By Diane Chavez
I finished grad school at Southwestern College in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2015. I never thought grad school was possible. I went to the emergency room in 2003 with a migraine. That migraine lasted ten years. That was in addition to my MS symptoms which had started 10 years earlier. This…
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As I write this, I am completing my final doctoral externship at a VA medical center in New York. My last day in the office was Friday, March 13th, after discovering three people I had direct contact with tested positive for Covid-19. I moved my caseload to telehealth the following Monday, and since then…
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Welcome to Southwestern Soundbites– quick audio clips featuring current students, staff, and faculty discussing SWC’s various certificate programs and happenings at Southwestern. 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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By Val Valentine
Wow, what a difference a month can make! I went from a full private practice with between 25-30 face to face clients a week, to 15-20 clients per week with every session either on-line or by phone; some clients ready and discharged and some needing to take a break during this time…
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Photo by Carie King, taken on a road trip to Grand Junction, CO. Carie grew up in Maine with a wildlife biologist / photographer, so her appreciate of Earth’s beauty is life-long. Colorado’s lakes and mountains rival Maine’s.
Message from Carie:
I think I’ve been experiencing “stages of grief” … (I’ve definitely gone through…
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Aloha my Southwestern colleagues!
My name is Tess Yong Kim, and I am a graduate of 11/10/2018.
I began my clinical practice on 2/6/2019 as an LMHC (Licensed Mental Health Counselor). I’ve been working throughout this COVID-19 pandemic. I Just ended my weekly, “Substance Abuse Group Therapy,” with 8 clients through the Zoom video at…
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A Message of Reassurance
Dear Students,
Today I was deeply moved to read the responses to the student survey distributed by our Student Success Team under the leadership of Emilah DeToro, Director of Student & Career Services. I was touched by a student who wrote that they would like a “message of reassurance from…
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By Deborah Schroder
An individual Zoom meeting with a student inspired me to think about this, and I so appreciate that. The student was wondering how faculty members were working to keep the heart of Southwestern present as we implement these new ways of teaching and “seeing” clients.
Prior to my first class this quarter,…
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An apt title for the potential personal experience this global pandemic has encouraged. Two days after it was announced that gatherings of 50 or more people needed to be postponed, and that public schools in New Mexico would be closed until April 6th (now that has been extended through the end of the school year),…
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Photograph by Whitney Tressel at whitneytressel.com.
Welcome to another episode of Southwestern Soundbites– quick audio clips featuring current students, staff, and faculty discussing SWC’s various programs and happenings. In this episode, Courtney Shackelford speaks with current Art Therapy and Counseling student, Ben Miller, on his journey to Southwestern, his art, and his experience in Southwestern's…
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By Kate Latimer
The work of a counselor is inherently ironic, and often misunderstood. We are shepherds of grief, sadness, doubt, fear and anger, and know that when we can help our clients feel these things, and look the pain in the eye, healing occurs. This is the transformational paradox. We often feel worse before…
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By Laura Addiss, current counseling student at Southwestern College, and Juan Rivas Palacios, medicine guide and wisdom keeper of Chavin
Laura:
As future counselors it is essential that we go into our own shadows, to observe and
understand our emotions, thoughts, and fears. We must find the courage to look at our
unresolved trauma and…
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By Courtney Shackelford
As someone who works full time and attends grad school I have enough on my plate. So why would I add any additional certificates to that workload? I have three reasons:
The information is critical to my future clients.
In grad school, you will develop a strong foundation for practicing…
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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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Sometimes when “life” happens it feels like you are running to catch up! That was the case when I studied Consciousness here at Southwestern College. When selecting a topic to study in the consciousness class I chose “veganism.” At the time, I was not vegan, but I decided to try and eat vegan during that…
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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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Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM