SWIHA Blog

In 2008, Natalie McGovern met a woman who, in retrospect, seems to have been an angel…

“I was working at a psychiatric hospital, and I was in my 90-day grace period when the hospital decided whether or not I was a good fit,” she shares. “I was on psychiatric medications myself, so I knew what it felt like when interactions with the drugs were going wrong. In a couple of the small groups, patients were complaining about side effects. I told them to talk to their doctor and that they had a right to NOT take the medications that weren’t working for them. My employer didn’t like that, and I was very quickly let go…”

Karen Baker is no stranger to the ins and outs of holistic wellness. Before enrolling in the Associate Degree in Holistic Healthcare at SWIHA, Karen had managed to complete several continuing education classes, a certification in Complex Decongestive Physiotherapy and Lymphatic Drainage Therapy, and a 1000-hour massage therapy degree. Yet, with all this experience and academic prowess under her belt, was she done learning? No way!

Many people discover the healing arts after being sparked by something deeply personal; Valeria Neiman, a graduate of SWIHA’s Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner program, is a shining example of igniting this passion and turning it into her profession.

Seeking Answers

Sixteen years ago, Valeria found herself in the role of caretaker for her then-partner. He suffered from several different ailments and traditional medicine wasn’t producing many answers. After watching him undergo countless failed treatments, Valeria realized there was something vital that Western Medicine had been ignoring: the mind-body-spirit connection. This revelation motivated her to investigate alternative healing methods.

Everyone remembers their first love. For Audrey Washington, that love was massage therapy.

In 2007, with eleven years of massage and entrepreneurial experience under her belt, Audrey moved to Phoenix, Arizona, from Detroit, Michigan, to start her own massage business, ALW Massage Therapy. Once in Phoenix, she found that she preferred to hire graduates of SWIHA’s Massage Program to work as Licensed Massage Therapists on her staff. Although she was not yet formally acquainted with the school, she could tell that the curriculum taught there was strong. “They had more knowledge of anatomy, as well as the ability to do energy work and follow their intuition when working with clients,” she says. “I trusted the school and how they trained their LMTs.”

You know the drill. It’s 8:00 AM and already 96°F, the sun is beating down mercilessly through your window, and you can’t remember a time before you woke up feeling like a pajama-clad puddle of perspiration…

Ah, yes, summer is here! And with it comes the best of times—dreamy sunsets, the smell of fresh-cut lawns, road trips to memorable locales—and the worst of times—like heat waves so abysmal they can make even the most enthusiastic Coppertone babies flee from the sight of the sun.

If you’re facing oppressive heat this summer, you may be tempted to lock yourself inside, crank the ceiling fan, and post up on your sofa with Netflix as your sole companion. Not so fast…  While summer IS the ultimate time for relaxation, try not to forget that a world exists outside your living room— a world just as scorched, sweltering, and sticky as you!

If you could get a glimpse at your past lives, would you? Would you be brave enough to face the struggles and triumphs, the pain and the glory, the tears and the laughter of another you? And if you could bear witness to the past, would you change how you live your current life knowing that another lay before you?

Courtney Long knew three things. First, that she had a big mission in life; second, that she wanted to help; and third, that she simply didn’t know how! As a child, she felt restless in the world, always sensing that her fine-tuned sensitivity, her desire for the solitude of the outdoors, and her “weirdness” made her different from the other kids in Lambertville, Michigan.

For many people, the first day of school can be filled with unexpected surprises. That certainly was the case for Tamara Lucero, who found herself in quite a messy situation when she stopped at her local gas station on the way to campus.

“As the fuel pumped and filled my tank, I began to daydream what my first day of class would be like,” she remembers. “As I stared off into the clouds, I suddenly heard what sounded like water running. I looked down and realized that the gas pump had malfunctioned and soaked me in gasoline—from my shirt to my socks!”

Deena Gregory has always been a “seeker”—a woman with a self-described “natural curiosity about self and spirit” who in quiet moments often found herself gazing upward at the night sky with a deep sense of awe. Yet, after years of looking to institutions—from organized religion to the halls of academia—for the answers that could only be found within, Deena got caught in a spiritual drought, convinced that there was nothing else bigger “out there” than the humdrum of everyday human life.

“With a new reliance on my own thinking came what the Buddha referred to as ‘Dukkha,’ or suffering,” she explains. “I have always been hailed as a ‘critical thinker.’ Now I laugh and say, ‘Yes, as soon as I start thinking, things get critical!’”

Five years ago, Christine Iring’s life was falling apart. She had hit rock bottom and was unsure what was around the corner; she knew only, with the guidance of a therapist, that she had a responsibility to “do her work.”

And do her work she did! Over the course of three years, Christine steadfastly examined herself, even as the world continued to swirl and change around her. This period of transformation culminated in Christine moving to the Phoenix area and enrolling at SWIHA. “As soon as I walked in the building, I knew I found my new home,” she confides. “My first class was Life Coaching Foundations. Between the vibe, the instructors, the people that understood ‘my language,’ and learning the protocol for transforming lives, I knew this was part of my calling. I was on my way to being a life coach.”