Posted February 11th, 2021 by Southwestern College & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, People of SWC, Featured.
This quarter I’m teaching two sections of one of my favorite courses – Family Art Therapy. As we’ve been exploring many aspects of intergenerational trauma and historical intergenerational trauma, it’s occurred to me that this pandemic we’re in will be reflected in genograms. How will that look, what will therapists see?
So many families’…
Continue reading
Posted February 8th, 2021 by Southwestern College & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Ecotherapy, Consciousness & Mindfulness, Top News, Featured.
TIME CRYSTAL
After W.S. Merwin
I see that I will be lying
in a patch of shriveled Juniper berries
all skin and seed
their life has fled like dead stars
their juice glimmers elsewhere
their juice glimmers in me
as I remember, piney and sweet
desert pearls embedded…
Continue reading
Posted February 8th, 2021 by Southwestern College & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness, Top News, Featured.
Rising Hope:
At first,
I see the road ahead,
to be long, and
treacherous.
The mountains I see,
as steep,
and unforgiving.
I feared,
challenges unknown,
and obstacles well-placed ahead of me.
At times,
I stumbled,
from the weight of all I carry.
But,
I feel my spirit,
ignited once more,
rising above the…
Continue reading
Posted February 8th, 2021 by Southwestern College & filed under Counseling at SWC, Student & Alumni Stories, People of SWC, Top News, Featured.
An Allegiance to Gratitude for Southwestern: Inspired by the Onondaga Thanksgiving Address
Today we are gathered to celebrate our graduation from Southwestern college. We look upon the virtual faces around us and we see that the cycle of life continues. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other…
Continue reading
Posted September 22nd, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Reflections from the President, People of SWC, Consciousness & Mindfulness, Featured.
Courageous Compassion at the Crossroads of Conflict is a talk President Ann Filemyr gave to Unity Santa Fe on the morning of Sunday, September 13. It is an invitation to consider what we can bring to the conflicts within and around us at this time of social unrest and global pandemic. She shares an old story…
Continue reading
Posted September 10th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Reflections from the President, Consciousness & Mindfulness, Top News, Featured.
This is part of a series of conversations hosted by Southwestern College and held via zoom to invite sharing on pressing social topics. This conversation led by Ann Filemyr, Southwestern College President and Director of the Ecotherapy Certificate, on August 16 focused on investigating how we have been shaped by ‘colonial mind’ and how we…
Continue reading
Posted August 20th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Reflections from the President, Student & Alumni Stories, Featured.
This conversation between SWC President Ann Filemyr, Ph.D., who also serves as Director of the Ecotherapy Certificate, and alumna MelindaJoy Pattison explores the benefits of Ecotherapy, especially during the pandemic with the higher levels of stress we are all experiencing. Simple ways to access nature, even on a city street or in a backyard, and…
Continue reading
Posted August 17th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under People of SWC, Featured.
By Deborah Schroder
So Scruff and I have become pretty close during the pandemic. He doesn’t share his face on social media but he let me use a stand-in so you could see where he lives. He lives around and under the pretty little bridge in the back of campus. I walk out that way…
Continue reading
Posted August 7th, 2020 by Donna Harrington & filed under Wild Heart Gallery, Creativity & More, Top News, Featured.
Cover image: "Rebirth" by Sarah Carter
SWC's Wild Heart Gallery has gone online!
Experience SWC community's heart and soul.
Internal process.
Thinking, feeling and doing.
Creations of self-care so as to be present during this time.
Sharing with Community.
Art as a platform for social justice as advocates and change agents.
…
Continue reading
Posted August 5th, 2020 by Dru Phoenix & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, Student & Alumni Stories, Top News, Featured.
In Art & Creativity, Southwestern College alumnus Anne Lebednik explores the value of integrating creativity and artmaking as a practice in our lives. Anne explains how we can approach this mindfully and why it is important to cultivate, especially now. This talk was filmed on June 14, 2020 for the Awakening Heart Community of Mindful…
Continue reading
Posted July 23rd, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Top News, Featured.
President Ann Filemyr discusses the purpose and power of naming and living our values, especially during times of stress and change. She shares the five values of Southwestern College: service, mindfulness, empowerment, partnership and love, and how these values have been translated into actions and decisions by the college leadership team during the pandemic. Talk…
Continue reading
Posted June 8th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, People of SWC, Featured.
During the pandemic and time of social unrest, similarly to many of us, reflections have been occupying most of my time. I have been ruminating on my role as a therapist and the path that led me here. My journey is nothing unique; however, during this time of transition I feel inclined to put my…
Continue reading
Posted June 1st, 2020 by Dru Phoenix & filed under Reflections from the President, People of SWC, Consciousness & Mindfulness, Featured.
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
Posted June 1st, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, People of SWC, Consciousness & Mindfulness, Top News, Featured.
I asked her permission to write this. It’s more her story than mine, but she doesn’t have time to write anything, being a mom of three small ones.
My daughter stopped in to pick up treats I’d made for my grandson who’s struggling. It seemed like time to check in with her about more…
Continue reading
Posted May 26th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, Featured.
By Laura Lansrud-Lopez
At the beginning of March 2020, New Mexico experienced a statewide and rapid shift to physical distancing and stay-home requirements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and global health crisis. Even with so much unknown, the leadership team at Tierra Nueva quickly recognized the impact this might have on our clients. The…
Continue reading
Posted May 22nd, 2020 by Adam Boehm & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, Student & Alumni Stories, Featured.
By Ruth Dennis
Years ago, I saw a line that art can save your life. At the time, I just thought it was another artist being arrogant. The art world seemed disappointing and trivial when looking at the problems that I saw everyday in the neighborhood I was living in at the time, homelessness, addiction,…
Continue reading
Posted May 15th, 2020 by Adam Boehm & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, People of SWC, Featured.
By Deborah Schroder
A tiny flash of yellow, right outside my window, caught my eye today. A precious little yellow bird was clinging to the branch of a pine tree. The usual New Mexican spring wind was blowing and the branch was really moving around. The tiny bird seemed to be just fine, riding the…
Continue reading
Posted May 6th, 2020 by Dru Phoenix & filed under Reflections from the President, Student & Alumni Stories, Featured.
On April 6, President Ann Filemyr joined alumna MelindaJoy Pattison on her weekly radio talk show. Since graduating, she has established herself as a mental health advocate sharing news and information with her listeners on a regular basis. She is also in private practice. As one of our ‘second act’ alumni, she used her SWC…
Continue reading
Posted April 23rd, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, Student & Alumni Stories, Featured.
Photo of Whitney Tressel, taken by Adria Malcolm.
Welcome to Southwestern Soundbites! In this episode, Courtney Shackelford talks to Whitney Tressel; current Art Therapy and Counseling student, graduate assistant, travel photographer, and all around amazing human. Whitney talks about going to grad school, how the pandemic clarified her path, and the power of getting still.…
Continue reading
Posted April 23rd, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Reflections from the President, People of SWC, Wild Heart Gallery, Creativity & More, Featured.
Creativity & Healing
Social distancing does not have to limit our creativity. Are you dancing in the living room? Playing the ukulele in bed? Singing in the shower? Penning poetry by the window? Perhaps this time apart has offered you an opportunity to express yourself. What are you longing to say in this moment? So…
Continue reading
Posted April 23rd, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, Student & Alumni Stories, Featured.
Hello, and welcome to Southwestern Soundbites. In this episode, Dru Phoenix talks about her experience as someone who already had a Master's degree and later decided to pursue another Master's degree in Art Therapy. She also discusses the power of art and what led to her decision to go in this direction. Tune in for…
Continue reading
Posted April 21st, 2020 by Virginia Padilla Vigil & filed under Top News.
Contributors: Emilah DeToro, Magdalena Karlick, Seren Morris, Virginia Padilla-Vigil, and April Vogel
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, our faculty at Southwestern College had to quickly mobilize to transition courses from face-to-face to online synchronous delivery. This, of course, created numerous challenges, the most significant being, how to maintain the spirit of transformational…
Continue reading
Posted April 20th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Art Therapy at SWC, Student & Alumni Stories, Featured.
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…
Continue reading
Posted April 20th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, People of SWC, Featured.
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…
Continue reading
Posted April 20th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Professional Training Certificates & NEI, Featured.
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…
Continue reading
Posted April 17th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Featured.
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…
Continue reading
Posted April 17th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, People of SWC, Top News, Featured.
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…
Continue reading
Posted April 15th, 2020 by Southwestern College & filed under Student & Alumni Stories, Consciousness & Mindfulness, Top News, Featured.
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…
Continue reading
Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM
