April 2025 Student of the Month

Aimee Walsh

…

I am a manager of Patient Engagement at Casa Palmera in California. I have a son who is a senior in high school and is the bright spot of my life! I love playing golf, cooking, and attending my son’s high school sports. I am very passionate about helping people, I love to see the internal light finally spark in people as they heal and find a new way of living without drugs and alcohol. I am also passionate about Notre Dame football. I have an MBA and worked in the market research industry for 15+ years as a strategic account manager. I am a researcher at heart and love connecting data to insights. At 3 years sober, I went back to my old career, got laid off after two months, and ended up working as a BHT at Casa Palmera. It was supposed to be “temporary” while I looked for another job. The Universe had a different plan. I realized I had been trying to find the old me versus embracing the new me who loved helping people.

Taking courses online through ATI made it easy to obtain my education goals. I live a busy life with a teenage son. I am also very active in my recovery community and have several sponsees. I like the flexibility that if I am unable to attend the live class, I can watch the recorded live version. Two of my favorite classes are 105 and 106 with Dixie Brown. She is authentic and brings her real-world experience to the class. Also, I realized that I am still a good writer through the application papers. Also, it helped me hone with therapeutic interventions that I want to incorporate into my development. I have a thirst for learning. I love that the courses are instructor-led, and I can talk to a real person when I need help. Lulu has been so amazing! I started this journey with the Peer Recovery Class when I wanted to get some type of certification when I thought about being a sober coach. In the short term, I want to have the certification add credibility as a group facilitator. I want to grow my knowledge in the field and have some industry credentials. I couldn’t afford another Masters, so this is the next best thing.

Empowering people who are new to recovery is my passion! For the past 5+ years, I have been given the opportunity to help people along their journey. I was on the Board of Directors and a volunteer Team Lead for the Women’s First Step House – a non-profit, non-medical 10 days introduction to sobriety. During that time, I found ATI and enrolled in the Peer Recovery Mentor program and absolutely loved the in-depth learning. This led to a paying job at Casa Palmera as Peer Support Staff. After two years in that role, I was selected to become a Manager of Patient Engagement. I currently am responsible for patient crisis intervention, milieu management, offsite actitvities and intake. So far, I personally admitted 500 patients and get to be the face of Casa Palmera when they arrive. The highlight for me is seeing the light come into a patient’s eyes!

–

Along my journey, I decided that I wanted to deepen my industry learning and returned to ATI for the SUD Counseling Program. I chose ATI because of the staff and the ability to have live interactions with the professor and staff. While I am just half way through the courses, ATI and Dr. Dixie Brown have helped me to better understand the modalities that I would like to use to help others in recovery. I have not yet decided if I want to pursue a career on the clinical or the operation side of the treatment model. But what I do know, is that after completing the course work with ATI that I will be thoroughly equipped with the knowledge and skills to grow my career.

April 2025 Student of the Month