SWIHA Blog

From a young age, Stephanie M. Bjarnson already admired life coaches. A counselor taught her self-hypnosis techniques, which she then used to bring herself out of a severe depression during her youth. Her hometown wasn’t the most accepting of her approach to holistic healing, as she shared with me.

Stephanie feels that this fear is due to the mainstream medical establishment that pushes pills, therapy, and rehab on to people, rather than promoting self-love, meditation, and holistic methods of healing. Stephanie sums up healing and wellness succinctly, saying, “It all starts with the self - that is where we truly evolve.”

Though the fields of life coaching and hypnosis may differ in their approach to healing, these were the two areas that Stephanie desired to learn about the most, dating back to her highly beneficial childhood experiences with them. It comes as no surprise that Stephanie eventually enrolled in the Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner ONLINE program, where she specialized in Clinical Hypnotherapy and Life Coaching.

Cherie Lee grew up in Galveston Island, Texas with four siblings, three brothers and a sister. She was raised a Catholic and attended church every Sunday. She always believed in angels, God, Jesus, and Mother Mary, and loved to learn about Catholic traditions, prayers, and songs of worship. However, she was not sure if she really believed in the devil or a hell with fire. As I grew up, I tried to please my parents and do the right thing, although I had my moments of rebellion. “I was a good kid, growing up in a very dysfunctional family with an alcoholic step-dad who abused my eldest brother and me on a regular basis. My entire family was negative in nature, and I became the peacekeeper of the family. I became a person who always tried to help others, yet was full of my own negativity; I suffered from anxiety and depression at times. However I always had faith in God, and this is what pulled me through every terrible incident growing up.”

Worrying about money can be a tremendous stressor in one’s life. Scientific studies have shown that extreme stress can adversely affect our mental health and can decrease the function of our immune system. Because mind and body function together, worrying about money may cause physical and emotional symptoms. You might feel helpless or depressed. Possibly you experience headaches, digestive problems, or frequent infections. You may feel anxious, irritable, and have difficulty sleeping. 

The IMDHA, or International Medical & Dental Hypnosis Association, has a local chapter at SWIHA (Southwest Institute of Healing Arts), where they meet monthly and discuss different hypnosis techniques and ways to expand their profession as hypnotherapists. One evening in 2015, the group was viewing a video, “Free the Mind”. It was discussing meditation, mindfulness, and PTSD. As they watched, we got into a great discussion on how hypnosis could be so beneficial for those struggling with PTSD, and they knew they wanted to do something more for the community. The question of the night became, “How do we get the word out?”  Hypnotherapy Program Director, Linda Bennett reflected, “In traditional SWIHA fashion, we asked, ‘Imagine if….???’” And thus, the idea for an event took shape. Members of the chapter worked together to bring about the event last November, and this year they are gearing up to do the same.

After moving to Phoenix as a Supervisor/Analyst in the Federal Government, Tammy Coin received a massage from a graduate of the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, who told her about the school. Soon after, Tammy decided to enroll and subsequently graduated from the Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner  program. During this time, she learned how to finally integrate all the pieces of herself, unearthing her identity and the WHAT to go with her WHY. “I have known my WHY for being on this earth for a very long time. I just didn't know the WHAT that was going to bring it together. I entered the program with a Masters in Human Relations Counseling. The Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner program helped me pull the rest of my pieces together.” The tools she has learned on this journey have been the gift that helped her to finally connect the teachings of her life.  This gift, ultimately led her to start her own business. 

The Doors of Wellness, LLC is Tammy's business. She is using the experience, expertise and education of her life to help other people find their own door of wellness. “I believe that stuck emotions are at the root cause of physical illness, mental illness, addictions, weight issues, relationship challenges, loss of sense of self-worth and spiritual disconnect.  I'm truly passionate about the Mind-Body Connection.” She describes herself as a Life Strategist, Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner & Trauma and/or Abuse Recovery Coach focusing on the unhealed emotions at the root of her clients obstacles. She offers many tools and modalities to her clients.  

A desire to learn healing arts, to refine the skills she already had, and to give her some new ones is exactly what brought Connie Gensamer to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). Truly, she has always been on the path to healing work, however in early in 2014, she was introduced to a modality called The Reconnection by Eric Pearl. “I read his books and then had the process done. My feet were reconnected to the earth and my crown chakra reconnected to the cosmos as a way of reclaiming who I was and my life purpose. After the process, I really didn’t know if things had shifted, yet three months later, I was looking for a school to teach me how to help people heal, and I found SWIHA.”

Over ten years ago, Juan Te Daily remembers hearing about Life Coaching on one of her favorite TV shows and how coaches help their clients navigate through life’s many challenges. She grew up in her own challenges of South Central, Los Angeles and knew the ways of the ghetto from an early age. Watching friends and family deal with drug addictions and financial trouble, she remained motivated to stay on a more responsible and healthy path. Seeing her older brother strung out, laying in the streets saddened her, and Juan Te attributes much of her empathetic nature to these memories. So when she heard there was a profession of supporting people in a way that enriches their lives, she thought she’d look into it. She found Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) online and even wrote down the information on Life Coaching. It was more than ten years later that she held that paper again.

Learn from Great Graduate, Laura Hightower

Laura Hightower was told about Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) when she expressed interest in wanting to learn more about herbalism to someone she knew. That led her to enroll and graduate from the Associates in Holistic Health Care with concentrations in Western Herbalism and Holistic Nutrition, 300-Hour Clinical Hypnotherapy and 100-Hour Transformational Reiki programs.

Herbalism was an interest of Laura’s ever since she walked into an herb shop at age 16. “I just found a natural connection to using herbs in order to heal naturally.” Reiki was something she had been doing since she was 9 and the attunements she received in her program helped amplify that. “I love how pain and excess energy just seems to effortlessly flow out of the body.” Pain is simply trapped energy and Reiki was the vehicle she learned to move it out. She had been interested in hypnotherapy ever since she went to a hypnotherapist when she was 20. She was guided by an ex-classmate who told her that her guides said she needed to take the nutrition program and learn a lot of valuable skills. It was that experience that led Laura back to school again for her Associates Degree.

After graduating, Laura created her business, Magickal Heart. Its focus is on inspiring others to grow and move past the things they have long-held onto so they can be empowered to change their lives to a whole, new level. She currently travels the Valley and beyond to see clients throughout Arizona.

Tiffany DeLancy does not quite remember how she originally heard of Southwest Institute of Arts (SWIHA), yet she does know that it was her interest in becoming a yoga instructor that was the original reason for attending the school. She went on to enroll in and graduate from the Yoga Teacher Training 600-hour program with Aromatherapy and Hypnotherapy as her electives.

“An emotion does not cause pain. Resistance or suppression of emotion causes pain.”

- Frederick Dodson, Parallel Universe of Self

What would you do, become, or find answers to, if you knew you held a key that unlocks it all?

I am here today to give you a glimpse to the key that is unlocking the unstoppable power within humans. It is a key that has been around for thousands of years. More than ever before, it is entering the mainstream health care system and taking people by storm. The key is hypnotherapy. Now more than ever, doctors, scientists, and researchers are fascinated with the results from this psychotherapy, as it is a way to constructively communicate with your subconscious mind while having your conscious mind take a step back.