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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By Deborah Schroder
I continue to be just stunned by the continuing wall of beauty that contains the Capstone murals. The weekend course, or Part One of Capstone, when the mural painting happens, is how we encourage students who are finishing up Practicum, to explore what they know and have experienced about group work, and…
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The initial impulse to create a unique higher learning institution devoted to consciousness began in 1976 in Alamogordo, NM. Then in the fall of 1979 the first 12 students began their course of study.
In the first entering class was Katherine Ninos, M.A., LPCC, who now teaches and mentors other teachers in the Consciousness curriculum.…
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by Kate Latimer, LPCC
Before investing in the 2-3 years of academic coursework needed to complete a graduate degree, students need to know what their job prospects will be upon completion. After the devastating effects of the 2008 financial crisis that left many degree-holders unemployed, colleges have seen a national trend of lower enrollment in…
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By Courtney Shackelford
The campaigner. That is what the ENFP has been called. It is a personality that is driven by story, idealism, and emotional connection. It is my personality and perhaps one of those personality types best suited to therapy work. Extroversion doesn’t mean that you don’t have a capacity for deep listening, though…
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By Deborah Schroder, MA in Art Therapy/Counseling Program Chair
I’ve always enjoyed sharing Virginia Satir’s way of working, with my students in my family art therapy course. This spring at the International Family Therapy Congress, I was faced with a belief I’ve held about congruency that was clearly formed by my own white privilege.
In…
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By Kate Latimer, MA, LPCC, Program Chair of the MA in Counseling (Clinical Mental Health) Program
photo of Seren Morris, Joanna Conte and Kate Latimer at their SWC graduation
I first heard about Southwestern College in 2002 while living in Morocco and teaching at a small international school located in the town of Ifrane in…
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By Courtney Kayser
When I found out I was accepted to Southwestern College, I was ecstatic! I was also terrified. My whole life had been on the East Coast, and the idea of leaving my roots was scary. Here is my advice for a successful and stress-free (or should I say minimal stress) relocation:
1.…
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By Maqueita Eleazer
While taking the History of Art Therapy course, I was surprised to see that 7/301 pages mentioned the contributions that art therapists of color have made to the field of Art Therapy. Pioneers such as Cliff Joseph, Wayne Ramirez, Lucille Venture, Georgette Seabrook, etc. have made tremendous contributions to this profession, and…
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By Laura Lansrud-Lopez
This past Saturday on June 29th, fifty years after the historic riots at Stonewall Inn, a dedicated and enthusiastic group of students, friends, family, and staff of Southwestern College gathered with a meaningful intention: to announce to the Santa Fe community that Tierra Nueva Counseling Center is here, we care, and we…
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This past Friday, June 29, the SWC leadership, including the members of the Academic Council, the Chief Finance Officer and the Director of Enrollment Services (me!) gathered together for our annual, “Assessment and Strategic Planning Retreat,” at Sunrise Springs. The setting was lovely, but the idea of sitting in a room for 7-8 hours talking…
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by Dru Phoenix, MA, LMHC
The upcoming Wild Heart Gallery art show at Southwestern College is titled “Anger and the Feminine Self.” The idea was to invite the feminine into a visual and written dialogue on anger and to give permission for anger to be present since many of us have been raised to avoid…
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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…
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By Courtney Shackelford
The brain is special and magnificent, strange and mysterious. It is powerful enough to send messages to assist in regulating our bodies, but is also a vulnerable 3 pound organ encased in bone and liquid to keep it safe from the various hazards of the world. A millennium later, humans still do…
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By Awbrey Michelle Willett
Ann Filmyer, Ph. D is an educator, poet, teacher, and mentor. A traditional healer she trained with the late Keewaydinoquay Paschal in the Midewiwin tradition of the northern Great Lakes and is an Ojibwe herbal medicine woman. Dr. Filemyr has a rich history as a teacher and was Professor of…
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By Awbrey Michelle Willett
For Jason Holley, MA, LPCC self-care is the beginning of all good therapy. Jason is a psychotherapist in private practice in Santa Fe, prior to this he worked for the Life Healing Center of Santa Fe, where he helped to found its internationally-recognized sexual addiction treatment program. Jason has a…
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By Awbrey Michelle Willett
Katherine Ninos, MA, LPCC, is Executive Vice President of Southwestern College and Director of the New Earth Institute. She received her BA in Psychology from Alfred University, New York, and her MA in Transformational Counseling and Education from Quimby College in its first graduating class. (Quimby College later became Southwestern College.)…
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By Awbrey Michelle Willett
I set out using each of my classes here at Southwestern to grow as a person, and to study self-care, and the various occupational hazards of caring, in order to understand how counselors and those of service, including myself, can sustain our work and live optimally well, balanced, and joyful lives.…
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Communicating Creatively: Art, Music, and Alternative Addiction Treatment Therapies
--by Michelle Peterson
recoverypride.org
Millions of people who suffer the ravages of drug and alcohol addiction benefit from traditional, 12-step treatment therapies. Nevertheless, there are some recovering addicts for whom such methods are not effective, and who need the help of alternative approaches that a decade…
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I have been honored to serve the Nambé Pueblo community since October 2013. The reasons for my arrival to the little reservation nestled in a corner of the Sangre de Cristo mountains and hidden behind the winding backroads between Pojoaque and Chimayo, continue to be veiled in a mystery that deepens each day. I began…
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Inipi
Into the Inipi,
the pulsing womb,
the comfort of darkness,
the heat of intention,
the heartbeat of drums taught with flesh,
the suffocating smoke of the sacred,
the ashes,
the silence,
the humanity.
I crawl.
I am blind,
…
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I have worked at Solace Crisis Treatment Center in Santa Fe, treating trauma and crisis situations for the last two and a half years. I previously worked at the Attachment Healing Center in Albuquerque. I currently work at Solace part-time and have been building my private practice. I provide art therapy and counseling services to…
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Within the Hallowed Bones
I awake,
at this unearthly hour.
So, I rise,
on this desert morn’.
This unearthly warm,
desert morn’.
A cup of chamomile tea and honey.
I sit by the fire.
As the silvery blue light of the moon dozes on the window sill.
A…
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Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM