Learning to Lose: The Freedom in Failure by Claudia Escareño-Clark
Have you ever heard the question, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?” A while ago I fell down a self-help/find your passion rabbit hole where questions like these were supposed to somehow propel us into finding our dreams. I would like to…
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by Christina-Villarreal
The American Art Therapy Association's 45th annual conference (2012) was held in San Antonio, Texas.
As a budding art therapist, I decided to take the opportunity to attend my first official art therapy conference, located an hour and half from where I lived in Austin, Texas.
In retrospect, I am amazed at how…
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Southwestern College faculty member Jessica Callaway reflects on her profound experience of Haiti, and its resilient people. …
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Claudia Escareño-Clark explores the impact that assimilation and being an immigrant have had and how this will impact her work with clients. …
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What I have learned at Southwestern College is that each quarter brings with it new experiences. Sometimes they are wrapped in neat little packages with cute little bows, and sometimes whatever I receive I’d like to send back and pretend it was addressed to someone else. That being said, sometimes the most painful experiences lead…
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... staying in on a Saturday night to write a paper with the company of a Santa Fe Pale Ale and burning sage.
... is making, screaming at, rebelling against, and recreating a budget over and over again as I stumble towards financial sobriety.
... is shedding the self-construct that automates what I think I…
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As graduate assistants at Southwestern College we get to do a variety of tasks, depending on our strengths and interests. While doing social media and blogging, I came up with the idea last fall to do a series of videos. What I realized is that while I was fortunate enough to already be living in…
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Would I rather be ‘right’ or be in the loving?
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”
- Mother Teresa
“As I walked out the door to the…
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*This post is a special note to myself, a reminder that my job is not to be Little Miss Sunshine ALL the time, but more accurately sometimes the clearest joy is in continuing on.
So what if I need to get things done—like go to my job so I can keep making money to pay…
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"Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some." - Robert Fulgham
Is our purpose to achieve greater balance? To learn to set additional, or clearer, or more flexible boundaries with our activities…
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My New Year resolutions are usually the same every year: be healthier, be nicer, and appreciate the simple things. But this year felt different. For some reason I lit a candle and mediated. I felt there was something specific I needed to hear for 2014. I hope that sharing with the SWC community is a…
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Freedom
Did you ever have that feeling like a cloud of lively bats is swarming about your head? I have and it's really challenging to get bat guano out of a sweater.
Seriously though, having a lot of incompletes is like that cloud of bats--those unfinished tasks just won't leave me alone. Even when I've…
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"My clients are the best of my teachers, and I am forever grateful to them." - Karen Wennberg
A few months after graduation, I worked up the courage to take a job offer serving a population that is often avoided and forgotten by society. Addiction brings individuals affected to a place where there is little…
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Daniel, and Art Therapy/Counseling student at SWC vividly describes his initial impressions of SWC, his thoughts on art, helping and transitional periods. …
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The Mirror and Portal of Art
by Allegra E. Borghese
I have been studying art therapy formally for a little over a year. Really though, it has been much longer. While my initial creative interest was fashion design, it lost its luster when a series of events cast me into a dark…
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“Beautiful Girl” by Claudia Escareño-Clark and Gabby Valdez
Gabby's Reflections:
My assignment for my Multicultural class was to pick a topic “Outside of my Comfort Zone” pertaining to a cultural view. I chose to make a film documentary, which took much discerning to make public, about body image. In seeing the final cut, it was such…
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This morning I arrived on campus ready to tackle my day--yes, tackle, as in "I may have to listen to 'We Will Rock You' by Queen to really get my day started." Maybe not quite as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I like, but I showed up. In conversation with the incredible and very supportive Dru…
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All In
by Bryce Downey, graduate of Southwestern College, Santa Fe
Not for the first time in my life do I find myself here: my physical surroundings are incredibly beautiful & conducive to frequent adventures, I am blessed with a sweet, conscientious, & peppy roommate, sharing a spacious, comfortable, quiet home. I have three…
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by Amy Hautman Bates
I just read Mindell’s The Shaman’s Body and it reminded me of how much I used to know– how much I have always known that has become deeply buried in the last 35 years. Carlos Castaneda’s Journey to Ixtlan was an important book during my college years. Now I look…
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My Life in in 5 Chapters
a poem by Portia Nelson
Chapter I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost ... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter II
I walk down the…
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In the last two weeks I lost my iPod, my apple’s hard-drive, my printer/fax followed by light flashes in my left eye, and my dog’s life.
The road has been bumpy, but I have strength garnered from the wilderness. There is a message: If I can learn to detach from the technology and embrace the…
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