Mark Flory thought he had it all — family, job, house, and lots of friends. Then at age 44, things started to change. “I guess you can say I had a mid-life crisis of identity. At the time of my decision to go to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA), I had just sold a business that I thought was going to be my retirement plan.” Mark was feeling like a failure and that he let his family down. To top it off, Mark applied and interviewed with a company for a position that seemed like it was written specifically for him. After several interviews and feeling really good about getting the new job, he met with the owner and president. Remembering the shock and disbelief, Mark shared that he bombed the interview and didn’t get the job. Mark now realizes that he was having a spiritual awakening. “My intuitive …
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Parul Agrawal is an internationally-known and highly-regarded author, coach and speaker who has truly taken her passion and created a successful platform that nourishes both her clients and herself! Parul latest achievement is so exciting! What started as juicing and workshops has grown into her having an international presence as a well-known and highly-rated published author. You’ll love her story: “After taking the Raw/Vegan cooking class at SWIHA I started juicing for myself. With motivation from my SWIHA friends, I decided to go on a juice detox in summer of 2014. To stay motivated and accountable, I started blogging about my detox journey. The Recreation Coordinator from City of Tempe happened to read my blog and contacted me asking if I would like to offer a Juicing workshop to the patrons of Tempe. I already had the qualifications and my company, Parul’s Wellness Coaching, LLC was already incorporated, so I …
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Prior to registering at SWIHA, Jessica Ireland was, in her own words, “barely existing.” “I lacked a post-secondary education, and the 15 years I worked in the finance industry meant nothing while I was applying for employment during the recession. I was struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over my head, while spiraling further and further into a state of depression.” After receiving a steady stream of rejection letters from potential minimum wage employers, Jessica realized that unless she obtained some form of post-secondary education in an area that was growing throughout North America, she would eventually end up homeless and hungry. Enter SWIHA. “As soon as I discovered SWIHA, I knew that my search for the school and the education I desired was over. I relocated my 3 dogs and myself from Calgary, Alberta Canada to Phoenix, Arizona and haven’t looked back since.” Jessica …
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Maria Kalamas opens up to how purposeful her path has been and how her attendance at SWIHA was intended all along. “January of 2010, I was working in a doctor’s office employed as an office manager. The doctor was an MD, yet practicing alternative medicine, specializing in bio-identical hormones. He was helping people heal through proper supplementation, healthy nutrition, bio-identical hormone replacement, Chelation – which is a very effective way to treat heavy-metal poisoning – coaching and outsourcing them to various healing arts therapies, from massage to spiritual coaching and other various holistic practices that he had tried and believed were effective. I soaked in all the information he was giving me because I wanted to help heal people physically, mentally and emotionally,” shared Maria. Maria was extremely grateful for the training that was so well aligned with her passion; yet she had a deep desire for more tools. This …
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Like many SWIHA students’ stories before, the school just happened to find Tami Sharp. She had just moved to Arizona from Maui, Hawaii with her baby girl, so that she could be closer to her mom. Tami recalled the synchronicities that led her to joining SWIHA. “I had no intention on starting school but after a series of universal events, I tripped across SWIHA and within one week’s time found myself enrolled full time going for a degree in Mind-Body Transformational Psychology with Certifications in Life Coaching, Clinical Hypnotherapy and Reiki.” Before moving to AZ, Tami had spent 10 years on Maui doing a wide range of jobs and businesses. As a professionally trained model and actress, she also had the honor of teaching modeling and acting to teenagers and young adults. It was through these teachings that she really found passion in helping others see their inner beauty, to …
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As a fashion design graduate and stay-at-home mom of two boys, Nickole Swensen thought feeling lackluster and exhausted was normal. She realized she had taken advantage of her health and let herself go for too long. With my poor self-care and health habits she started to not fit into her clothes, she had issues with swelling in her body, was constantly tired and was unable to get help from my family physician. Once he decided to make her health a priority she found her energy again, felt rejuvenated, and became a happier woman and mom. Nickole became hooked on this new healthier, happier lifestyle and decided to pursue a career in wellness. In her journey to heal herself, she found her true passion and purpose was in helping others heal themselves heal from the inside out, just the way her healed herself. Once Nickole discovered her gifts and knew she …
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In 2011, Laura Wilkinson had hit her version of rock bottom, and was desperately in need of some kind of life shift. Having looked into the Life Coaching program offered at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) previously, Laura explains, “After the rug was pulled out from under my feet I knew it was time to do something transformational,” she said. “I had a clean slate and I needed to build a solid foundation. Life Coaching was the perfect place for me to rebuild from.” Laura enrolled in SWIHA’s online Mind-Body Transformational Psychology program, where she not only studied Life Coaching, she also took courses in Hypnotherapy, Holistic Nutrition, Aromatherapy, and business courses including Writing for Publication. Once she completed her program (with a 4.0 grade point average!), Laura was ready for the next phase in her life. Inspired by her program, and armed with the knowledge that there were …
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After 18 years of working in the mortgage industry, Casey Grant was stressed, and sick of feeling stressed. She disliked her job because that’s what it felt like – a job. She didn’t enjoy what she was doing, and wanted to find a way to create a good income doing work she loved. Casey’s lifelong passion for health and nutrition sounded like a way out of the mortgage industry…the question was, how? Casey began to research schools for nutrition education, and Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA) immediately resonated with her. Although she lives in Chandler, Arizona, a town close where the main campus of SWIHA is located, Casey decided to enroll in the SWIHA’s online Holistic Wellness Practitioner program because it was convenient for her busy lifestyle, and allowed her to still be available for her family. The entrepreneurial attitude and atmosphere of SWIHA is what appealed most to …
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