SWIHA Blog

“It was all about taking the leap of faith. It said that the fear that stops us from doing what we really want, is often not based on reality. We shape our fears in our heads, yet things are so much easier than we think.” - Effrosyni Moschoudi, The Flow

Life can often give us a bad hand, and we try out best to navigate through it. It can often be compared to a valley, with high highs and low lows. With the right energy and motivation, we can lift ourselves out of these hardships, and into what we were born to do. Great Graduate, Michelle Brown, of the Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner program, has done just that. Michelle describes some of the hardships she had to go through to get her to SWIHA, and how her life has drastically changed since she made the decision to enroll.

“Everyone has a story to tell, a lesson to teach, and wisdom to share… Life is a beautiful masterpiece bound together by your experiences. Open up and share your story; become an inspiration to others. You can make a difference because you matter. You were created with purpose. Live your life with intention, go out there and make a difference by being the difference.” - Melanie Koulouris

Great Graduate, Robert Pruett shares his story of high highs and low lows that ultimately led him to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts. Robert asserts, “Mine is a story of extremes - I came from a place of trauma, abuse, and resulting depression - to being very successful and actualized.” After some very turbulent times, Robert encountered some very unlikely teachers that ultimately changed the course of his life. Robert apprenticed under a yoga master and learned musical theory, as well as guitar from two notable musicians. Robert explains, “I was a software developer, and unfulfilled. I felt like I had missed my calling. I kept encountering the word ‘Reiki’ and I didn't know what it meant. One day at a party some of my friends were talking about a Reiki program at SWIHA and I perked up. The next day I saw an admissions counselor. I quit my job and enrolled that very day.”

By considering all of the parts that make up each individual and by acknowledging that no two people or bodies are the same, I know it takes more than a healthy grocery list to eat healthier. It takes customized care and education to succeed in implementing changes and routines that stick, for a vibrant, nutritious diet and lifestyle. What is your mind, body, and spirit craving? I’m Sam, and I’m a Holistic Health & Wellness practitioner, offering nutrition coaching out of Burlington, VT. I offer in-person or online coaching. I have a passion for self-care and eating for the whole self. I love to focus on eating happy, colorful foods for happy heads and hearts.

“I have always had a passion for mind-body health,” McCall Brown tells us, “I found myself studying and talking about it to friends and family all of the time, so I thought: ‘why don't I become a coach and help others find greater health and happiness?’”

McCall brings that level of self-actualization and merges it with her knowledge of Guided Imagery, Holistic Nutrition and spiritual psychology to help clients step in to their best self through her business, Beautifully Balanced by McCall! She has fully embraced the title of Intuitive Mind Body Wellness and Emotion Code Practitioner.

“Life coaching is a powerful way to develop new ways of thinking and discover the mental and emotional roadblocks that prevent us from achieving our life's goals,” explains Michael Cavalier, a Mind Body Transformational Psychology graduate, “With this newfound awareness, tools to empower us, and an system of accountability there is no limit to the world opening up to us and to the personal and professional growth we're seeking.”

“Since childhood, I have been quite intuitive,” says Andrea Aizlewood, a SWIHA Online graduate. Andrea always knew that she had unique spiritual skills waiting to be discovered and refined; she could receive emotions from those those around her, recognize synchronicities, and even sense energies. Her gifts were so strong, however, that they initially intimidated her.

“I closed up out of fear,” she explains, “I closed up for almost a decade, all through my early twenties.”

It was only when her one-year-old showed signs of the same intuition Andrea possessed, that a new-found interest in exploring her abilities was sparked:  “I saw my son wave at my long-deceased grandmother [who I felt] standing in the corner of the room. It made me realize that I had to get over my fears so that I could be there for my son to teach him how to protect himself and learn his own gifts.”

She is excited! We are excited! And the world will soon be excited for one of SWIHA’s #GreatGraduates, Brianna Bedigian.  She is releasing her first book this next week.  It’s entitled Healing Footstep to Footstep.

Brianna is a highly trained and gifted healer, and a graduate of the SWIHA Hypnotherapy program.  After being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, Brianna dug deep to create and undergo her own healing process, and chronicled it through journaling and photography. After her recovery, and years of optimum health, Brianna looked back and reflected on the narrative that unfolded.  One step at a time, footstep to footstep, her healing occurred over time. Brianna realized her recorded journal entries can now serve as an abstract primer-of-sorts for others suffering from any type of illness.

As an author, artist, teacher and healer, Brianna utilizes her personal journey, years of formal training and her personal practice to guide students and clients locally, nationally and even remotely. Brianna explains, “The reality is that healing begins one step at a time, often slowly and with acceptance of the self.”

Several years ago, I first discovered toe reading at a Celebrate Your Life conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.  I had flown to Arizona a day early to take an all-day workshop from James Van Praagh, a clairvoyant, spiritual medium, and New York Times bestselling author of Talking to Heaven.

While autographing my book, he told me that I should get a toe reading and that I should do it that day while the lines weren’t very long because tomorrow the lines would probably be a three hour wait!  To be honest, I silently rolled my eyes and thought, “Good lord.  Toe Reading?  What will they think of next?”  Little did I know that one little decision would affect my whole life!

I got my first toe reading and was blown away.  In 10 minutes, the Toe Reader revealed to me more about myself than my family would have been able to!  Being a natural skeptic, I thought that maybe she was just psychic, or a good guesser.  So I went to a Celebrate Your Life in Chicago and received another toe reading.  With the same result, I was beginning to think that it would be difficult to have two good guessers in a row.  Not to be deterred, since I still was not convinced, I went to yet another Celebrate Your Life conference, and this time my reader was Barney Cannon.  He was so accurate that I decided right there I had to find out more about this.  So I rearranged my conference schedule so that I could attend the short workshop from KC Miller, the author of Toe Reading: Are You Walking Your Destined Path.

Toe Reading is a unique and captivating healing art, which uses active listening, powerful, soul-searching questions, and deeply skilled insight to help people create change in their lives. It is the art of sitting before someone and witnessing their very being, their life story. Toe Reading is based on the theory that each individual records a holograph of the story of their life and stores it within the body. The position and shape of the toes contain this story, which can be read by a skilled practitioner.

Intuitive Empathic, Published Author Becomes - Traveling, Spiritual Minister and Angel Card Reader (Cherie Lee-Aka, Amy Jamison)

I am Cherie Lee, aka Amy Jamison, the published author of  Visions From Above / My Journey ~ My Destiny, a book about my near-death experience and 42 years as a visionary/intuitive guide.

If you’ve ever been to the Healing Pages Bookstore on SWIHA’s campus, you probably have noticed the huge selection of decks of cards. I had purchased an Angel Card deck by Doreen Virtue in 2014, when I met her at the Hay House Writer's Workshop in March 2014. This workshop was the foundation for me writing and self-publishing my first book in June 2014 with Balboa Press, a division of Hay House.

In October 2016, I took this same deck of cards with me to one of my holistic business development classes—the one on-campus (although the Entrepreneurial Suite is also offered online.) I remember laying them out on the table, and afterwards, my teacher encouraged me to go live on Facebook that evening and market myself by doing an Angel Card Reading with her. That was such great advice.