Community-Based Ecotherapy
by Rene Tricou
I am a Master’s degree student at Southwestern College working toward the Ecotherapy certificate.
During my first year, many of the courses I took assisted me going deeper within myself to bring out the future counselor and process facilitator in me. In the Ecotherapy program I had the opportunity…
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Adjusting to Southwestern College and New Mexico
It’s challenging to express what my experience adjusting to Southwestern College and Santa Fe has been like. Finding ways to describe how magical, fulfilling, and painful it has been almost seems impossible. I arrived in Santa Fe from Oregon in August and I had almost two months…
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Meltdown!
No matter where one lands in terms of politics in our country right now, the stress of what we see and hear in the news can melt one’s sense of hope and resiliency.
A book on Positive Art Therapy that I’ve been reading, reminds me of what I deeply know about art making and…
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There aren't enough male therapists out there, and there are definitely not enough male therapists of color, or Spanish-speaking male therapists, or male therapists born and raised in Northern New Mexico, which is a country unto itself, as we all know who live and practice here.
So it warmed my heart to see some new…
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Are You an Artist Who Also Wants to Help People?
“Art Therapy” is a thing. A real thing.
It combines Psychology and Art. And Healing. And Personal Growth. And Archetypes and Metaphors and Creativity, and Making Art and Making a Good Living.
There’s a career for you.
So many of our students tell stories…
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Wild Heart Gallery
Beth Lykins, an Art Therapy/Counseling student finishing up the first part of the Southwestern College masters program, approached the Wild Heart Gallery about hosting an exhibition featuring the artwork of her fellow students who completed the Winter 2017 quarter of AT/CN 592, Art Therapy Techniques: Studio Art.
Fortunately,…
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Wild Heart Gallery
The term, “manifold” can be described in a number of ways, but in application to the latest Wild Heart Gallery exhibition, means “having numerous different parts, elements, features, forms, etc.” This show’s theme centers around visual narrative investigation of Southwestern College staff, faculty, and students into the sacred pieces which formed their…
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Wild Heart Gallery
The term, “manifold” can be described in a number of ways, but in application to the latest Wild Heart Gallery exhibition, means “having numerous different parts, elements, features, forms, etc.” This show’s theme centers around visual narrative investigation of Southwestern College staff, faculty, and students into the sacred pieces which formed their…
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A Penny Makes Change
Mark Speight, graduate of Southwestern College's MA Counseling program
Written in the Southwestern College weekly writing group facilitated by Dr. Ann Filemyr.
A penny makes change.
A cog fits into the machine and squeaks, occasionally.
A box of pastels mugged me on the way,
yearning to be…
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Wild Heart Gallery
The term, "manifold" can be described in a number of ways, but in application to the latest Wild Heart Gallery exhibition, means "having numerous different parts, elements, features, forms, etc." This show's theme centers around visual narrative investigation of Southwestern College staff, faculty, and students into the sacred pieces which formed their…
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Wild Heart Gallery
May 2, 2017 was the Wild Heart Gallery opening night gala for Vicissitudes, the first solo exhibition for conceptual, multimedia artist and second year Southwestern College Art Therapy/Counseling student, Jessica Morris. The evening was filled with lively conversation, delicious refreshments, and music provided by SWC's own, Larry Harkcom.
…
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Voices in America chose Southwestern College/New Earth Institute as a unique, unsung, yet storied institution, to feature in television slots between full PBS broadcast shows.…
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Wild Heart Gallery
Monday, April 10th, 2017 Southwestern College's Wild Heart Gallery hosted the first opening night gala of the quarter. Deb Schroder, Program Chair of the Art Therapy/Counseling Program, had this to say about the exhibition:
“Students in our Family Art Therapy/Counseling courses are asked to create Art-Based Genograms, in order to experience the…
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A simple question. What is astrology?
I would say astrology is a way to live in connection with natural cycles of time. It is also the correlation, “as above, so below.” We are a part of a connected universe and it’s cycles. For thousands of years, people have been making correlations to the happenings…
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There are lots and lots of things to do outside of the classroom at Southwestern College. Music, while not part of the curriculum, is still a passion of many of us here at the college and some of us got together to share a night of art and music making together. From meditation and yoga,…
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Flexible Resonating
Or
Who are You Drawn To?
As a child I really loved “Bunny Rabbit”, the silent bunny on Captain Kangaroo. I suppose that could have predicted my introverted personality. I cringe when my youngest grandson seems spellbound by “SpongeBob” – I can only hope that’s not a predictor of anything.
Similarly, there are…
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It’s been approximately 60 days since I packed up Lotus, my 2003 Honda Pilot, with all of my belongings that I could fit into it so I could relocate to Santa Fe to pursue my MA degree in Art Therapy & Counseling at SWC! Yes, I left the “Charm City” (Baltimore, MD), leaving my beloved,…
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One of my several mentors, Dr. Sandra Shulman, told me to never let a professional license lapse.
So I went ahead and did, and always regretted it. There were reasons, of course--almost always money. It almost always created unforeseen headaches. Sometimes a LOT of them, and sometimes it took a long time and a lot…
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Wild Heart Gallery
To find out more about the exhibition in the Wild Heart Gallery called Moment of Truth, I sat down with Sarah Ehle, the liaison for the cohort of 13 art therapy/counseling students preparing to go into the internship part of the Southwestern College masters program, to talk about the meaning of this theme.
…
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Being a Counselor Activist
I was outraged from an early age. They say if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention, so I guess I was paying attention. In 8th grade I protested my Spanish teacher who insisted that even the Mexican and Guatemalan kids in our class speak Spanish with a Castilian lisp, asserting…
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Prime Movers:
The Annual SWC Staff and Faculty Exhibition
On Thursday, January 12th, the Wild Heart Gallery had its first opening night gala of 2017: Prime Movers: The Annual Southwestern College Staff and Faculty Exhibition. A “prime mover” can be considered many things, in many fields – mechanics, biology, philosophy, etc. – but aptly describes…
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Dr. Nolan answers the question "How do I become a professional counselor?"…
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Liberating Loan Lessons for Life
You finally figured out a career path and maybe even the college you want to attend, but now you are faced with the daunting task of figuring out how to pay tuition and it seems that your only option is to take out student loans. You do the math and…
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Early on in my graduate internship at a family counseling agency, a supervisor told me, "We have the best jobs in the world, for we get to witness, hold and create change." I remember being pulled by those words, but I do not think I truly understood what they meant, and I am still unraveling…
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One of the many blessings of living in the Southwest is the ability to reach amazing geological locations within a day span. Over the holiday break, I had the opportunity to go to Zion National Park, the most visited and beloved National Park that I have been to thus far. Zion National Park is between…
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In our Yoga class at Southwestern College, my intention and plan as facilitator is for this class to be inclusive as the Nature of Yoga is meant to be and truly is. Yoga is for all cultures, all body types, all levels of ability and experience, all ages, all genders...all are welcome and everyone can…
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The time has come where I am going to be in facilitator role again. Very well. I accept that with gratitude and responsibility because there is a lot of energy to be shared within our SWC community. I received my 200-hour certification about a year ago and have not used it yet other than in…
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TLDR:
White privilege is entrenched in our society, and not where it might be expected. Many people who consider themselves "not racist" act in ways that are still oppressive. Racism and oppression are as much "ways of being" as "words" that are said. I was surprised that I have a history of being an…
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Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM