We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Susan Swim and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Susan, what role has risk played in your life or career?

My name is Dr. Susan Swim. I am a risk-taker and I come from a long line of risk-takers. My great paternal grandparents, Irish immigrants, came to America to escape the potato famine, or so it was told. My mother’s great-great great-great- aunt was Mary Todd Lincoln, or so she said. My father was a brilliant aerospace engineer who helped his company achieve the “Apollo” contract for an aerospace company. He is in the Smithsonian. He was orphaned at five by the first pandemic. I am the Executive Director of Now I See A Person Institute (NISAPI), a nonprofit international educational training, research, supervision, and clinical institute devoted to the Process Ethics of Healing the Underserved from Trauma & preventing chronicity. I was instrumental in participating in the early work of Collaborative Language Systems Approach to Therapy or CLS, now known as Collaborative-Dialogical Practices. I joined the Houston-Galveston Institute in the early eighties as faculty. I was one of the first licensed Marriage and Family Therapists in Texas. My passion has included the continuation of the “Dis-diseasing of Mental Health.” My mentor, colleague and friend initially wrote about this in the eighties and nineties, along with philosophers and pioneers in our field until his death. He was a risk-taker for he would sneak his clients into hospitals when couple and family therapy was unheard of. Upon his death, I have attempted to carry on this mission, for people to know that healing is possible and a mental illness narrative does not have to define or limit. I taught the first Taos Institute online learning program in the late eighties before there was precedence. I assisted in opening a state-funded mental health clinic focusing on trauma, and not diagnosis, and where people with trauma and severe mental illness labels went on to not be defined by deficiency and to transform. In 2002, I moved to Los Angeles and continued my passion for collaborative learning venues at Loma Linda University. In 2007, I received an email about horses and therapy from Texas. With about twenty students from Loma Linda, I started this nonprofit international educational teaching, research, clinical institute combining this theory with horses and called it Now I See A Person Institute. At NISAPI, we utilize strength-based lenses, therapeutic teams when possible, and “Out of the Office” environments to serve those considered unchangeable and hopeless. NISAPI researches the traumas of coercion and global deficiency treatments and writes on Shedding the Limits of Severe Mental Illness Narratives, Stories of Wellness, On Becoming Extraordinarily Normal, Resurrecting Hope, When Therapy Heals, The Deconstruction of Mental Health Continued, Ending the Cradle to the Grave Paradigms, Breaking Free of Severe Mental Illness Labels and Treatment, Inviting and Finding Freedom, Inviting Dignity, Hope and Dialogue First, and Normalizing Ourselves for Clients. By combining nurturance and the normalcy of a horse ranch, parks, homes or online services and a theory which places dignity, dialogue and humanity first, we find that those with severe psychiatric histories are able to shift and overcome mental barriers. Our research reflects phenomenal recovery from severe trauma and symptoms. With each client, we include their support systems. With each client and their family, hope occurs where hope was lost and people rebuild their lives. Long ago, I found taking risks was an essential option and NISAPI reflects this.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Now I See A Person Institute is a nonprofit organization offering research, training, education, and clinical services devoted to helping people heal and transform when hope is lost. We help therapeutic providers discuss humanizing ourselves for our clients. We search for ways to foster dignity, to be seen as a person, to provide egalitarian and hope filled relationships that lead to self-solutions and stories of grit, courage, and being overcomers. Now I See A Person depends on donations for sustainability. We often provide free services.
Visit www.nowiseeaperson.com to donate.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love Los Angeles. I love the beaches.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shout out goes to the pioneers of marriage and family therapy., my mentor Harry Goolishian. He was a risk-taker. One day at UTMB he “snuck” a family member into a psychiatric hospital. And the rest is history.

Website: Www.nowiseeaperson.com

Instagram: @nowiseeaperson

Linkedin: Dr. Susan Swim

Twitter: NowISeeAPerson

Facebook: Susan Swim

Youtube: NowISeeAPerson

Other: NowISeeAPerson is on YouTube, Podbean, Spotify, Instagram, X, and TikTok

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.