SWIHA Blog

Ever have those times when everything seems to go wrong? Your computer crashes, you quarrel or argue with people in your life over small and nonsensical things, flights are delayed or cancelled, plans change without warning, and even Facebook seems to be against you? Chances are you are smack dab in the middle of a Mercury retrograde!

Our most recent retrograde started on August 12^th–marking the third time Mercury has gone retrograde in 2017—and isn’t scheduled to end until Labor Day! So what exactly happens when Mercury goes retrograde? SWIHA Great Graduate Danielle Warford explains in one of her compelling blog posts on The Wild Feminine:

“It’s a time where the planet Mercury, for a three week period, appears to be moving backwards in the sky. Star-gazers have been watching this for millennia. The effects of a retrograde are universal, it seems, and if you begin to look at patterns of your life up against a calendar of retrogrades, you may find a pattern along with your frustrations.”

“Side effects” of this particular alignment—or misalignment—of the planets usually include glitches and misunderstandings in our communication and relationships that create a sense of unpredictability. In fact, even our electronic devices can have a tendency to go a bit haywire during this time!

After twenty-five years of helping people to discover their gifts through life coaching and other holistic practices, I’ve heard an awful lot of stories about how some friends and families of our graduates weren’t exactly thrilled hearing them announce they were becoming a Healing Arts Practitioner of any kind. And yet, most who have made the “leap of faith” say they wouldn’t go back for anything!

It is said that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. For Lisa Saylan, what is also true is that when the student is ready, that student will become the teacher! After nearly 1200 hours of education at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, Lisa Saylan took the bold step forward and became a dedicated—and very busy!—instructor for the college. For the last seven years, Lisa has been teaching a wide variety of courses at SWIHA, including massage, reflexology and Reiki training.  Even as a teacher, Lisa says she continues to learn from her students and clients. In fact, she describes herself as a “lifetime learner.”

Lisa learned first-hand that the human body is capable of healing itself when balanced, relaxed, and properly nourished. As a former elite triathlete who suffered from muscle fatigue, tissue damage, and stress, Lisa personally experienced the benefits of massage and other healing modalities during her competitive years and while recuperating from a significant cycling accident.

Inga Tara once felt that she had it all—a beautiful family, financial security, the freedom to spend her time traveling abroad. And yet there was still something undeniably missing. “I was feeling dissatisfaction in my career, disconnect inside me, and a lack of inner peace,” she remembers. After participating in a full-body detox program in 2009, Inga finally found something that resonated powerfully with her: a love of nutrition. This shift is what Inga considers a major point of self-mastery and a significant first step in the journey to her divine purpose.

Years later in 2014, with an empty nest and a husband at work, Inga knew it was the perfect time to pursue her interests more actively. “I felt that that was a good time to go back to spiritual practices that I used to do for years (and made me feel happy and complete) and work on my creativity, self-actualization, and giving back to people.” Still, reconnecting to self through spiritual practice was not filling the void that Inga felt within her. She yearned to formalize her knowledge of holistic healing to bring happiness and well-being to others. She began to seek out schools and programs and decided to enroll at SWIHA soon after discovering it on an online search.

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.”

Taylor Grace is one of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts’ inspired Toe Readers who remembers watching KC Miller do this healing work: “My first Toe Reading was by KC Miller. Watching her work through other people was an amazing experience. She helped me with quite a few things on my personal journey, and it’s the inspiration people get with her that inspires us.” Taylor found a connection to Reiki back in 1996, and then attended one of SWIHA’s Gifts and Graces for the first time, eleven years later in 2007. She knew she wanted to become a student, and so the program she initially signed up for was Life Coaching, then found herself on our conscious college community in the Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner program, in which she studied Hypnotherapy, more Reiki, and Toe Reading. She reflected on the Toe Reading classes: “I remember noticing how respectful of an art it was, yet the truth in it was mind-twisting. It made me feel uncomfortable! You get to know yourself really well when you study healing. This is a process.”

Kelly St. Claire was looking for something more in her life prior to becoming a Holistic Wellness Practitioner at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts. Her story, her words:

I had wanted to raise the level of excellence in my life and finally break-through in my business. There were so many missing pieces that I needed to find and I was on a search. I was online in one of my discussion groups and someone mentioned SWIHA and becoming certified in different forms of coaching.  I heard it, and filed that away. I eventually ended up searching online for continuing education in the areas I was passionate about, and SWIHA was one of the first results.

I was at a point in my life where nothing was working.  Old things no longer fit the same way, and new things felt out of reach. I felt so stuck and stagnant in body and whole life, yet I do have the kind of spirit that will never give up... Most of the coaching and holistic nutrition certification programs were not in my budget at the time, however I decided to talk to admissions at SWIHA and was pleasantly surprised at how easy, accessible and smooth the process was. They also seemed invested in my success… Support… I’d been craving that kind of support. 

When asked what led Caroline Zeller to SWIHA’s Life Coaching program, she responded, “I started at SWIHA wth Reiki to help myself recover from a stroke.  As attended, I heard about life coaching.  I knew I was meant to be there.   I always wanted to professionally help others, but didn't subscribe to the mainstream counselling model.  The rest was history.  Now, after coaching for a year, it has inspired me to obtain my Wellness Practitioner diploma, then my AOS in Transformational Psychology.”

Every coach has a favorite tool, and like many others she mentioned the Wheel of Balance. She feels that it gives her a clear and concise map into where her client is and where they want/need to go. However, she also loves the practice of “story busting”, which she learned from the “genius”Richard Seaman: “While all clients don't live in their stories, many do tend to get caught up in the past and carry it with them.  This tool is beautiful when it pulls the client out of the middle of their situation, allowing them to look at it in a different, unemotional way.” She has found that she often works with clients suffering from PTSD, ADHD, divorce, and grief recovery, stress management, and those trying to move past a trauma.

Someone recently asked me what my expectations were for signing up for the Reiki and Guides class that was offered in October of this year.  After a bit of thought, my first response was I didn’t have any expectations.  The reality of the situation was, I took the class because I needed more hours to graduate. When I signed up for the Mind-Body Wellness Program my goal was to graduate on the time table that I had set for myself a year before, and this class would help me do just that.

The Reiki part of the class, I had some familiarity with because I had experienced this energy healing modality from the Reiki 1 class that I had already taken.  When I walked out, I had loved what I had already experienced and was eager to learn more.  The spirit guide’s part of the class held more intrigue for me because of my limited knowledge on the subject.

SWIHA has one of the most divserse college communities; one classroom may hold veteran soldiers, nurses, policemen, school teachers, scientists, fitness coaches, or freshly grduated teenagers. The wonderful thing about thaving this kind of eclectic student body, is the diversity of stories of how everyone ended up at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts.