SWIHA Blog

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.

Once upon a time, Michele Root worked as an employee for a large company that supported veterans. While attending a leadership program where each participant was assigned a coach, Michele was introduced to the concept of Life Coaching. 

“I found myself coaching my coach!” she tells us, “I immediately knew I needed to learn more."

As Michele thought more about it, she felt called to help military men and women transition back to civilian life and needed to find a program to help her attain that.

Rima Desai is respected in the field of Psychology, holding a Master’s degree from her home country of India and fully dedicating her career to helping others. When she moved her family to the United States in 2011, however, her education was not able to be used in her new home and she couldn’t do the work she loved as a counselor.

“My life and my daughter’s life were endangered in massive mob riots in Africa. We had burnt up all our savings just to migrate to the USA. We were looking for a secure place to live,” Rima tells us, “I faced a lot of depression from culture shock. Being a person who is very passionate about psychology and my work, it was a huge blow to my well-being.

Kim O has always possessed a drive to help others.

When she enrolled in college, she pursued Psychology with the hope of becoming a counselor and affecting major positive changes in the lives of others. However, Kim found herself sidetracked by her own low self-esteem and put off finishing her degree hoping that her marriage would bring her fulfillment.

Though that ultimately wasn’t the case, something else amazing happened!

Kim tell us: “I made really poor decisions for a long time, until the message about loving yourself resounded from everywhere.  I had been living life as a victim, and then I learned that victimhood was a choice. I was powerful!”

Roann Monson re-defines 80!

After 30 years of working in the ASU library, Roann retired on a Friday evening and came to work in the SWIHA Bookstore the following Monday morning. She then enrolled in Western Herbalism, a two-year program that is one of the most comprehensive and rigorous herbalism programs in the country.

“People travel here from out of state to study herbalism here at SWIHA. I learned so much from the herbalism program. In fact, I drink rosemary tea every morning for memory,” reports Roann with great pride.

Also a graduate of SWIHA’s Spiritual Studies certificate, Roann is proud to say, “I was ordained as a minister in the very first class of students that KC Miller, the school founder, was able to ordain as ministers.”

In 2012, Carmen Payne was working in IT Project Management. She describes herself at that time as stressed out, spread too thin, and conflicted between work and personal commitments.

“I had lost my true self in this identity and my relationships at home and at work were suffering,” Carmen tells us, “An email announcing my 20^th Anniversary popped into my inbox and I had a realization that I simply could not exist like this anymore.  I pulled out my resume and looked back on my amazing career and asked myself: ‘What used to make me jump out of bed in the morning and bound through the office doors?’  The role that literally lifted itself off the page at me was when I was training and coaching people.”

Since she was a teenager and even after becoming a stay at home mom, friends would seek out Lori Beard for assistance. “I enjoyed sharing my guidance due to my life’s experiences and interest in human behavior and the roots of those behaviors,” she tells us.

As the mother of eight children, Lori was ready to go back to school when her youngest child went into kindergarten. She received her Life Coaching and Clinical Hypnotherapist certifications from Southwest Institute of Healing Arts out of her desire to guide, transform and impact lives.

Mitch Rustad’s journey to becoming a Life Coach was a natural evolution of his passion for personal development and transformation. After a profound experience helping a close friend navigate a severe life crisis, he was inspired to take his interest a step further and pursue an education at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts.

My personal favorite quality of Janet Lee’s, a Holistic Nutrition instructor at SWIHA, is that she can make a heavenly cheesecake--and it’s all nutritious, raw vegan ingredients! A close contender is her ability to deliver her wisdom and knowledge in a relatable, engaging way. Each interaction, you’ll come away with a fascinating food fact or thinking: “Wow! I didn’t know I could do that with my veggie scraps.”

“I’ve always enjoyed hearing about people’s journeys,” she explains, “and I thought [Life Coaching] would be a nice compliment to my interest in nutrition coaching.”