SWIHA Blog

Paul Smith is the epitome of a SWIHA #GreatGraduate, displaying the reverent and resilient balance between action and stillness. Paul is a life-long student who has used every ounce of his experience to expand his own personal growth and empower that in others.

He shares that he has found his life purpose through integrating his past experiences and observations: “Human beings have the capacity to be so healthy and so happy. All people can have a very loving connection between family, friends, colleagues and teammates. I have been observing and studying throughout my entire life so that I could help others. Unfortunately a few tragedies have occurred: my grandfather died of cancer, my high school head football coach died of cancer, my little cousin overdosed on prescription medication and my little brother took his own life. I've observed so many other tragedies and challenges - and numerous disheartening news stories are aired every day.

With each event, my heart was broken and my awareness was opened. I witnessed the harmful effects that conventional medicine and therapies can sometimes have on peoples’ lives so I set out to learn about - and provide - healthier alternative options. I decided to leave everything and embarked on a pilgrimage throughout India and Nepal to study Ayurveda and Buddhism. I returned and graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology and was determined to keep momentum and learn more. I was looking into becoming a doctor and going to either Naturopathic or Chiropractic school when I discovered SWIHA and decided that it was a much better fit for me personally. It was a great choice!”

Taran Emmert was initially going to a fine arts school, yet she couldn’t fathom the idea of waiting six more years until graduation. So, she followed her inner yearning to discover a new path. She always had an interest in massage and yoga, so she checked out four different schools. SWIHA was the last one she checked out, and immediately, it felt like home. While other schools were pushy with their approach, Taran shared how SWIHA felt so different than the others. “My advisor said: Take your time to think about it. Pray about it, let the answers come to you.”

In February of 2012, Taran enrolled into the 750-hour professional massage practitioner program, which allowed her enough elective credits to also complete the 200-hour Yoga teacher training.

Taran chuckled, then shared how at SWIHA “everybody was a bit different and weird, and it felt like home.” She went on to reveal how for the first time in her life, she found a community of people interested in the same things as her. So why did she choose Yoga and massage? “Yoga was the first time I experienced spirituality in an unconditional form, and it allowed me to connect to my body, mind and breath without having to do anything else.” Taran went on to add that she wanted to bring that feeling to other people, while also helping them process their emotions and feel better. Taran’s passion for massage grew throughout her time at SWIHA, yet she recalled how she often massaged friends and family as a child. “I always massaged everyone when I was little, and I always loved touch and healing. I was always giving friends and family back and shoulder rubs, so I guess it was in me all along!”

Ravynn Rohner is a graduate who has literally transformed her life and humbly taken space in the seat of the teacher. In 2011, Ravynn started doing yoga regularly in her hometown of Casa Grande, Arizona and her teacher was a Spirit of Yoga graduate. Having taken Cranial Unwinding at SWIHA in 2007, she was familiar with the school, and began thinking about taking the 800-hour Yoga Teacher Training Program.

“At the time, I was in my fourth debilitating year of Fibromyalgia (full body pain and fatigue), only taking care of my responsibilities for my son and doing yoga; the rest of the time I was in bed, with my Nana being a huge support system at the time. After meeting with Admissions, I was led to enroll in the Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner Program with concentrations in Life Coaching, Polarity, and Yoga. In the back of my mind, I wondered if I’d be able to improve my Fibro because doctors told me that I’d have the syndrome for life, be on medications more and more as time went on, and that my body had betrayed me. I went into ‘fighter’ mode, thinking #WatchThis. I didn’t want to believe, I couldn’t believe, what the doctors predicted. My son needed a mother that was healthy and present. I walked into SWIHA with both hope and doubt. It was the perfect program choice for me, as the Life Coaching allowed me to clean out the mental garbage that kept the pain in my body. Polarity was the modality and vehicle that allowed me to release the stuck energy or physical pain, and Yoga was the icing on the cake that gave me strength to get off all my medications. I was #FibroFree, four months into my program!”

Keta Baker is a true #GreatGraduate and the testimony of her journey is as divinely guided as she is. Keta’s story begins with her questioning the universe, “One Saturday afternoon in 2012, my sister brought me to this Italian restaurant in Phoenix. We pulled up to the restaurant and out of my mouth came the words, ‘This is a nice place to have my life coaching business housed in.’ This was followed by me looking up and saying, ‘What?’ . . . ‘What life coaching business?’” What Keta Baker didn’t fully understand at the time was that she was getting ‘downloads’ from Spirit.

Humbly, Keta explains, “I began to get these downloads of a whole business plan and what I was to do to help others as a Life Coach. I didn’t have anything to write on, so as soon as I got inside of the restaurant, I grabbed several napkins to record what I knew was God’s plan for my life. That evening I Googled what a Life Coach was and began searching for schools where I could learn to become a Life Coach. I prayed for direction for the path the Divine placed me on. A few days went by and after diligently listening and looking, SWIHA, Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, came up.”

Keta quickly called the next day to schedule a tour of the SWIHA campus in Tempe, Arizona.

Adam Ramirez was at a place in his life where he desired to finish his education in something that he could really utilize as part of the medicine path he was already beginning to follow. “I put that inclination out to the universe, as I kept getting a hint towards finalizing my education, and as I came home one summer a few years back I met a friend of my mothers who seemed to be finishing her schooling through SWIHA. She told me all about this wonderful school, and I knew from there it was meant to be.”

From a young age, Adam has been concerned with the human race and the way we impacted ourselves and the world around us. He knew from a young age that he wanted to take away all the suffering and demise of the world. He started “learning about the human race (sociology/psychology), learning of how I could help and be an instrument of medicine to the people. We all have a rhyme and reason for being on this planet, finding our key and opening the door is on our part in order to grow and flourish.”

Alise Holland, like many of SWIHA’s students, was brought to the school by Spirit. On Labor Day, 2014, she saw a vision of a school for healing and the name, Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, came through in her vision. At the time, she had been teaching in a public classroom for eight years, and took a leap of faith and left the classroom in 2011. Alise shared how, even though she had her Doctorate in Education and had a flexible job, she knew that there was something missing and needed to find out what SWIHA had to offer. “It wasn’t until I attended SWIHA to better understand myself and how I show up in the world… That’s when it became simple; my life purpose is to serve others and be a Merchant of Hope.”

Although she grew up in poverty, Alise has realized that nothing is truly wasted, and she is grateful for all of her challenges. “What I find is that now that I am on my spiritual path, I am able to share my knowledge with others to enlighten them on their own spiritual path. In other words, I am able to turn all of my sufferings into service to help others.” For the longest time, Alise couldn’t figure out why she chose to become a teacher, when her true passion resided in tapping into her spiritual gifts. After attending SWIHA, she learned why. “I am still a teacher and mentor, but my audience has changed. It is now the World, and I am destined to be a Spiritual Guide to souls throughout humanity. People need the right kinds of knowledge, yet I will be using my spiritual gifts and knowledge to educate souls.”

Ayesha Dalton’s recently-opened spa, just over 9 months old, has a warm and loving atmosphere that exudes professionalism and pristine care. Ayesha’s passion for beauty and well-being developed long before her studies at the Southwest Institute of Natural Aesthetics. She is passionate about what she does, sharing, “I value the importance of taking care of how I look. I’m here to help anyone who needs encouragement and advice to look and feel their best. Therefore my passion became obvious to me, as did the awareness that I should share this with all who want to experience it.”

Ayesha looked to SWINA when deciding on a professional career as an aesthetician. After being a stay-at-home mother of 2 for nearly 20 years she desired projects that would continue to make her feel purposeful to others and allow her to continue to care for others resulted in her path to natural aesthetics.

Parul Agrawal is an internationally-known and highly-regarded author, coach and speaker who has truly taken her passion and created a successful platform that nourishes both her clients and herself! Parul latest achievement is so exciting! What started as juicing and workshops has grown into her having an international presence as a well-known and highly-rated published author. You’ll love her story:

“After taking the Raw/Vegan cooking class at SWIHA I started juicing for myself. With motivation from my SWIHA friends, I decided to go on a juice detox in summer of 2014. To stay motivated and accountable, I started blogging about my detox journey. The Recreation Coordinator from City of Tempe happened to read my blog and contacted me asking if I would like to offer a Juicing workshop to the patrons of Tempe. I already had the qualifications and my company, Parul’s Wellness Coaching, LLC was already incorporated, so I jumped at this exciting offer and started offering Green Juicing and Smoothies workshop first at Tempe and then at City of Chandler. Slowly and steadily the workshops became popular and my workshop patrons started asking for more recipes, more juicing tips and more techniques to make juicing affordable and manageable. It was too much to cover in a 2-hour workshop and so I decided to write a small book as an extension to my workshop. In February 2015, I started the work on my manuscript. To my surprise, instead of just a small book it became my dream project. I finished writing my book with 52 recipes by the end of March, 2015, and sent my manuscript to few people for their review, forewords, blurbs, etc. The next few months were spent in editing, formatting and marketing the book. I finally released the book “Juicing for Healthier Families” on October 14th, 2015 and made it to #1 in eight categories on Amazon and Kindle.”

Prior to registering at SWIHA, Jessica Ireland was, in her own words, “barely existing.”

“I lacked a post-secondary education, and the 15 years I worked in the finance industry meant nothing while I was applying for employment during the recession. I was struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over my head, while spiraling further and further into a state of depression.”

After receiving a steady stream of rejection letters from potential minimum wage employers, Jessica realized that unless she obtained some form of post-secondary education in an area that was growing throughout North America, she would eventually end up homeless and hungry. Enter SWIHA.

“As soon as I discovered SWIHA, I knew that my search for the school and the education I desired was over. I relocated my 3 dogs and myself from Calgary, Alberta Canada to Phoenix, Arizona and haven’t looked back since.” Jessica shared how SWIHA allowed her to shed the weight of her past, while discovering her dreams and tapping into her infinite potential.

Maria Kalamas opens up to how purposeful her path has been and how her attendance at SWIHA was intended all along. “January of 2010, I was working in a doctor’s office employed as an office manager. The doctor was an MD, yet practicing alternative medicine, specializing in bio-identical hormones. He was helping people heal through proper supplementation, healthy nutrition, bio-identical hormone replacement, Chelation - which is a very effective way to treat heavy-metal poisoning - coaching and outsourcing them to various healing arts therapies, from massage to spiritual coaching and other various holistic practices that he had tried and believed were effective. I soaked in all the information he was giving me because I wanted to help heal people physically, mentally and emotionally,” shared Maria.