The Essence of SWIHA...

As a conscious college-community healing center, Southwest Institute of Healing Arts is committed to providing the BEST* training available while creating a transformational life experience for our students and those they will learn to serve. We have a deep commitment to providing on-going entrepreneurial support for holistic healthcare practitioners in private practice and to those establishing or growing a business. SWIHA emphasizes and embraces individual, client, community and global healing, and teaches people how to “Touch Lives, Heal Bodies & Free Souls.”

* BEST is a term we use to continually remind each staff member and instructor the importance of always ‘showing up’ in their BEST light, with the BEST intention, for the HIGHEST and BEST good for all.  When you read the word BEST, we do not want to suggest in any way we feel better or superior to others from a judgmental place, rather from a place where we all strive to give our BEST and be our BEST.  As it has turned out, by claiming to be the BEST and giving our BEST, we have received multiple BEST Practice Awards from outside validating organizations. 

Southwest Institute of Healing Arts' mission is to help individuals discover their gifts and graces, and support them in taking their skills and talents out into the world in a loving and profitable way.

Our state-recognized and nationally accredited programs provide students with comprehensive training by dedicated, exceptional, and accomplished educators who are actively practicing in the holistic healthcare or healing arts field. All of the programs offered at SWIHA are designed to prepare students to begin in entry-level positions in their chosen field while they are completing the requirements for the more advanced Holistic Health Careers. Lifelong learning is modeled and encouraged.

The core values on which the college was founded, and on which it continues to operate are:

• Spirit-Directed  We believe in the body-mind-spirit connection and acknowledge a higher power, a divine plan and the spiritual nature of health and healing, life and death, the known and the unknown. We believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience. While we do not subscribe to or endorse any particular dogma or doctrine, we openly acknowledge the divine presence in our lives. We embrace prayer, meditation, divine inspiration, intuition and the great mystery of life.
• Community-Centered  The college is actively involved in the community as a way of providing service an showing gratitude.
• Emphasize Choice and Flexibility  There are a minimum number of core classes required, with the majority of individuals discovering and developing their unique gifts and talents. The college is an open entry-open exit school., offering day, night, and weekend classes in semi-modular, continuous system allowing students to build their courses and programs around their life commitments and timing.
• Encourage a Diversity in Learning Styles and Delivery Systems  Students are encouraged to evaluate their learning styles, their gifts and graces, their personality profiles, as well as understand their dreams, their fears and phobias while developing their personal and professional skills. "Healing  oneself" is an on-going theme throughout the education and community process.
• Focus on Self-Healing, Self-Empowerment and Self-Sufficiency  Personal and professional healing and growth are emphasized, with the goal being to prepare individuals to move toward gainful employment or entrepreneurship, achieving spiritual and financial stability.
• Entrepreneurship-We Support You Doing Your Dream  The college is committed to advancing the holistic healthcare movement by providing on-going support to those individuals who are committed to owning and growing their own private practices or businesses.

Our students receive the benefits of:

• Flexible programs of studies
• Part-time or full-time classes
• Small, intimate classes
• World-class faculty & instructors with professional experience
• Financial aid to those who qualify
• Career planning and assistance for students and graduates

An Award-Winning School...

SWIHA takes pride in the many innovative practices we institute throughout our organization. In recognition of many of these BEST practices we have become an award-winning school. In 2005-2006 we were awarded Best School of the Year by the Arizona Private School Association. Over the past several years we have also been awarded with Best Student Placement, Best Student Organization, Best Community Student Practice, and Best Wild Card Practice.

2005-2006 AWARDS:

School of the Year

• SWIHA was recognized for outstanding and innovative school practices, including...

Best Student Organization

• The Best Student Organization Award was for the creation of T.E.A.M.
• Below is an excerpt from the award submission:

"T.E.A.M. = Together Everyone Achieves More is the motto that best describes a variety of student organizations that have evolved at SWIHA...Seven graduates of the Life Coaching program organized a support system for themselves and other graduates who choose to join them, operating under the name WingTeam. The concept was that it would be much easier for graduates to succeed if they knew they were not alone in starting their own businesses. Together this group of students markets coaching services, and meet regularly to access their individual commitments and goals in what is known as a Mastermind group..."

Best Student Placement Practice

• SWIHA was recognized for our commitment to channel a significant percentage of our advertising budget into advertising for its graduate’s businesses. 
• Below is an excerpt from the award submission:

“We have designed a website www.GreatTherapists.com and actively promoted it via print and radio advertising to push people to a website featuring our graduates and their businesses. In addition, SWIHA sponsored an Internet radio program on www.AchieveRadio.com entitled Great Therapists.  The programs have been archived so consumers can listen to the programs and obtain information at their convenience. Graduates can also provide a link on their personal websites to the Internet show on which they were a guest."

Best Wild Card Practice

• The Best Wildcard Practice Award was for Education Creativity and Innovation in the classrooms.
• Below is an excerpt from the award submission:

"What do a pajama party, Groucho Mark’s glasses and chocolate fondue have in common? They are all creative educational strategies employed at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, under the direction of Linda Bennett, Director of Education. Our goal is to create and utilize innovative teaching techniques to best serve  each of our students' learning styles. By incorporating fun, unique ways of teaching, we feel we can reach deeper into the creativity of our students and allow them to learn more about themselves to make them better practitioners. "  

2006-2007 AWARDS:

School of the Year

• SWIHA was recognized for outstanding and innovative school practices, including...

Best Community Student Practice

• The Best Community Student Practice Award was for the participation of students in a year long project for a women.
• Below is an excerpt from the award submission:

"In 2006 we committed to a year long project with The Shelter for Synchronistic Healing. The Shelter involved solving medical concerns for women, and offering holistic services that would otherwise not be available to them. Through our Student Clinic, 20 women per month were offered the opportunity to receive complimentary massage treatments. Due to the immense success of the project and the benefit to these women, SWIHA has committed to extending this service for another year."

Best Student Organization

• The Best Student Organization was for an organization created by a student in support of other "'Emerging Healers".
• Below is an excerpt from the award submission:

"Sandy Jones, A SWIHA graduate of the Mind Body AOS Degree program, through her spiritual and psychological studies, has discovered a process of motivation that goes deep into the soul...This inspired her to create Soul Motivations, A Ministry of Love and the Emerging Healers Conference...Highlighting many fellow classmates, Sandy has created a conference that allows the 'next generation' to step forward to be heard. 85% of the speakers featured at the Emerging Healers Conference were SWIHA graduates, and all of the speakers have been in SWIHA at one time or another. This speaks of the networking opportunities that are present at the school." 

Best Retention/Completion Program

• The Best Retention/Completion Award was for an amazing increase in retention and completion of programs.
• Below is an excerpt from the award submission:

"In 2005, SWIHA increased retention in both of our Associates Degree programs. Our Holistic Healthcare degree program had a completion rate of 75%. In 2006 the completion rate for the same program was 83.33%...We doubled the amount of graduates in the Mind Body Transformational Psychology degree program, and increased the retention percentage by 8 percentage points in our Holistic Healthcare degree program."

2007-2008 AWARDS:

Best Placement Practice

• The Best Placement Practice award was for our Entrepreneurial Support of our students.
• Below is an excerpt from the award submission:

"In exit interviews, graduates often report their participation in the 100 hours of Entrepreneurial Success classes contribute most to their entrepreneurial success, which is the 'Placement' they desired. This last year a new feature was added to the Entrepreneurial Support class, which was a Team E-Blast. Groups of five to seven Entrepreneurs created newsletters filled with 'Compelling Offers' which were sent to mailing lists that SWIHA has developed over the past couple of years..."

Best Community Student Practice

• The Best Community Student Practice award was for our outreach to students of a local aesthetics school that closed its doors unexpectedly, leaving them with nothing but a letter.
• Below is an except from the award submission:

"Last year the school we were all attending a westside Aesthetics school closed with no notice. All we received was a letter in the mail telling us to pick up our personal belongings, the school was closing. On Monday, August 14, 2007 all of us showed up at the school crying, the owner and director of SWINA was there with a smile, a letter and an unbelievable offer:

Dear Students,

We understand ‘sad things happen to good people’ and feel great compassion for the owners and management this institution.  For the good of the industry we do not want to see any student harmed in this unfortunate situation, therefore want to reach out in any way we can. 

Please allow us to support you by giving you the opportunity to complete your training at Southwest Institute of Natural Aesthetics in Tempe, Arizona.  We will be happy to recognize the hours you have completed to date and provide the additional training you have already paid for.  By this we mean, whatever amount of training you have already paid for and have not received  - - we will provide that amount of training at no additional cost to you..." 
 

SWIHA is more than an education...

The students who study at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts know that healing is more than just one dimension. They come to understand that real healing takes place on many levels...

body, mind and spirit.