SWIHA Blog

Mise en Place, with the French pronunciation of mi za plas means "putting in place", as in "set up"

Mise en place is used in the kitchen to “put into place” or “to set up” all the ingredients used to prepare a dish, before we start cooking. The purpose is to have everything ready, all in order for cooking, so when we cook, it is much easier. All ingredients are ready, sliced, diced and measured before we start cooking. Mise en place is a great cooking technique to incorporate into your kitchen for both more complex and simple recipes.

Mise en Place Makes Cooking Easier

“With mise en place we do not scramble around our kitchen when we are in the cooking process, looking for that one ingredient we really need, or we are not quickly chopping food right in the middle of cooking. Instead, we are methodically enjoying cooking with all of our ingredients ready for us to use,” advises Melanie Albert, Southwest Institute of Healing Arts Holistic Nutrition & Whole Food Cooking Instructor.

At the age of 41, Sierra Byers’ plan was to live in Los Angeles, and continue work in the music industry, with all its allure and excitement. The Universe laughed . . . the company she worked with was down-sizing, so with a grin and smile in her heart Sierra took it as a sign to make a change.

Her initial plan was to move from LA to San Francisco, attend massage therapy school and start a private practice.

Prior to her move, Sierra visited Sedona, Arizona. While meditating in the red rocks, she received a powerful message showing her she should move to Scottsdale because something different was waiting for her there. Sierra didn’t know how to take this message, and she wasn’t she wanted to move to Scottsdale. The next day she got very quiet again, in a completely different spot than the day before. Lo and behold, the Universe was winking! She received the very same message as before, yet even more powerfully! Sierra laughed, listened, and moved to Scottsdale.

As Sierra began to research massage schools she had a feeling that when she found the ‘right’ one she would just know! As she walked through the doors of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) she felt as if the Universe was welcoming her home. “From the moment I saw owner and founder, KC Miller, and heard her say ‘Welcome!’ I knew I had found my school,” remembers Sierra. “I signed up immediately and started classes the following week.”

The concept of juicing has been around for a few decades! Most recently more people have started to pay close attention to this beneficial method for enhancing health and wellness. Juicing, which can be a form of detoxing the body, can be a healthy and safe way to rid the body of toxins, along with a variety of other physical and mental benefits.

What Causes Toxins?

There are many causes of toxins in the body. Some common causes are alcohol consumption, food additives, prescription drugs and intestinal build-up in our bodies. Other causes of toxins include chemicals and solvents such as certain cleaning products, cosmetics and air fresheners. Pollution in our environment is another cause of toxins, in addition to metals. It’s been said that toxins can even be caused by negative thinking patterns!

At age fifteen, Erica Vucich discovered the healing benefits of yoga. She initially began to practice the ancient art form as a way to manage and reverse her scoliosis. After years of practice and healing, Erica came to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) for yoga teacher training. Going through the teacher training program was a transformational experience. For someone who was shy as a child, teacher training helped Erica learn to open up. “Learning to lead fellow students and eventually actual yoga students through a class was invaluable,” she says.

Erica finished her teacher training in 2008, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to teach. She initially took teacher training for her own personal development and knowledge, to deepen her practice and help her heal. She credits SWIHA with giving her the confidence to go out and teach yoga. “Had I not been a SWIHA student, I don’t think I would be at the same place I am today and I couldn’t be happier about that,” she claims. “It gave me the practice and confidence to go out and teach.”

Go out and teach she did! Erica began teaching regularly, and continued to enhance her yoga teaching toolbox, taking additional trainings and workshops even after completing her teacher training. She is passionate about gaining knowledge and learning more about yoga and teaching.

A spiritual alchemist, Aubrey Mohandessi’s work centers around transforming people, helping them move forward and empowering them to be their best selves. While the term alchemy or alchemist is often associated with chemistry and metals, the action of transforming or transmuting is the same, whether it's mineral based or with people. Aubrey’s business, Aubrey Mohandessi Life Coaching & Spiritual Coaching, offers life coaching, spiritual counseling, hypnotherapy and toe reading to people looking to discover the deeper meanings of life and truths within themselves.

As a graduate of the online Mind-Body Transformational Psychology program at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA), Aubrey developed a vast amount of skills and tools that prepared her to bring her spiritual gifts out into the world. “Everything I’ve learned while enrolled at SWIHA helped me to develop my own business as well as broaden my understanding of what it means to live a well-balanced life mentally, physically and spiritually,” Aubrey says.

How Great Graduate Kelly T. Smith Created a Successful Holistic Wellness Business

Intuition. We all have it, and some of us might be more in tune with it than others, but it’s there. It’s that gut feeling, that little voice inside our heads, the answers that live within our hearts and souls.

As a natural intuitive and trained Life Coach, it makes sense that Kelly T. Smith created a life coaching business that helps clients look inside to reach their fullest potential. A graduate of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) Associate of Mind-Body Transformational Psychology program online, Kelly combines the many tools she learned in her program into the work she does in her business, Intuitive Life Coaching With Kelly. “I feel my intuitive abilities really came forward because SWIHA was a safe place to honor this side of me,” Kelly says about her journey with SWIHA. “I am a life coach, intuitive and hypnotherapist and I use all these tools together to work with people to reach their fullest potential, discover their spiritual gifts, and move past their limitations to live life to the fullest.”

Kelly says that she found the online program at SWIHA through a series of “synchronistic events.”

It has been called it Destiny or Fate. Some describe it as the Dharma and Karma process. Paulo Coelho, author of one of the all-time besting books, The Alchemist, has taught millions that each person must discover his or her own personal legend—the unique path that leads to an individual's destiny. And well known motivational speaker, Anthony Robbins, advocates that we must “awaken the giant within!”

One of the great graduates of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, James Patrick, describes this internal phenomenon yet another way. He calls it our ‘Life Sentence’!

James is an impassioned Life Coach, motivational speaker and ordained minister who knows from personal experience that we cannot escape the workwe are “sentenced” to do here on earth. He believes we are intrinsically linked to our personal calling.

To describe the great human search as a Life Sentence may sound a little dramatic at first, yet once you understand what James Patrick is suggesting, it is hard to see it any other way. His foundational belief is that we are all born with a sacred contract that we agreed to live out on earth. It is not something we can run or hide from.

Every year, almost half of Americans (45%) make a New Year’s resolution. Of that number, 24% do not succeed in keeping their resolution. What if there was a method that could help us follow through with our New Year’s resolutions and succeed at accomplishing them?

Hypnotherapy is a great tool for clearing away resistance, something that is a common factor when trying to succeed at accomplishing New Year’s resolutions. Linda Bennett, Senior Curriculum Specialist and the Hypnotherapy Program Director for both On Campus and Online Hypnotherapy Programs at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA), provides her students and clients with many tools and guided meditations to help “clear away the clutter.”

However, there are some misconceptions about hypnosis that are not true. Many people think that hypnotherapy is similar to what we see on television or in the movies… the facilitator controlling the subject, trying to put them in a trance by swinging a pendulum in front of their eyes. Although that perception makes for a great movie plot and an entertaining stage show, it’s completely untrue says Linda. When someone is in the state of hypnosis they are still completely in control and will only go along

The healing art of massage therapy has been around for centuries. The earliest written records of this modality date back to 3000 BC in Egypt and China, and texts documenting the medical benefits date back to around 2700 BC in China. And still today the demand for well-trained touch practitioners remains very high.

An online article from U.S News & World Report stated that the Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates growth in the field of massage therapy by 22 percent between 2012 and 2022, adding 30,000 more licensed massage therapists to the field. Is it possible that YOU might be interested in a career in massage therapy?

The key to those who are successful in massage therapy is loving what you do. This is one career that you can’t fake it. You will either love it, or you won’t.

Owner and founder of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) KC Miller became a licensed massage therapist over 25 years ago. “If you would have asked me 26 years ago if I ever dreamed of becoming a massage therapist, I would have looked at you as if you were crazy,” said KC. After someone gave her the challenge of “Try it, see if you like it” she did. Years later KC reflects,

As fairytail-ish as it sounds, Diana Atenco knew one of her life’s callings was tobecome a Toe Reader. She just loved the opportunity to sit with people, listen to the stories of their lives, often pray with them, and always have the opportunity to help them make new choices about how they would step forward powerfully into the world.

Diana completed a series of classes at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) starting in 2007 and became a Registered Toe Reader. From the very first class she realized she had a gift; without ever fully understanding how she knew even more than what the toe tissue revealed, she was aware that Spirit was using her as a messenger to people of all ages. Before long she knew she needed to deepen the way she was serving her clients, so she returned to SWIHA to take the Hypnotherapy and Life Coaching programs.

Around the time Diana began her journey at SWIHA, her then teenage grandson horribly injured himself in a motocross accident. He became seriously dependent on prescription pain mediation, which developed into an addiction to heroin. For years Diana suffered as she watched her beloved grandson slowly fade into the dark depths of drug addiction.