psychological understanding, somatic work, attachment repair, conscious relationship & sexuality, contemplative practice, and lived human experience could actually meet.

That is still what AUM is.

AARON PATRICK ROSSO

[Somatic Integration Therapist / Relational Practitioner / Psychedelic Facilitator]

I’ve spent more than twenty years trying to understand what allows a human being to actually change.

I didn’t begin that inquiry professionally.

I began because my own life demanded it.

I started struggling with substances when I was young. By sixteen, I had left home for the city and built much of my life around music, parties, drugs, and people who made it easier for me to keep going.

Eventually the parties mattered less than the substances themselves.

I overdosed more than once. I went in and out of treatment. And at twenty-three, in the middle of that life, I became a father.

Becoming a father did not magically fix me. But it forced me to begin asking a different question:

What kind of man was I going to become?

That question sent me into what became a decades-long exploration of human experience.

I immersed myself in meditation and yoga. I travelled to India multiple times. I studied traditional yogic systems, including the Tantric lineage Kashmir Shaivism. I eventually taught yoga and yoga therapy professionally and continued into somatic trauma work, attachment work, couples therapy, experiential approaches, Internal Family Systems, Qigong, psychedelic plant medicine, and other disciplines that helped me understand human experience from different angles.

But becoming knowledgeable did not mean I stopped struggling.

I could meditate for hours and still lose myself in relationship.

I could understand my history and still repeat it.

My own life has included addiction to substances, porn, sex and relationship, ADHD, divorce, violence, bankruptcy, parenting, step-parenting, and rebuilding after parts of my life had fallen apart.

I don’t share those things because I think my story is the same as yours.

I share them because I know what it is like to struggle with things you may feel ashamed to say out loud.

And I know the enormous difference between understanding yourself and actually being able to stay with yourself when anger, shame, desire, fear, conflict, disappointment, intimacy, or uncertainty arrives.

That distinction changed the direction of my work.

Training matters. But it isn’t the whole story.

My professional development has included advanced training in Somatic Experiencing, Attachment therapy, conscious sexuality, the Gottman Method couples work, Internal Family Systems, Critical Alignment Yoga Therapy, traditional yogic systems, Qigong, and psychedelic plant medicine.

I have also spent tens of thousands of hours teaching and working with individuals, couples, and groups.

I value training deeply.

But for the kind of work I do, specialized training, depth of experience, relational skill, and fit matter far more than the title on the door.

What matters to me is whether I can actually meet the person sitting across from me.

Whether I can stay present when things become difficult.

Whether I can recognize what is happening beneath the story without imposing my own.

And whether the work we do together changes something in how you actually live.

HOW I WORK

My work today is primarily somatic and attachment-focused.

Alongside conversation, we may work with sensation, emotion, breath, posture, movement, impulse, thought, memory, relationship, and, when appropriate, consensual somatic touch.

I am interested in what happens when the thing you understand intellectually begins happening in real time.

What happens when someone is disappointed in you?

When you become angry?

When you want something?

When someone gets close?

When you feel ashamed?

When you cannot control the outcome?

Those moments are where a great deal of the work becomes possible.

I’m not interested in turning you into a calmer, nicer, more spiritual or more optimized version of yourself.

I’m interested in helping you develop the capacity to inhabit more of who you already are.

ALISSA KING

[Somatic Integration Therapist / Birth Trauma Specialist / Mothering Mentor]

Most people know me as a somatic therapist and a birth trauma specialist who’s in a wholesome, loving relationship with a man who looks at me like I'm a goddess in human form. (That's not an exaggeration.)

If you meet me in person today, I’ll probably seem pretty relaxed, dressed in a long comfy skirt with bare feet and messy hair (and not the cute kind of messy). I’ll either be writing on my laptop, answering a million questions from our horde of children, or pretending I know how to tend a garden. I’ll likely have a hairless cat on my lap (or my shoulder, or following me around), and I’ll most definitely be counting down the minutes until late night, when I come alive via snacks and downtime with Aaron.

I do have a (mostly) relaxed and enjoyable life.

But ... although these days I get to enjoy such adventures as attending nude women’s circles, hosting couples’ retreats in the jungle, and practicing Conscious Partnership with my man…

There was a time when I was a foggy, anxious mess.

The short version: In my early 30s, I was stifled, anxious, and depressed. I was having "panic attacks" that eventually melded together into an all-day numbed-out fog. I later found out the "attacks" were temporal lobe seizures - my nervous system was crashing out. I carried the guilt of not being the best mother for my children. I felt like I couldn’t speak up in my own home because I was afraid of my (former) husband, and I simply accepted a relationship with a person who didn’t respect or love me.

I felt completely stuck.

After hitting a point that felt like a physical and emotional rock bottom, I looked for a way out.

I began integrating my Yoga practice into my everyday life, and learned about solo sexual practices. Using a combination of Tantrik practices, Hatha Yoga, Birth Story Listening, Somatic Experiencing, and my own personally-developed techniques, I learned how to respect, accept, and stand up for myself.

It took years, with no help, just winging it on my own. But I finally came out of my fog and left my dysfunctional marriage. I went from feeling depressed and unworthy to having a solid relationship, a new career path, and growing confidence as a mother.

I’ve learned that by numbing or shutting off parts of ourselves, we end up living for others, which causes immense suffering.

This is why I do what I do… I know as women we were taught to shut off our feelings and desires, and trained to give pleasure to others at our own expense. No wonder most of us are feeling anxious, depressed, distracted, and unworthy!

I can show you how to use Tantrik and Somatic practices to safely connect with your entire self: your body, your nervous system, your desires, and your boundaries.

By knowing and trusting your own body, you'll feel the powerful effects in every other aspect of your life: work, parenting, sexual relationships, and even the sound of your own voice.

You'll be able to let go of the beliefs that have been keeping you stuck in toxic environments and feeling powerless to change, so you can instead feel embodied, safe, and powerful.