Helping People Find their Vibe: Yoga Graduate Opens a Thriving Yoga Studio
At age fifteen, Erica Vucich discovered the healing benefits of yoga. She initially began to practice the ancient art form as a way to manage and reverse her scoliosis. After years of practice and healing, Erica came to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) for yoga teacher training. Going through the teacher training program was a transformational experience. For someone who was shy as a child, teacher training helped Erica learn to open up. “Learning to lead fellow students and eventually actual yoga students through a class was invaluable,” she says. Erica finished her teacher training in 2008, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to teach. She initially took teacher training for her own personal development and knowledge, to deepen her practice and help her heal. She credits SWIHA with giving her the confidence to go out and teach yoga. “Had I not been a SWIHA student, I don’t … Read More
The Alchemy of Becoming a Holistic Entrepreneur
A spiritual alchemist, Aubrey Mohandessi’s work centers around transforming people, helping them move forward and empowering them to be their best selves. While the term alchemy or alchemist is often associated with chemistry and metals, the action of transforming or transmuting is the same, whether it’s mineral based or with people. Aubrey’s business, Aubrey Mohandessi Life Coaching & Spiritual Coaching, offers life coaching, spiritual counseling, hypnotherapy and toe reading to people looking to discover the deeper meanings of life and truths within themselves. As a graduate of the online Mind-Body Transformational Psychology program at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA), Aubrey developed a vast amount of skills and tools that prepared her to bring her spiritual gifts out into the world. “Everything I’ve learned while enrolled at SWIHA helped me to develop my own business as well as broaden my understanding of what it means to live a well-balanced life … Read More
Helping People Transform with Intuitive Life Coaching
How Great Graduate Kelly T. Smith Created a Successful Holistic Wellness Business Intuition. We all have it, and some of us might be more in tune with it than others, but it’s there. It’s that gut feeling, that little voice inside our heads, the answers that live within our hearts and souls. As a natural intuitive and trained Life Coach, it makes sense that Kelly T. Smith created a life coaching business that helps clients look inside to reach their fullest potential. A graduate of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) Associate of Mind-Body Transformational Psychology program online, Kelly combines the many tools she learned in her program into the work she does in her business, Intuitive Life Coaching With Kelly. “I feel my intuitive abilities really came forward because SWIHA was a safe place to honor this side of me,” Kelly says about her journey with SWIHA. “I am … Read More
From Holistic Healing to Spirituality and Stress Relief: How a SWIHA Graduate Healed and Helps Others
By Nancy Jackson, Online Exit and Placement Specialist An environmental science major turned holistic entrepreneur, Julie Conway has an interesting story about what brought her to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). Her journey started before she even heard of SWIHA, when she had to drop out of college as an environmental science major due to a debilitating illness. “Healing became a full-time job,” Julie writes on her website. She had every intention of finishing her degree, however, months and then years passed, and she was still physically unable to return to school. Eventually she gained enough strength to take online courses, but soon found herself overwhelmed and dropped her classes. She prayed, asking “what now?” She was nearly floored when she heard “a voice tell me to do nothing, just heal.” It was a huge leap of faith for her to trust that voice, and to put her goals … Read More
The ‘Reverend Fairy Godmother’ of Fountain Hills Spreads Hope and Support throughout the Community
As fairytail-ish as it sounds, Diana Atenco knew one of her life’s callings was to become a Toe Reader. She just loved the opportunity to sit with people, listen to the stories of their lives, often pray with them, and always have the opportunity to help them make new choices about how they would step forward powerfully into the world. Diana completed a series of classes at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) starting in 2007 and became a Registered Toe Reader. From the very first class she realized she had a gift; without ever fully understanding how she knew even more than what the toe tissue revealed, she was aware that Spirit was using her as a messenger to people of all ages. Before long she knew she needed to deepen the way she was serving her clients, so she returned to SWIHA to take the Hypnotherapy and Life … Read More
Giving Food and Love to the Homeless Community
It started as an idea, as many businesses do – a spark of heartfelt inspiration. In December 2010, Krysten Aldridge and Ann Cabano hit the streets of downtown Phoenix to find folks in need of a hug and a cup of soup… what they ended up witnessing was way beyond what they expected. As the two women walked around Phoenix that day, they were amazed by something that they couldn’t quite put their finger on. It was something they never felt before; it was big, it was beautiful, it was tragic. They began to document what they were witnessing on video. People, mostly homeless, approached them and asked what they were doing, asked if they could be part of the video. Krysten and Ann turned the camera and people quickly began to share their stories. The truth they heard from people shifted their perspective. They learned how and why the … Read More
SPIRITUAL STUDIES – AN ENLIGHTENED VIEW OF LIFE
“If you light a lantern for another it will also brighten your own way.” Although these words were spoken more than 700 years ago by Nichiren Daishonin, a Buddhist monk, the same attitude is reflected within the 14 students who will be ordained in a special ceremony on Dec. 5, 2014 at 6:00 pm at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) in Tempe, Arizona. This will be SWIHA’s biggest Spiritual Studies ordination to date. The ordination will take place during SWIHA’s monthly Gifts and Graces event, held on the first Friday of every month. This event is complimentary and open to the public. Guests are invited to come for the event and stay after to experience complimentary sessions of energy work, spiritual coaching, toe reading and more. The graduates are Sheila Taylor, Carol Valentino, Diana Claybaugh, Keta Baker, Kathryn Beauchamp, Carole Hewitt, Ronald Tobin, Michael McCaffrey, Lisa Pulce, Tammy Gordon, … Read More
Organically Manifesting a Dream: How a SWIHA Graduate Launched Her Business
By Nancy Jackson, Online Exit and Placement Specialist “Believe in yourself – you are capable of great accomplishments.” That’s the message Pam McCulloch, a recent Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) graduate, wants to share with current and future SWIHA graduates. Pam took her own advice, and while still pursuing her online degree in SWIHA’s Associate of Occupational Studies Mind-Body Transformational Psychology Online program, she launched her business, Paradise Organics. Tender and organic fruit, herb, and vegetable starter plants is what Paradise Organics is all about, providing home gardeners with organic, non-GMO starters. The Colorado based business teaches new gardeners how to get started in whatever growing space they have, even if it’s an apartment balcony. As a full time gastro-intestinal tech assisting in outpatient surgeries, Pam was thrilled to add the role of self-employed urban farmer and business owner into her busy life. How did she make her urban … Read More
Meet Great Graduate Tara Martineau
SWIHA Graduate Tara Martineau is a Transformational Reiki practitioner, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Aromatherapist, and intuitive Toe Reader. Tara is excited to be sharing news that she has just signed a lease for her own professional suite at a retail wellness building to offer her healing arts. Tara previously mainly traveled to offer her sessions or worked from home. She also does a lot of volunteer work with her gifts at multiple locations including the Southwest HIV Center and Banner Heart Hospital. Tara has often shared her skills at the ‘Discover Your Gifts & Graces’ event every first Friday of the month at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts. She is now growing her practice, building her clientele, expanding her business Soar to Self, and taking a leap into having her own office at the Independent Professionals Wellness Center in Mesa, AZ. Tara loves helping people rediscover themselves and incorporating aromatherapy into … Read More