SWIHA Blog

For years, she had been both a practitioner and a teacher of yoga, experiencing firsthand the profound benefits that yoga brought to her body and life. She had seen how this ancient practice transformed her own well-being, as well as, the lives of her students. Yoga, for her, was more than a series of postures—it was a tool for healing and self-discovery. This deep appreciation for yoga’s ability to foster transformation led her to pursue the next step in her journey: enrolling in the Yoga Therapy Program at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA).

Charles LaPac’s life underwent a remarkable transformation after enrolling in SWIHA’s Integrative Yoga Therapy program. His path began with an interest in Reiki, a spiritual healing technique that opened his eyes to the profound connection between mind, body, and spirit. This initial curiosity eventually guided him to pursue Yoga Teacher Training, where he discovered the powerful practices and philosophies that define yoga. Now, he is on an inspiring journey to becoming a Certified Yoga Therapist, dedicating his time and energy to mastering the art of yoga and teaching others how to harness its benefits for their own healing journeys.

“Before SWIHA I spent a lot of time in a ‘poor me’ world. From the outside, it looked like I had everything. A wonderful husband, a great paying job, and a beautiful house. In 2021, my grandmother died and it made me look at myself differently. I wasn’t getting any younger… who do I want to be for the rest of my time on earth? I found SWIHA online and had the funds to make it happen. So, I signed up for the 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program. I was doing this for me. At the end of my program, I realized that since what I had learned had changed my life, maybe I could help change the lives of others. Taking the YTT-200 was just the tip of the iceberg of my yoga journey. I had heard that there was a 1000-hour Yoga Therapy program, so I went all in! This changed the way I practiced yoga and life.”

In 2014, I experienced a year of heartache that was followed by the devastating loss of my brother in 2015. I was in desperate need of support and turned to yoga as a source of healing. I had been attending yoga classes and began working with a mentor who introduced me to yoga therapy. During my darkest moments, I was searching for a connection to something greater than myself and embarked on my own Hero's Journey. My mentor was teaching Transformational Yoga Coaching at SWIHA and an instructor at her studio recommended that I sign up. Learning that I had signed up for Transformational Yoga Coaching (TYC), my mentor suggested that I take my 200hr Yoga Teacher Training to support me during this difficult time. In January 2016, I took the leap and enrolled, which marked the beginning of my healing journey.

“I am completely devoted to sharing the wisdom of yoga with the world for the rest of my life. As soon as I graduate I am going back to India for the first time, with my baby, and we are going to continue to embody the teachings forever. This is a lifelong journey.”

After completing 500 hours of yoga teacher training in Rishikesh, India, Coco Taylor discovered SWIHA when she returned home. Coco felt deeply infatuated by the yoga programs offer at SWIHA. Coco seemingly couldn't get them out of her head for the next two years as she relocated to live in New Zealand. While living abroad, Coco found herself thinking about SWIHA every day. “One day, I finally decided to put what I was doing there on pause, and answer my soul calling to study yoga therapy at such a magical school. I left my friends, job, and all my belongings. Booked a flight back to Phoenix, and moved in with my parents so I could begin my journey at SWIHA from the bottom up!”

“You are stronger than your challenges. And your challenges are making you stronger. Deep within is a hidden reserve of inner power. Breathe. Get quiet. You will access it. You’re far stronger than you realize - with a capacity to stretch and grow in exciting ways.” - Karen Salmansohn

Before Eve Garifo-Morelli started her healing journey at SWIHA, she was a full-time caregiver for her father. Her entire life, 24/7 was surrounding her father who had suffered from a stroke and lost his speech, the use of his right arm, and now walked with a cane and brace on his right leg. For Eve, this became a high-stress situation having to be a full-time caregiver for her father. On one side, she loved him and fervently stood up to the job of taking care of her father. On the other hand, there were days that Eve found herself not leaving her house, showering, or taking care of herself. There needed to be a change.

For some people, the traditional college route is not the road to success. Amanda Petro is one of those very people.

After spending a year at Arizona State University, Amanda wound up feeling completely unfulfilled; she was beginning to lose interest in her path of study and was increasingly aware that she was not resonating with her classmates. In her search for more like-minded friends, she ended up connecting with two soul sisters here in Tempe, Arizona, who were soon graduating from the Yoga Teacher Training Program at Spirit of Yoga. “It was there at their YTT graduation ceremony that I realized I wanted to be apart of this incredible and seemingly magical school. I started off staying at ASU while I began my 200 YTT. Mid-way through, I quickly realized I couldn’t handle the workload of both. ASU was taking me away from diving deeper into my SWIHA education, so I decided to go full time at SWIHA and leave Arizona State University behind. It was the best decision of my life.”

If you’ve ever found yourself suddenly moved to tears in yoga class, you’re not alone. The sensation can be a little alarming if you’re not used to crying at the gym, however, rest assured that it’s a sign of good things happening. Our bodies tend to hold onto a lot of tension that’s both physical and emotional at its root. Just like our shoulders can tighten up when we’re hunched over the keyboard day after day, our hips can tighten up from emotional stress as well. Certain yoga poses unleash the tension and suddenly make you feel something that you haven’t felt in a while.

When you’re holding a yoga pose you’re often attempting to balance as well as stay strong and support your own body weight. (Our egos fight pretty hard to avoid being the person who topples over onto their mat.) These moves are using a variety of muscles at once, require concentrated breath, and also physically stretch us in new ways.

India Lee Benedetto, also known as India Bee, made her way to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) at the perfect time in her life. She officially began her studies at SWIHA in the Yoga Therapy program in 2011 after she had connected deeply to yoga eleven years prior, just as she was graduating from Arizona State University and was preparing to live abroad for the first time to work as a Peace Corps volunteer in the countryside of Bolivia. Shortly after her arrival, a fellow volunteer went missing and was never found. Less than nine later, 9/11 shook the world, and everything changed. “Through all of this transition and unrest in the world, yoga is where I found myself again and again.” 

India knew she wanted to do something in the field of yoga which allowed her to share her passion with others, yet she just didn’t know how to make that happen. So she began building a career in corporate America where she worked to diversify law school classes and law firms and empower women, globally. After traveling on business to Washington D.C. and then to Peru, she returned home after three weeks to an unsettling feeling. She decided the life she had created was not in alignment with her values, and it was not sustainable for her. Just one year later, she found the courage to make the decision to embrace and walk her destined path. 

Becci Rusinko was searching for a flexible Yoga Teacher Training program that she could do in the evenings and found the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts’ (SWIHA) YTT program.

She initially graduated in April of 2011 with her 200 hour YTT certificate. Then she came back in October of 2011 and completed her 800 hour yoga therapist program, which included holistic nutrition certificate.

Throughout the program at SWIHA, Becci felt that almost every class was her favorite and filled with so much valuable information. “I learned so much that I use daily in all of my classes.”

She felt that she had such fantastic teachers that taught her so much. “My most memorable teachers would be Dr. Henele and Dr. Mahdi and Chef Rachel from the nutrition program and Mary Bruce from the yoga program.”

The knowledge that Becci felt to be the most valuable was to be authentic to her true self and not to try and be someone who she isn't. Becci said, “I hold that so close to my heart every day.”

There was a part of Becci’s life when she was in search of the right thing and she re-found yoga.  “Not only did yoga help cure my physically, it also improved my mentality and made me a different/better person.” After a few years of practice, she looked back at her old self and saw how incredibly different she was. “I decided I needed to share with others what had changed me into such an amazingly different person.” Her passion for sharing yoga comes from having total faith and love for the whole practice. She loves knowing how yoga can help anyone who is open to allow it to transform their life.