SWIHA Blog

Sharon Rose originally came to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) for Yoga Teacher Training (YTT), thinking she would only train 200 hours. She quickly realized that it was not enough and joined the 800-hour YTT program, chose Yoga Nidra & Holistic Nutrition as her specialties. While working at a yoga studio during her schooling, she became good friends with one of the instructors. Once, when Sharon was helping her friend work on her resume and Instagram account, her friend turned and looked at her and said, ""You know, you should be a life coach", to which I quickly responded with, ‘What on earth is a life coach?’"

From there, the Universe didn’t hold back. All of the sudden Sharon was in two Mastermind groups on Facebook and being contacted by coaches. It didn’t take long for her to look into SWIHA a bit more and find out that life coaching was an option for her. “I paused my Yoga Nidra training and picked up my coaching certification. I haven’t looked back since. I have been coaching since June 2016 but am excited to say that I have officially just launched my signature programs and brand in November.” 

At a young age, Sue Shapiro recognized that her words could either cause harm or help someone feel better, and she believes this knowing came from the near death experience she had at the age of four. This inner knowing was a frightening space for her to be in because most people could not accept that a little one could be so perceptive, so she eventually shut down and was so painfully quiet and shy, that her grandmother thought there was something wrong with her.  

Tom Leegstra was stuck in life, and he had no idea where to go next. Then he read a book and took a course where a friend of his recommended the Transformational Life Coaching program at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). After debating for a few months, he decided to take the plunge and do it, with the aim of helping others to change the direction of their lives, and never did her stop and think that may he was the one who needed coaching the most! He has now been coaching for a little over a year now, and this includes coaching himself every day!

The tools that changed Tom’s life for the better were the ones that used guided imagery around dreams, which require us going within to finding our goals and aspirations. “This has created a completely new path in life for me to go next. Along with the ‘Values Prioritizer’, this also has changed my life for the best, and it was the catalyst in my understanding what I needed to work on most.” He loves to use the ‘More or Less’ tool with his clients, as it’s one of his favorites and it's quick and easy to use. When people get to see, side by side, what they need to do less of, impacts what they want more of. He also loves working on forgiveness with clients since it does so many positive things and opens many doors.

Karin Gunderson was a harpist with Hospice for eleven years, and people continually shared things with her that they had never shared with anyone else. In Karin's own words (see picture):

I wanted to be able to empower people to live their best life with the time they had left.

Karin has been a life coach for three years, and she feels she attracts those who feel "stuck" in their lives— whether by grief, limiting beliefs, or trauma — when they have a deep desire to move forward in their lives, these types of experiences can be properly managed.  “I specialize in helping people remove stuck emotions and grow spiritually.” Karin’s passion for this work is continually fueled by her client’s satisfaction and excitement, as they witness their own growth.

Tami Sharp excels at seeing past people’s stories and emotions, right to the crux of what is going on beneath the surface. For most of her life, she was very good at hitting people’s nerves in order to get them into the healing work. She had a very impactful and ‘no- nonsense’ way of getting into the core of the matter. However, she lacked the skill set to be able to get to these same results through a more gentle, less abrasive way.  “My old way of helping people move forward in their story usually involved some sort of angry falling out where we would go a certain amount of time without speaking.  I had grown used to this process and knew I had done my part when I got a strong backlash response and they needed the time to process. All of the people I encountered in these instances did come back around into my life with a new found awareness and understanding of themselves and confirmed that what I had said was correct. They just weren’t in a place to understand or receive it at that time. If my delivery had been less cut throat, then I am sure their response would have been much more accepting.” 

Throughout her late teens and all through her twenties, Leslie Davidson struggled with self-esteem and self-awareness issues. Like a lot of young women, she didn’t have her father in her life when she needed him the most. “That sort of sent me into a place of dishonoring myself with men,” said Leslie. To understand herself better, she studied sociology in college, yet this career path didn’t fulfill her. “I was also looking for spiritual fulfillment and the ability to authentically be myself while providing service to others.”

One fortuitous day, she was talking to a co-worker about life coaching. Her co-worker quickly left the room, and came back in with a course catalog from SWIHA. “I kid you not, as soon as I opened the catalog and saw information all about life coaching… I couldn’t believe it!  All that I could say was ‘thank you God’!”  She enrolled herself in the Holistic Wellness Practitioner program, and recently graduated in June of this year. “I have been coaching since that time and really look forward to my holistic business growing,” exclaimed Leslie.

The sudden death of Janet Ellis’ only sister in 1998 brought her to her knees and was the catalyst that ultimately brought her to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). “When I am emerging from a crisis, my usual response is to embark on some learning journey. In December 2006, I was completing what I thought would be my last semester at ASU.  I had earned a bachelor’s degree in Family and Human Development and a minor in Psychology and Gender Studies. I then decided that I wanted to apply to their Marriage & Family Therapy program,” said Janet.

Loree Bischoff had always been intrigued with what causes people to think a certain way, what makes them tick and what motivates them to do the things they do. “I’ve also always loved helping others so in 2007 I, along with my sister, developed a special event called ‘Motherhood Redefined’, a weekend seminar for mothers that ended up being very successful. My sister and I noticed that most of the mothers we knew were really struggling on some level with the balance – or lack of it – in their lives. We saw this great need for moms to have access to new tools and strategies for having a more balanced and fulfilling life.” The weekend event consisted of speakers, interactive workshops, and fun. At the time, Loree wasn’t familiar with life coaching as a profession, yet one of the speakers she had hired for the Motherhood Redefined event happened to be a life coach who specialized in working with mothers. It was then she knew that she really wanted to begin her own private coaching practice. So she picked the brain of the life coach she’d hired, looking for recommendations for training. One of the places she suggested Loree check out was the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA).

After enrolling in the Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner program, Ravynn Rohner’s first class at SWIHA was Transformational Life Coaching. She shook her head as she reflects, “I remember being awe-struck that weekend with the incredible power in 'the coaching questioning'. I realized that this is the type of work that gently forces someone to look into their hearts and psyche for the answers they’ve always been searching for. What a beautiful thought to know that we 'already know'. It's very comforting when you realize that even in the moments of doubt and darkness, we really do know what we're doing." After realizng how important this work was, she knew she wanted her life coaching certification, so she changed her entire class schedule around so she could experience and complete the entire program, plus Advanced Life Coaching with Richard Seaman, back in 2014.

Lauren Doyle has been life coaching for over a year now; allow me to share her reflection, “Both my own experiences with self-work, as well as finding myself as a mentor and guide to friends and family, has led me to life coaching. I found that throughout my different careers and jobs, I was often sought out for my knowledge and advice. I finally decided that there was a gap and the need that I could fill.” When Lauren coaches her clients, she utilizes the Rewriting the Story worksheet the most. She finds that this tool allows clients to reflect and rewrite, not only past experiences, also to stop the train of automatic negative thoughts (or ANTs) that can so easily take over, freeing clients to move on and write the future they really want.