SWIHA Blog

As a fashion design graduate and stay-at-home mom of two boys, Nickole Swensen thought feeling lackluster and exhausted was normal. She realized she had taken advantage of her health and let herself go for too long. With my poor self-care and health habits she started to not fit into her clothes, she had issues with swelling in her body, was constantly tired and was unable to get help from my family physician. Once he decided to make her health a priority she found her energy again, felt rejuvenated, and became a happier woman and mom. Nickole became hooked on this new healthier, happier lifestyle and decided to pursue a career in wellness. 

In her journey to heal herself, she found her true passion and purpose was in helping others heal themselves heal from the inside out, just the way her healed herself. Once Nickole discovered her gifts and knew she wanted to learn more about supporting others in living a more healthy and happy life and do it in a loving and profitable way. That's when she sought training at SWIHA – Southwest Institute of Healing Arts.

"My passion for health developed when I started to change my own health habits. From the moment I consciously began making new choices, I realized how happy I felt. I soon invited my family to join me in feeling happier and healthier. As I changed my diet, my family's diet changed as well, shifting into a healthy vegan/vegetarian way of eating. It has been an amazing transformation to be health-minded. I love being able to share the powerful information I have embodied with my clients so they are able to transform their lives, as well as the lives of their kids and families.”

SWIHA is excited to announce the arrival of Shelley Tom as our Dean of Students, on-campus. In this newly created role, Shelley will be hold the mantle of responsibility as the Student Advocate & Success Coach, charged with ‘holding space’ for student’s academic, spiritual and personal growth, building a strong on-campus community, and leading our wonderful Student Services team.

Many of you may be familiar with the Hero’s Journey, as it is included in much of the curricula at SWIHA. A large part of Shelley’s personal Hero’s Journey started many years ago, at SWIM, Southwest Institute of Myotherapy, the name of the school as it was founded 23 years ago. In fact, Shelley was in the very first massage class the college offered. At the time, 200 hours was all that was required to be licensed as a massage therapist in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her life was forever influenced, as she learned how to open her mind and think differently about her values, her body and most importantly, about Spirit. Shelley’s training changed the way she looked at the world and how she understood the ‘mind-body-spirit’ connection. In our interview, she recalls her journey back to SWIHA, how her life changed after her initial program at SWIM, her personal and professional healing work experiences, and what she’s looking forward to helping to expand here at SWIHA!

Can you tell us a bit more about how your life was forever influenced by taking the massage program?

The moment you step foot inside Sugar Sugar salon in Scottsdale, AZ, you are in for a sweet treat. One can expect to be greeted by a jovial and genuine staff member – oftentimes the owner herself, Aimee, or one of two graduates from the Southwest Institute of Natural Aesthetics (SWINA), Tarah Hunter or Lacey Storm. Lacey and Tarah find themselves happily employed as licensed aestheticians for a growing franchise due to their enrollment at SWINA.

Lacey recalls her initial decision to attend the award-winning college, stating “I’ve always had a deep desire to help other people – even stemming as far back as when my sister struggled with skin concerns and the bullying that came with it. Nurturing her and others has always made me feel purposeful. I placed quite a bit of pressure on myself to find my ideal path and when a close friend highly recommended becoming an aesthetician at SWINA, it instantly seemed like a fit. The moment I walked into SWINA’s doors, I knew my purpose was there and to this present day I am so proud of myself because I found my true purpose and life path.”

Lacey also expressed her long-standing desire to work in a capacity that integrated mind-body-spirit wellness. Always cognizant of her approach to skincare and how it relates to overall health, she believes, “the body is a canvas, essentially painting on the outside what is happening within. Being a licensed aesthetician is about educating others in caring for themselves. That is what makes me feel so purposeful each session – I am helping contribute to their overall wellness.”

This week’s blog comes in the form of a video from my dear friend, guide, and former SWIHA graduate, Chrystal Kubis. In it, she shares her five insightful tips for recent SWIHA grads. Still a student, or thinking about becoming one? Don’t fear, as her wisdom applies to most anyone!

Alexis Holland (who also goes by her soul name Wayah) is a soul that’s wise beyond her years. As a graduate from SWIHA’s 800 hour Yoga Teacher Training, Life Coaching and Polarity programs, she recently launched herself (and her amazingly adorable coyote/husky pup Kiya!) on an adventerous sound–healing tour, bouncing around to various yoga studios throughout the Southwest, camping out wherever there were tall trees and a patch of Mama Earth to hold them both. In our interview, Alexis shared her journey pre- and- post SWIHA, what inspires her, and how she moved through things like fear, doubt and resistance while following her dreams.

Tell us a little bit about your journey to SWIHA. What led you here, and what did you end up graduating with?

Surprisingly enough, my journey to SWIHA began with love. An emmense love for myself, and a true love I stumbled upon along a cross country journey to discover who I really was, and who I was becoming. My interest for the healing arts had been growing already for a long time. I was blessed with these brilliant seeds of knowledge at a very young age by people of all walks of life with one thread in common – freedom, health and art. As I began my ‘spirit walk’ of discovery, I found myself in the depths of the playa in Black Rock City, Neveda at a celebration for the freedom of expression known as ‘Burning Man.’ It was there that I met a man that changed my life in the way that I view love and passion today. He told me all about his experience with SWIHA, and I was hooked. A place where I could learn everything that I could possibly dream of doing? SOLD. Sitting in a parking lot in Santa Cruz, CA, I made the decision and I began driving to Phoenix, AZ for a new life, a new beginning, and a risk I was willing to take.

Dear One, are you like me? Do you sometimes get stuck creatively? Although these blocks can be crippling, fear not! We (you and I) are going to get through this, and here’s how:

1. Try to figure out what’s stoppin’ you

At the core of creative blocks of any kind, I usually find some kind of deeply rooted belief that we don’t deserve to create the life we desire. Somehow a crazy, non-serving thought slips into our head that we’re not good enough, smart enough, driven enough, talented enough, gifted enough. The list goes on. Personally speaking, I’ve struggled with this a lot in the past, whether it was my fear of not being a good enough writer/singer/musician/artist . . . you name it, just fill in the blank ____________! What have you not felt ‘good enough’ about?

The fear of failure (and of greatness) lurks perpetually around the corner, waiting for us to confront it, for us to tell it off, for us to own up to the fact that, YES, we do deserve to be the creators of our destiny! Many times we simply need to acknowledge our fears and recognize that being afraid is perfectly normal. Instead of viewing fear as some big scary monster, one strategy is to befriend our fears, or at least persist on in spite of their existence!

Laura Moore, owner of LaTouch Wellness, is a highly-seasoned and equally high-spirited practitioner who began her massage therapist practice in Michigan over 15 years ago, where she worked in spa settings and the local YMCA. One of her most memorable experiences was working at Ora Oxygen Spa, located inside the Detroit Metropolitan International Airport, was where she offered massage therapy, manicure and pedicure services to travelers. Laura expresses her gratitude for this specific experience, as she really enjoyed meeting people from all around the world, and having the opportunity to witness the similarities in all of us. Honored to have her as one of SWIHA’s #GreatGraduates, Laura shares that her continued education with SWIHA has “offered a different approach to my healing practice”.

Upon relocating to Arizona, she discovered SWIHA and occasionally attended the monthly “Gifts & Graces” event, where SWIHA opens their doors to the public and features guest speakers with powerful messages, in addition to complimentary sessions to those attending, including Toe Reading, Life Coaching, Energywork and more. Laura always appreciated the motivational aspect of the first Friday night events, however, she didn’t quite anticipate becoming a student. Laura shares:

By KC Miller, SWIHA Success Center Blogger

Every one of us has a critic or two in our lives. They may be close friends, family members or the casual unconscious, cavalier, would-be-comic that offers up a caustic comment that momentarily cremates our self-esteem. Imagine considering the critics in your life as ‘Messengers of Courage,’ because to face whatever comment or criticism they toss out takes courage on your part. Facing whatever expression of disapproval or perceived fault someone else has of you is an opportunity for you to do a moral inventory of who you really are, where you stand in the world, and exactly what the truth is about yourself!

One of my biggest moments of courage in facing a critic happened a few years ago during a Celebrate Your Life event in Scottsdale, Arizona. For years, Mishka Productions, created by Ariel Wolfe and her daughter Liz Dawn, have been bringing best-selling authors and new-age thought leaders together for a weekend of intense spiritual growth. It has been my honor to be a part of the conference from almost the beginning, partly because long before the Celebrate Your Life events began, I was friends with Ariel Wolfe.

It was at these amazing conferences that my soul work, Toe Reading, really found a life of its own. From the first time Toe Readings were offered to conference participants, long lines of people would form just to have a piece of their life path analyzed and honored. The messages stored in the tissue of their toes proved to be extremely accurate and divinely guided messages were offered to the conference seekers. Hundreds of people received deep transformative information about themselves and their soul-path, creating tremendous healing and release from past pain from the Toe Readings they received. These readings are based on a soul coaching system I was able to teach a whole team of Spirit-directed practitioners.

Knowing what one wants to do in life is half the battle in getting where one wants to be. However, motivating one’s self to become it and inspiring one’s self to continuously do it on a consistent basis takes the other 50%.

Each and every one of us has a story to our lives. If I may share mine with you it would go something like this. As a young child, I always knew that I had a special connection with people and the ability to feel their inner emotions. Call it a sixth sense, a heavy dosage of intuition or a true awakening to what is real, but whatever it was I definitely felt different than others around me. My principals and teachers from my elementary, junior high and high schools must have sensed this in me because I was always the one chosen to tour the new incoming students around and help them become less nervous and feel more comfortable to their new surroundings. My parents also took notice because they would always see me talking to complete strangers and convinced me to stop this behavior because they had the inclination that these people weren’t worthy of being acknowledged or talked too. As the years rolled on and the more my parents told me to stay focused and become an educated person with a solid career with tons of money, the more I noticed that I was plugged into society’s normalcy of what we should do rather than what we were born to do. So year after year, I ignored my tremendous gifts with people and ran around the hamster-wheel doing what everyone else was doing in life, while missing the big picture to my true joy, peace and happiness I felt inside.