Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM
Bringing Together Yoga, Ayurveda & Psychotherapy by Melissa Spamer
Posted November 3rd, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness.Bringing Together Yoga, Ayurveda & Psychotherapy…
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Posts by Southwestern College
From Football to Marines to Mushrooms to Mental Health by Paul King-Miller
Posted October 24th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories.Paul King-Miller transitioned from serving five years in the Marine Corps to college, an assortment of interesting jobs and finally to New Mexico and Southwestern College.…
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Learning to Lose: The Freedom in Failure
Posted October 17th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories.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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A Newbie Art Therapist Reflects on the 2012 AATA Conference
Posted September 12th, 2014 by & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, Student & Alumni Stories, Ecotherapy.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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One Love: Lessons Learned in Haiti, by Jessica Callaway
Posted August 3rd, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness.Southwestern College faculty member Jessica Callaway reflects on her profound experience of Haiti, and its resilient people. …
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On Becoming a Mexican Therapist by Claudia Escareño-Clark
Posted July 15th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories.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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Failure Becomes the Seed of Possibility
Posted February 7th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness.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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GRAD SCHOOL @swcsantafe IS….
Posted January 28th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories.... 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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SWC: The Experience by Claudia Escareño-Clark
Posted January 27th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, SWC Blog.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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Forgiveness
Posted January 15th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Wild Heart Gallery, Creativity & More, Consciousness & Mindfulness.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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Laying Low
Posted January 12th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness.*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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Balancing Act/Rhythm Dance
Posted January 10th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness.
"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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An Art Therapy Student’s Resolutions for the New Year
Posted January 8th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories.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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Completion
Posted January 6th, 2014 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories.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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Where Do Southwestern College Grads Work? Karen Wennberg
Posted December 11th, 2013 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Where do SWC Grads Work."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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Interview with Daniel: Living Through Art Therapy
Posted November 7th, 2013 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories.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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SWC Student Writes About Art Therapy for “Psychology Tomorrow”
Posted October 30th, 2013 by & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, Counseling at SWC, Student & Alumni Stories.
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
Posted October 23rd, 2013 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Wild Heart Gallery, Creativity & More.“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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Be Open to an Attitude Change . . . From the Least Likely Suspects
Posted October 17th, 2013 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness.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
Posted October 10th, 2013 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness.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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Shifting to a World of Bliss – What is More Real?
Posted May 27th, 2013 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness.
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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A Poem All Therapists Should Know
Posted November 21st, 2012 by & filed under SWC Blog.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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The Beauty Way by Candy Jones
Posted October 28th, 2011 by & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Ecotherapy.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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