From 2002 through 2010, I went on storm chasing trips to the Great Plains around Texas almost every spring. Toward the end of these years, I started getting more insight into the psychological roots of my fascination with storms, and I stopped doing as much storm chasing. I wrote the following piece in the spring…
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Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden
Oh, yes, yes I do… like big books, art therapy and counseling tomes (including books about expressive arts therapies and indigenous and ancient healing traditions) and I cannot lie. One of the best…
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Often, when I'm experiencing uncomfortable feelings and moods, I'm barely conscious of them. It's not that these feelings are subtle and hard to detect—at times they can be pretty intense and still be mostly unconscious. It is as if I am the feeling (as opposed to being aware of it). I make a practice of…
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Sometimes I'll get compliments like, "You're so organized!" At these times, I'll often respond by saying, "Thanks! That's true, I am—except when I'm not!" That's because I try not to think of myself as being any particular thing—responsible, irresponsible, loving, hateful, or whatever.
In my experience, when I get invested in a particular idea about…
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When I got accepted at Southwestern College (in Santa Fe), I had been living in Albuquerque for about a decade. My wife and I felt quite comfortable in Albuquerque, and we were not inclined to move to Santa Fe. It was clear that I would be commuting; the question was, how?
The Rail Runner train…
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2nd Year SWC student Caitlin Harper explores her perspective on the use of humor in counseling. …
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Influenced by archetypes and art therapy, Sprout explores the interplay between the unconscious and conscious parts of the psyche. …
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This is a remarkable and brief video capturing Natascha's experience at the College...
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In the early 90’s I began studying with shamanic practitioners. At first, I worked with well-known shamanic teachers Michael Harner, Ph.D. and Sandra Ingerman, M.A., as well as other excellent teachers associated with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies. These early classes were a breath of fresh air for me, a way of balancing out my…
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WOUNDED HEALER AS MAMA by Ivy Whisper
I was eight months pregnant with my first son when Gloria called me and said that she needed to talk to me about my friend Rose. She said that Rose had died the day before and that she’d been struggling with postpartum depression.
We had both…
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I don’t think that anyone explores the shades of grey better than art therapists. Okay, not the 50 Shades within the popular book and movie, but the uncomfortable place between black and white thoughts and beliefs. I’m embarrassed to admit that I gave up on reading the 50 Shades book because I was so annoyed…
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Sylvan Schneider is excited about Southwestern College's certificate program in Human Sexuality...…
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Counseling student at Southwestern College, explores his own gender, and which gender language best suits him. …
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"Everything comes from shit." --Daniel Lanois
2014 was a long year.
In late May of 2014, I was about to complete the Preliminary Studies Program at the Santa Fe Jung Institute and a semester of study in contemporary psychodynamic work. Having completed 3,000 hours of direct client contact the previous autumn, I had been…
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Back in the 1990s, when I was in graduate school the first time around (for my computer science degree), I was man in a world of men. I remember passing by an English literature classroom back then, noticing a few men in a room full of women, and thinking to myself, "Wow, I wonder what…
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As I venture into another quarter here at Southwestern College I am having a difficult time figuring out where I will eventually fit in. I am currently entrenched in the theories and perspectives we are learning in family counseling, and though it may be called family counseling, I cannot separate some of the issues I…
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I'm in my second year of a Masters degree program in counseling at Southwestern College, finishing up my last quarter of classes before my internship. Having been here a while, I think I'm now qualified to say a bit about what Southwestern College is all about, from a student's perspective. So here's what I'm going…
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Welcome prospective students! Many of you are contacting us now with application and admissions questions.
Most applicants visit our campus to get a “feel” for the student body and our faculty and staff. Of course, there is also the advantage of spending a long weekend in Santa Fe enjoying the art and outdoors! Our visitors…
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Our indigenous elders and healers tell us that ancestors can get stuck on the earth plane after passing. This may be due to a traumatic and unexpected death in which the soul is unprepared for the sudden passage into Spirit. Or it might be that the ancestor had no one available to do the traditional…
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Exploring the simple pleasure of walking through personal narrative. …
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Dr. Ann Filemyr tells the story of Psyche in her graduation speech, November, 2014.…
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Adolfo and Rodolfo finally got visas to travel to the U.S., and our group of 25 shamanic students and practitioners gathered in the red rock wilderness of Capitol Reef National Park, to work ceremonially with these two brothers from the Peruvian Andes.
Their family lineage dates back many centuries before the Incas; powerful Altomisayoks (high…
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To begin with
I cannot speak
Only see
In simplest forms
Feel
Freely
Essentially
Be
Purity
I am the babe
Innocent
Clean
I cannot speak
Only see
Unabashedly
Learn from me
When you look to life
You cannot take from me
Anything
I do not have
Already
Only
Purity
I am the bud
Softly
Seeing
Only
…
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In preparation for my archetypal embodiment series I want to honor the structures and systems behind a persona or any construct for that matter. Those forms that silently shape what's under the skin, invisible to the eye. Why? Because without the groundwork, without the base everything falls out of context and nothing stays in place. In my creative…
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by Debbie Schroder
Program Chair for Art Therapy/Counseling Program
It doesn’t really surprise me that as we approach the eighth week of the quarter, I’m finally able to spend a little time putting together an image that contains mandalas created by incoming art therapy students, during orientation. The quarter has been full – of teaching…
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Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM