Patrick A. Gaucher, CPT
Aikido Chief Instructor
& Rivertide Center Co-Founder
I am in my 22nd year of training in Aikido, 13th year of teaching Aikido, my 11th year of practicing Iaido and my 7th year practicing Yoga. I am grateful for the martial arts knowledge transmitted to me by teachers at Woodstock Aikido, Kingston Aikido and New York Aikikai as I attempt to impart the relevance and benefits of these disciplines to those who want to learn. After being in a large Aikido organization for many years, I became aware of the good and bad aspects of leaning heavily on lineage and tradition. Now, being independent for 5+ years, I’m enjoying using my experience and autonomy to make sure Aikido stays vital, accessible, welcoming and pertinent into the future.
I believe that mastery of technique requires mind and body to become one and and getting to that point is teachable, learnable and extremely worthwhile!
I’m very excited to also offer completely private personal training.
I believe that the deepest learning occurs by sharing and investigating rather than receiving information, and that the communities in which we practice are the heart from which we grow. As a teacher, i center community and agency over external authority, including my own. A core element of my practice is the study of how different lineages and even different arts intersect and inform each other. My approach to Yoga Therapy carries a similar thread, in which i seek ways to amplify the wisdom and beautiful resourcing that clients arrive already holding. Training in martial arts since 2001 and deeply immersed in yoga since 2016, other practices that inform my work include foraging, wildcrafted herbalism, forest meditation, deep ecology, following the mycelium threads of intersection and asking too many questions (or perhaps too many is always one too few).
Arielle Herman she/they /i
Yoga Therapist - Qualifying C-IAYT
Rivertide Center Co-Founder
Yoga, Aikido & Iaido Instructor &
Kids’ Program Director
