SWIHA Blog

In 2012, Carmen Payne was working in IT Project Management. She describes herself at that time as stressed out, spread too thin, and conflicted between work and personal commitments.

“I had lost my true self in this identity and my relationships at home and at work were suffering,” Carmen tells us, “An email announcing my 20^th Anniversary popped into my inbox and I had a realization that I simply could not exist like this anymore.  I pulled out my resume and looked back on my amazing career and asked myself: ‘What used to make me jump out of bed in the morning and bound through the office doors?’  The role that literally lifted itself off the page at me was when I was training and coaching people.”

Since she was a teenager and even after becoming a stay at home mom, friends would seek out Lori Beard for assistance. “I enjoyed sharing my guidance due to my life’s experiences and interest in human behavior and the roots of those behaviors,” she tells us.

As the mother of eight children, Lori was ready to go back to school when her youngest child went into kindergarten. She received her Life Coaching and Clinical Hypnotherapist certifications from Southwest Institute of Healing Arts out of her desire to guide, transform and impact lives.

Mitch Rustad’s journey to becoming a Life Coach was a natural evolution of his passion for personal development and transformation. After a profound experience helping a close friend navigate a severe life crisis, he was inspired to take his interest a step further and pursue an education at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts.

My personal favorite quality of Janet Lee’s, a Holistic Nutrition instructor at SWIHA, is that she can make a heavenly cheesecake--and it’s all nutritious, raw vegan ingredients! A close contender is her ability to deliver her wisdom and knowledge in a relatable, engaging way. Each interaction, you’ll come away with a fascinating food fact or thinking: “Wow! I didn’t know I could do that with my veggie scraps.”

“I’ve always enjoyed hearing about people’s journeys,” she explains, “and I thought [Life Coaching] would be a nice compliment to my interest in nutrition coaching.”

When Jillian Holper first enrolled at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, she kept telling everyone she knew: “‘It’s as if the Universe materialized a school just for me’. I was almost in shock the first couple of months!”

Jillian completed the Mind-Body Transformational Psychology degree program and believes Life Coaching and Hypnotherapy have been the tools with which she’s created the best version of herself.

“It has allowed me to understand the way humans operate on a deeper level than I could've ever realized,” she says, “Most importantly, it’s given me the absolute honor of seeing what incredible things we can do when someone holds the space for us to heal. Miraculous things occur when we connect to our own innate wisdom and healing.”

“At some point, everyone needs a coach,” explains James Patrick, “Life happens to us all and sometimes the best tool to have is someone to listen and support. It makes things a little clearer and a little less complicated.”

Seventeen years ago, James stopped at a deli in upstate New York and something curious caught his eye: a SWIHA class calendar! He paged through it and was immediately drawn to Life Coaching. What piqued his interest even more was that he’d already been planning a move to Arizona.

“I came to visit and tour the school, however I didn’t officially sign up until 2007.  Per the quote by George Bernard Shaw, I was still busy finding myself in who I thought I was supposed to be versus creating myself into who I chose to be.“

Sharon Rose lights up any room she enters—and it’s not just an illusion; it’s her signature glitter makeup! She finds her power in feminine energy and leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes. That simple philosophy has become the foundation for her successful coaching business, The Soul Stylist.

“To me Life Coaching is the space where we can finally take full responsibility for how our life turns out,” she says, “The practice opens you up to see the experiences, emotions, people, and life itself from all perspectives. There is no room for blame or shame, only acceptance and forward movement.”

Will Zecco’s favorite question to ask budding entrepreneurs is: What are you willing to do, become or give up to find success?

When asked about their favorite instructors at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, many students exclaim “Linda Bennett!” without hesitation. She’s a prolific Hypnotherapist and, what many don’t realize, a Life Coach as well.

“I had my first experience with Life Coaching back in the early nineties,” says Linda, “The process really helped me when I was developing my own business. I found that my coach asked great questions that I hadn’t thought of. It made a big difference in my business.”

Hello everyone! Taylor here.

Being immersed in SWIHA-land for the past three years, I’ve heard a lot about vision boards. In fact, many of my coworkers keep them in their offices. They’re full of travel photos, symbols of prosperity and health, wishes for love and plenty of inspirational quotes. I love looking at other’s vision boards because I get to learn so much about their dreams and priorities.

With the new year approaching at lightspeed, I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to accomplish in 2019. So, I woke up this morning and decided to create my very first vision board! I grabbed my scissors and glue, found an unused canvas and began hunting for old magazines…to no avail. My on-going quest to live minimally has me reading digital copies of everything and immediately recycling junk mail.