MORE ABOUT SANDY (She/her)
From a young age, I had a strong desire to help people heal. I followed this calling by becoming a physician, specializing in psychiatry, then working as a psychiatrist for the next 10 years. But even with my extensive training and experience, I knew there was more to learn and understand about helping people to heal and about the nature of our humanity. And so I was drawn to explore and train in alternative healing and spiritual practices—Meditation, Hypnosis, Holotropic Breathwork™, Transpersonal Psychology, and Shamanism. My shamanic explorations took my across the United States, as well to Ecuador, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Botswana, where I learned from indigenous healers about the powerful healing wisdom and practices that have been followed for countless generations.
Those trainings and experiences changed me and my world. Over and over I have been awed and honored to experience the incredible beauty and power of the human heart and spirit. I have learned of the powerful healing wisdom that exists within us all, the deep creativity that is our essence, and the necessity of attending to the energetic and spiritual dimensions of healing. This led me to leave my practice of psychiatry in 2005 to follow a shamanic path, focusing on the deeper nature of healing and transformation.
I have continued to explore and train in deep healing modalities since that time, including 4 years of training in NIASZIIH healing with wildernessFusion, an earth-based, holistic system of healing that works with awareness and the philosophy of choice. These teachings have been passed down to other healers from Lipan Apache elder, scout, and shaman, Stalking Wolf.
I also trained in Systemic & Family Constellations, which allows a direct and deep way to work with burdens we carry from our family systems and ancestors.
Most recently, my work is informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), in which I started training in 2021, completing my IFS Level 1 training in February 2022, Level 2 training in November 2022, and Level 3 training in April 2024 through the IFS Institute. I also completed Chris Burris's Creating Healing Circles training in 2023. I have completed multiple additional IFS courses and have had my own IFS therapist since 2020.
For more information on my training and experience, see my curriculum vitae.
*Please note that I have retired my medical license to focus on alternative modalities of healing, so I do not diagnose, prescribe, treat, or cure any specific illnesses and my work is not covered by insurance.
Further perspective on my work:
In modern society, disenchantment is widespread. As individuals and collectively we are often disconnected from the beauty, magic, vitality, and deep creativity of ourselves and the natural world. So many have lost their way, disconnecting from their essence, losing their truth, their voice, their unique gifts, their passion—their soul. The remedy for this disconnect, this disenchantment, necessitates going deep within and reconnecting to our true essence. I focus on this kind of deep soul work using a variety of modalities and practices. Please read through my website for further details on my offerings - and feel free to contact me with any questions.