Khira Korpi has been a successful business woman for the past 22 years, creating and operating MAYA, a Santa Fe retail store offering home décor, gifts, clothes and jewelry. She now consults with her team of buyers and managers. Prior to that, Khira supervised 60 employees of Jackalope Pottery. Before that she was a Head Instructor…
Continue reading
Life is fragile
How do you continue functioning on a day like today?
How do keep studying for your matriculation exam when thoughts of terrified people keep flashing in your mind?
How do you even move, let alone do the dishes?
- You just do.
Our society does not allow for the proper amount of…
Continue reading
Why Putting Things In Boxes Doesn’t Make You a Wimp                    Â
by Laura Bailey, Student at Southwestern College
There’s nowhere in the world quite like Southwestern College; that’s just scientific fact. The students who attend Southwestern are striving for authenticity and conscious transformation, and the faculty and staff of this institution are striving even harder to…
Continue reading
This list is meant to give you an idea of the range of housing possibilities in Santa Fe. Please check each website for more information on rent, lease and deposit requirements, or call each office, as these details are subject to change.
Anasazi Village Apartments
6921 Airport Road, (505)474-7205
Located around the corner from…
Continue reading
 My heart has been heavy this past week as yet another African American man was brutally murdered by a white police officer. The brutality has once again sparked outrage, grief, shock and demand for change. The persistent legacy of institutionalized racism, combined with the lack of national leadership condemning such overtly racist acts, leaves…
Continue reading
Santa Fe has over 300 restaurants to choose from, and chances are whatever your tummy craves, or whatever diet you are on while studying here, Santa Fe has something special for you to eat! I can’t go over every restaurant or type of food offered in town, but I can give you the list of…
Continue reading
Honoring the Spectrum of SelfÂ
On May 20, 2016 the Wild Heart Gallery hosted the opening night of "Honoring the Spectrum of Self," an exhibition where Southwestern College staff, faculty, and students were invited to investigate the sacred pieces that have shaped them as an individual or within the collective. The show featured a variety of…
Continue reading
By Deb Schroder
I’ve come to really value small moments of joy. My life isn’t lacking happiness but on many days it gets crowded out by stress. One night after work as I dragged myself through the grocery store I found myself staring at the usual row of healthy cereals that do seem to be…
Continue reading
Technology, particularly device and computer apps, is a wiz-bang fabulous time saver to help you get your grad school life sorted and into maintenance mode. Plus, the entire campus is wired, which means you have access to your SWC email, and the world wide web, from any device while at school.
Being an über organized…
Continue reading
This is episode 8 of the Aspiring Coaches and Therapists podcast, by Emilah Dawn DeToro and Jacob Gotwals. In this episode (recorded in November 2013), we talk about various ways of attracting new clients: what we’ve tried, what we like, what’s worked for us, and what hasn’t.
Listen Now / Download (Duration: 41:52 — 28.8MB)
…
Continue reading
What a gift, to learn to recognize the call of the soul! Thanks, Southwestern! Here's an excerpt from a paper I wrote for the Addiction Assessment and Treatment class that I took with Jason Holley:
In the past, I have had trouble connecting with a personal understanding of the word soul. Dictionaries tend to define…
Continue reading
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…
Continue reading
I'm finding I can make difficult experiences more meaningful by using them to cultivate compassion.
For instance, let's say I'm feeling lonely—needing more love and companionship in my life. Feeling lonely can be uncomfortable, and loneliness can seem bleak and meaningless. However, I can make my experience of loneliness more meaningful by using it toward…
Continue reading
This is episode 5 of the Aspiring Coaches and Therapists podcast, by Emilah Dawn DeToro and Jacob Gotwals. In this episode, we discuss the roles of structure, fluidity, and presence in sessions with clients.
Listen Now / Download (Duration: 36:41 — 25.2MB)
Find out about:
How Emilah structures intuitive life coaching sessions with clients
…
Continue reading
When I'm finishing up a session of meditation, I sometimes set an intention to continue doing nothing throughout my day. That doesn't mean I won't move from my meditation cushion—it means I'll take a wait-and-see approach to my day. It means acknowledging I'm not in control—and letting go. I simply wait and watch what my…
Continue reading
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…
Continue reading
I can be good at strategizing. I can also be somewhat anxious. Put those two together, and what do you get? A mindset where I'm trying to anticipate and plan for every possible risk in advance. (Believe me, that's no way to live!)
When I notice myself doing this, I try to shift to a…
Continue reading
When I started learning to empathize with others, at first, I found myself awkwardly guessing their feelings and needs (often, incorrectly). Gradually, I built my feelings and needs vocabulary, and eventually, I was able to guess feelings and needs more easily and more accurately. However, my empathic reflections still felt somewhat awkward and contrived. I'd…
Continue reading
In a difficult conversation, when I'm considering saying something controversial, I find that it really helps to preface it with three magic words: "My story is..." This allows me to express my perspective while simultaneously owning it. Owning my perspective creates space for the other person to have their own perspective (which may be different…
Continue reading
Let’s talk about how receiving feedback is related to states of mind—both your state of mind and the state of mind of the person delivering the feedback.
When You Get Triggered
Receiving feedback tends to quickly reveal what I’m attached to. To the extent that I'm attached to whatever the other person is delivering feedback…
Continue reading
When we view others with hostility, we're more likely to try to get our needs met at their expense. Transforming our hostility into compassion can shift our approach to conflict, allowing us to respond in ways that are more beneficial for everyone involved. (By hostility, I mean those strategies, impulses and habits that tend to…
Continue reading
I read lots of books. I used to do a lot of underlining and note taking in those books—then I would file the books away on my bookshelf as a storehouse of knowledge.
Eventually, I started to notice something: I never went back to any of those books to look at my notes and underlines.…
Continue reading
Consider the idea that we co-create the dynamics of our relationships. This implies that when a problem is showing up in a relationship, each person in the relationship has helped create that problem and each person has a role to play in responding to the problem. I find this premise leads to an empowering way…
Continue reading
At Southwestern College, in the first year of classes, the instructors and the curriculum invite us to look deeply at ourselves. We are invited to become more aware of both inner sources of strength and unconscious patterns that may not be serving us. I'm very grateful to have had this opportunity for self-inquiry. I'm sure…
Continue reading
Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM