In a world often polarized between clinical science and spiritual mysticism, Alyson Lanier emerges as a rare and extraordinary bridge. With a 30-year career as a psychotherapist and over 50,000 hours of therapeutic practice, Alyson combines a robust foundation in psychology with a profound connection to the unseen realms. Her unique blend of expertise includes attachment theory, Gestalt therapy, and Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy, alongside shamanic practices, ancestral healing, and animist traditions—a fusion that sets her apart as a true pioneer in holistic healing. Her personal journey, beginning with spirit-mediated healing at the tender age of six, underscores her lifelong commitment to understanding the interplay of psychological and spiritual dynamics. Today, Alyson serves as a trusted mentor, guide, and teacher for those seeking to heal not just their minds but their souls. In this exclusive Mystic Mag‘s interview, Alyson shares her insights into the power of integrating psychology and spirituality, how she navigates the boundaries of “the woo,” and the profound lessons she’s learned from a lifetime of bridging the seen and unseen.
How do you balance your clinical background in psychotherapy with your spiritual and shamanic practices to provide a cohesive healing experience for your clients?
Practicing as a therapist, coach, and Ritualist over the last 32 years, I’ve learned that balancing clinical expertise with spiritual practices requires deep attunement to each client’s needs. My clinical foundation in trauma-informed therapy provides the container, while my spiritual and shamanic practices offer additional pathways for healing. Every client receives a customized weave of these approaches based on their consciousness development and readiness. This integration creates a fluid experience where evidence-based modalities harmonize with direct Spirit engagement. The balance emerges naturally as I let the client’s needs, my professional knowledge, and our respective ‘Spirit-teams’ guide which ‘medicine’ is needed in the moment.
From your perspective, what does true healing encompass when addressing psychological, somatic, and etheric dimensions?
First of all, I think it’s important to name that we do not have a shared definitive language nor a shared context for the beautiful complexity and nuance of the ineffable. (this means we humans will continually need to check our philosophical, conceptual, social and cultural contexts when in relationship with the unseen “dimensions”) That said I will try to answer this question from my perspective.
True healing isn’t just about addressing symptoms or even processing trauma—it’s about restoring wholeness across all layers of being. In my experience, lasting transformation requires attention to the physical body, the psychological landscape, the emotional and energetic terrain, and the realms of soul and spirit. When we exclude any of these dimensions, we miss crucial pieces of the healing puzzle.
I’ve witnessed how unresolved intergenerational trauma can manifest–from physical symptoms to psychological barriers. Just as powerful, I’ve seen how emotional wounds create a ripple effect of outcomes– from general neurosis, to energetic imprints that hinder one’s success and freedom in life, to crippling soul-sickness. True healing honors and regards each person’s unique journey towards wholeness, and an integrative approach to all of these interconnected layers is essential.
What type of services do you offer?
I address the God-sized hole in allopathic medicine and clinical psychotherapy through year-long transformative containers. My work is about helping people overcome personal barriers to create extraordinary relationships—with self, loved ones, and the larger World.
These personalized journeys integrate clinical expertise with spiritual wisdom through in-person intensives and virtual sessions. The degree of ritual work, clinical practices, somatic work, and spirit-mediated healing is customized to each client’s readiness and needs.
How do you integrate Gestalt therapy techniques with energy healing practices, particularly when working with clients who are new to alternative approaches?
Gestalt therapy and philosophy isn’t just my approach, it’s one of my core operating systems. When working with clients new to alternative approaches, I start exactly where they are—no spiritual sales pitch, no pressure to embrace what they’re not ready for. (You can’t force transcendence without fallout.) Instead, I meet them in their reality and I stay present and unapologetically curious. This keeps our relationship ‘normal-sized’, grounded, and real —avoiding unhealthy power dynamics where I might be seen as ‘the one who knows’ and they as ‘the one who doesn’t’ or a ‘case’ to be fixed. This aligns with Gestalt’s central tenets: authentic presence, connection, and responsibility with what is here and now. Anything ‘unfinished’ in someone’s life naturally reveals itself when you’re truly present. Since personal responsibility is another core Gestalt principle, it’s the skeleton key that unlocks both pragmatic and energetic outcomes.
I honor each person’s theological framework and their capacity to be present to their immediate experience. Their belief system isn’t some obstacle to work around—it’s the very foundation that ultimately creates natural bridges between the every day and the transpersonal realms. With one foot firmly grounded in the clinical and one in the unseen realms, I intuitively guide clients toward authentic encounters that become their own unique pathways to transformation.
You mention understanding the limitations and dangers of “the woo.” How do you discern and integrate genuine spiritual practices without veering into unsafe or ungrounded territory?
When I speak of “the dangers of the woo”, I’m referring to ego dissolution (often a pitfall of heavy psychedelic use) and spiritual emergency—both negative fallouts of diving too far, too deep, too fast, like attempting consciousness leaps before you’re able to integrate them into your whole being. The “limitations of the woo” manifest as spiritual bypassing, dissociation, and a lack of ‘real-world’ integration and application of growth and consciousness.
These dangers can overwhelm one’s mental health, while the limitations often lead to escapism—detaching from authentic relationships and avoiding critical inquiry and deeper emotional work. Both tend to ‘take a person out’ of living a grounded, embodied life rooted in their wholeness (human and spiritual).
Any Ritual work I do is rooted in personal and spiritual safety, boundaries, and embodiment. I’m always watching for signs of fragmentation—most often demonstrated through instability, excessive magical thinking, energetic porousness, and an absence of personal agency.
What do you envision for the future of therapy that bridges traditional psychological methods with spiritual and etheric healing practices?
I envision (and proudly carry the flag for) a future where all therapists, social workers, and healthcare practitioners reconnect with their innate wholeness. This shift alone could transform our world—eliminating burnout while allowing healing work to reach its true depth—where both practitioner and recipient access profound transformation.
Beyond this, I envision every practitioner in any of the healing arts being trauma-trained, so they are equipped to skillfully navigate circumstances that might trigger spiritual emergency or bypassing. With the current renaissance of psychedelics, and “guides” popping up everywhere, this foundation is more crucial than ever as we bridge traditional and spiritual approaches.
Finally, I see a future where the false divide between clinical and spiritual approaches dissolves. Where medical schools teach energy medicine alongside anatomy, therapy programs integrate ancestral healing, energy work, and normalize engagement with the transpersonal alongside clinically sound interventions, and insurance companies recognize the profound cost-effectiveness of integrated healing approaches. This vision isn’t simply about expanding our therapeutic toolbox—it’s about restoring wholeness to the healing professions themselves.
