SWIHA Blog

From a very young age, Quantanique Williams has desired to be a mentor and teacher to those around her. Initially, this manifested itself as serving in the U.S Air Force as a Fitness Specialist. Quantanique was then called to SWIHA’s Holistic Nutrition program, and soon after completing her program, she found herself also drawn to Life Coaching.

“I took a resiliency course earlier in the year and it spoke a little bit about the coaching concept of helping people arrive at their own answers and staying away from ‘should’, ‘you need to’ or giving advice,” she tells us.

Carol Becker has always loved holistic healing. In the sixties, her family worked as herbal foragers for rural doctors in Oklahoma. She carried this passion with her to Arizona where, in 1998, she attended a seminar on herbal remedies at SWIHA!

“I have acquired trainings and certifications in conflict resolution, hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, as well as SWIHA’s Transformational Life Coaching program followed with a class centered around trauma therapy,” she tells us.

Katie Mongelli’s first experience with SWIHA was during the Celebrate Your Life conference in Phoenix where she received a Toe Reading from one of our graduates. She left the conference feeling inspired and full of ideas for her own coaching program, so she began to look in to programs and ultimately enrolled at SWIHA!

“At the same time I was in the SWIHA Life Coaching program, I had a life coach,” she tells us, “I think the combination of being coached and learning about coaching really opened me up to the journey of life and seeing experiences as opportunities for growth.  It has left me more open to life and more peaceful in life as I trust things that come my way are meant for me and my spiritual evolution.”

Serendipitously, April Sanchez found her calling while working in...a call center!

She tells us: “After being promoted to a team manager, I had a team of customer service agents that I conducted daily coaching and motivation with. I began to learn about a gift that I never realized I had. The performance of my team excelled and each of the individuals on my team grew, both professionally and personally.”

April wanted to continue to grow in her career and took positions that she thought she’d enjoy and be challenged by. However, she craved more one-on-one time coaching and motivating others than the positions provided and began to feel unmotivated and purposeless with the work she was doing.

Rocio Castellanos spent twelve years working in the medical field, and loved that she was able to merge her passion for helping others in to her career. However, after a decade of that work, she began to feel as though there was something more she should be doing.

“I just didn’t know what it was,” Rocio explains, “I now realize this is when my spiritual awakening began taking place..., I followed my heart and intuition, and then came across an ad for SWIHA on one of my social media accounts. I looked into it, I ordered a class catalog and before I knew it I had an interview with one of the advisors!

Stefanie has always been drawn down paths that lead to helping others. She considered many counselling and psychology programs, but none of them seemed to fully resonate with her vision of service. Then, in 2016, a thought popped in to Stefanie’s head: “What if I’m meant to be a Life Coach?”

“Like most ideas that just ‘show up’, I ignored it,” she admits, “Call it destiny or the internet tracking bots: SWIHA started showing up in my [social media] feed. So, I surrendered, made the appointment and went in for a tour. I was all in, hook, line, and sinker!“

Reane Russell was searching for a purpose. All she knew at that time was that she wanted to help people, give back to the community, master her own healing, and make money doing it. She began researching career paths, programs and schools that matched her heart song, but began to get discouraged when none of them fully resonated.

“I was almost ready to give up. I simply could not find a program that felt right,” she tells us, “Until one morning at about 2AM, I discovered SWIHA. Within a few moments of exploring the website, my heart was on fire. For the first time in my life, I was looking at college program that filled me with passion, joy, and had a profitable outlook! I called admissions the next day and enrolled immediately!”

Four years ago, Maribel Hernandez was quickly climbing the corporate ladder at a large company and making great money. She knows that, for some, that is the ultimate goal. She explains to us, though: “I was miserable. My body was giving me signs that it was under too much stress. I was on edge. I wasn’t eating or sleeping well. I had been through a massive life-changing experience and had embarked on a ‘dark night of the soul’.”

During her search for health and happiness, Maribel was invited to a restorative yoga class and immediately fell in love with the practice. She began taking workshops and one-on-one yoga coaching to expand her knowledge and dedication to yoga.

Erin Murray believes that her life’s purpose is to serve the greater good, and she’s devoted the last fifteen years of her life to an education in many realms of holistic healing including Metaphysical Science, Reiki, and Intuitive Guidance. Erin knew she wanted to add Life Coaching to her repertoire, so she began to research programs that aligned with her mission, and found Southwest Institute of Healing Arts!

“It was the BEST decision that I made,” she tells us, “and the online course was exactly what I had been looking for.”

In 2010, Jennifer Emperador quit her job of ten years after realizing it didn’t fulfill her, and it was that brave plunge into the unknown that became the catalyst for some major positive change!

“The idea of going back to the corporate world was unfathomable,” discloses Jennifer, “During my soul-searching journey, I was invited to SWIHA’s Gifts & Graces and as soon as I walked through the doors, I knew I was home.”

Jennifer is a self-proclaimed “SWIHA Lifer” and has taken many programs, including Life Coaching, Hypnotherapy and Yoga Teacher Training. She’s also a member of our Admissions team, lending her first-hand experience to future practitioners. The pursuit closest to her heart, however, is her coaching business Sol Discovery.