By Courtney Shackelford
What is it like to die? Perhaps it is a question that everyone besides myself has considered, but, as I was in the class "Dying to Know”, I found myself wondering about the topic. In the past I have wondered what it would be like to be dead, but never had I…
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Welcome to another episode of Southwestern Soundbites– quick audio clips featuring current students, staff, and faculty discussing SWC’s various certificate programs. In this episode, Courtney Shackelford (Admissions Associate and current student) talks to her friend and peer, Amanda LaMendola. Amanda is both a student in the Art Therapy/Counseling program and the Addictions, Abuse, and Recovery…
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Photo by Alissa Petrosoniak
Welcome to Southwestern Soundbites-- quick audio clips featuring current students, staff, and faculty discussing SWC's various certificate programs. This episode features Courtney Shackelford, current student in the Art Therapy and Counseling program and also admissions staff, and Dru Phoenix, alum of the Art Therapy and Counseling program and Director of Enrollment…
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Written on November 22, 2019
Let no one say that I lived in the ponderosa pine forest and failed to notice.
Today I went out and stood beneath thick pillows of wet snow and let the cold mist cover my face. I gazed into the jeweled kingdom of old stately pines and took dozens…
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A couple of weekends ago, Ginna Clark (Director of the NEI certificate program in Human Sexuality) and I, co-taught a weekend course entitled "Touch and Embodiment." Discussions included the history of sex therapy in the United States, what interrupts, coopts and/or numbs personal and interpersonal pleasure, and how to practice embodiment.
Through…
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Inessa Mil'berg, SWC Alum sent us this blurb about Sandplay
Therapists interested in providing a non-verbal, depth approach to therapy might consider learning sandplay. Sandplay, as developed by Dora Kalff, is a nonverbal therapeutic process based on the psychology of C.G. Jung. The path to individuation as understood in Jungian psychology becomes visible in the…
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Debbie, you have been in the art therapy field for a significant time, can you tell us more about the trajectory of your career?
Hindsight is amazing, but looking back I believe that each art therapy position helped me secure the next position. Sometimes I would take a
leap of faith and try…
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"Week Five" marks the halfway point of my first quarter within my first year as a first-time graduate student. Both unbounded excitement and complete overwhelm compete inside me for my attention each day. While it feels like there is not much time to reflect blog-style at this peak point in Fall, it is important…
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I define the patriarchal wound as ancestral suffering and intergenerational trauma caused by the power imbalance between genders. Under patriarchy, boys, men and the masculine are considered inherently superior while girls, women and the feminine are considered inherently inferior. The extreme social positionality of superior vs. inferior causes distance between the genders and distorts…
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By Deborah Schroder
Sometimes I think of art therapy as a wild, colorful plant, and I most often think in “plant words”, not “garden words” – which to me speaks of art therapy’s ability to grow and thrive in surprising, unexpected places. Although many have planted, nurtured and tended to it (garden words) over the…
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By Deborah Schroder
Do you remember the childhood story of the Little Red Hen? She went around the farmyard asking other animals to help her plant the seeds, nurture the wheat, harvest the grain and bake the bread. And no one would help her. So she did it all herself.
I think that I must…
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By Courtney Shackelford
This time last year I was new.
The sun was brighter than anything I had experienced on the other side of the country and the landscape was unlike anything I had ever seen.
I was in New Mexico.
I had moved from across the country, like many of my peers, to this…
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By Deborah Schroder
I continue to be just stunned by the continuing wall of beauty that contains the Capstone murals. The weekend course, or Part One of Capstone, when the mural painting happens, is how we encourage students who are finishing up Practicum, to explore what they know and have experienced about group work, and…
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The initial impulse to create a unique higher learning institution devoted to consciousness began in 1976 in Alamogordo, NM. Then in the fall of 1979 the first 12 students began their course of study.
In the first entering class was Katherine Ninos, M.A., LPCC, who now teaches and mentors other teachers in the Consciousness curriculum.…
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by Kate Latimer, LPCC
Before investing in the 2-3 years of academic coursework needed to complete a graduate degree, students need to know what their job prospects will be upon completion. After the devastating effects of the 2008 financial crisis that left many degree-holders unemployed, colleges have seen a national trend of lower enrollment in…
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By Courtney Shackelford
The campaigner. That is what the ENFP has been called. It is a personality that is driven by story, idealism, and emotional connection. It is my personality and perhaps one of those personality types best suited to therapy work. Extroversion doesn’t mean that you don’t have a capacity for deep listening, though…
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By Deborah Schroder, MA in Art Therapy/Counseling Program Chair
I’ve always enjoyed sharing Virginia Satir’s way of working, with my students in my family art therapy course. This spring at the International Family Therapy Congress, I was faced with a belief I’ve held about congruency that was clearly formed by my own white privilege.
In…
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By Kate Latimer, MA, LPCC, Director of New Earth Institute
photo of Seren Morris, Joanna Conte and Kate Latimer at their SWC graduation
SWC for student orientation in the Fall of 2004.
I first heard about Southwestern College in 2002 while living in Morocco and teaching at a small international school located in…
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By Courtney Kayser
When I found out I was accepted to Southwestern College, I was ecstatic! I was also terrified. My whole life had been on the East Coast, and the idea of leaving my roots was scary. Here is my advice for a successful and stress-free (or should I say minimal stress) relocation:
1.…
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By Maqueita Eleazer
While taking the History of Art Therapy course, I was surprised to see that 7/301 pages mentioned the contributions that art therapists of color have made to the field of Art Therapy. Pioneers such as Cliff Joseph, Wayne Ramirez, Lucille Venture, Georgette Seabrook, etc. have made tremendous contributions to this profession, and…
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By Laura Lansrud-Lopez
This past Saturday on June 29th, fifty years after the historic riots at Stonewall Inn, a dedicated and enthusiastic group of students, friends, family, and staff of Southwestern College gathered with a meaningful intention: to announce to the Santa Fe community that Tierra Nueva Counseling Center is here, we care, and we…
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This past Friday, June 29, the SWC leadership, including the members of the Academic Council, the Chief Finance Officer and the Director of Enrollment Services (me!) gathered together for our annual, “Assessment and Strategic Planning Retreat,” at Sunrise Springs. The setting was lovely, but the idea of sitting in a room for 7-8 hours talking…
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by Dru Phoenix, MA, LMHC
The upcoming Wild Heart Gallery art show at Southwestern College is titled “Anger and the Feminine Self.” The idea was to invite the feminine into a visual and written dialogue on anger and to give permission for anger to be present since many of us have been raised to avoid…
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By Deb Schroder
I’ve come to really value small moments of joy. My life isn’t lacking happiness but on many days it gets crowded out by stress. One night after work as I dragged myself through the grocery store I found myself staring at the usual row of healthy cereals that do seem to be…
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Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM