Each year on February 2nd, I celebrate the ancient Celtic Goddess Brigid, a great feminine solar power, she of the greening season who carries fire in her palms, she who blesses the arts of poetry, smithing, and healing. In Ireland it is called St. Brigid’s Day, honored as a holy day at her sacred spring…
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Being in the northeast, the hustle and bustle of the cities domineers everything. Regionally the energy is impatient, it’s fast-paced, it’s strong-willed. There’s always people, TONS of traffic, and a hundred different moving parts. You were never really encouraged to put your feet into the grass and just allow yourself to be when growing up…
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The anticipation from July to September was immense, knowing grad school was a big life step for me. I prepped my spare room that was my old high school bedroom into my new office/yoga space. It was a total room renovation. I strongly feel the energy of physical space arrangement and needed to make this…
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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’…
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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…
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An apt title for the potential personal experience this global pandemic has encouraged. Two days after it was announced that gatherings of 50 or more people needed to be postponed, and that public schools in New Mexico would be closed until April 6th (now that has been extended through the end of the school year),…
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Inessa Mil'berg, SWC Alum sent us this blurb about Sandplay
Therapists interested in providing a non-verbal, depth approach to therapy might consider learning sandplay. Sandplay, as developed by Dora Kalff, is a nonverbal therapeutic process based on the psychology of C.G. Jung. The path to individuation as understood in Jungian psychology becomes visible in the…
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"Week Five" marks the halfway point of my first quarter within my first year as a first-time graduate student. Both unbounded excitement and complete overwhelm compete inside me for my attention each day. While it feels like there is not much time to reflect blog-style at this peak point in Fall, it is important…
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I define the patriarchal wound as ancestral suffering and intergenerational trauma caused by the power imbalance between genders. Under patriarchy, boys, men and the masculine are considered inherently superior while girls, women and the feminine are considered inherently inferior. The extreme social positionality of superior vs. inferior causes distance between the genders and distorts…
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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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I am a third of the way through my second residency at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee Switzerland. This intermodal education challenges students to learn through our bodies, minds and hearts. Students and teachers from all over the world (Hong Kong, Canada, Costa Rica, Switzerland, Mexico, Germany, Mexico, United…
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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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Deadlines. What a word. Here at Southwestern, we do have deadlines, but we also have rolling admission. How does that work?
If you are considering applying to Southwestern College, I would urge you to consider how graduate school fits into the trajectory of your own story. Does fall entry make sense for you? Perhaps winter…
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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…
Continue reading
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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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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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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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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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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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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Muliebrity: The State of Being Feminine
"Muliebrity” is coordinate term to “virility,” referring to qualities of femininity. Southwestern College staff, faculty, and students were invited to explore how they connect with and empower the feminine aspects of the self, community, or greater collective via artistic processes. The Wild Heart Gallery is proud to present…
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Southwestern College Santa Fe, NM