We rank vendors based on rigorous testing and research, but also take into account your feedback and our commercial agreements with providers. This page contains affiliate links. Advertising Disclosure
MysticMag contains reviews that were written by our experts and follow the strict reviewing standards, including ethical standards, that we have adopted. Such standards require that each review will take into consideration independent, honest and professional examination of the reviewer. That being said, we may earn a commission when a user completes an action using our links, at no additional cost to them. On listicle pages, we rank vendors based on a system that prioritizes the reviewer’s examination of each service but also considers feedback received from our readers and our commercial agreements with providers.This site may not review all available service providers, and information is believed to be accurate as of the date of each article.

Sandra Lloyd - Bridging Ancient Wisdom and Modern Healing as an Urban Shaman

Sandra Lloyd - Bridging Ancient Wisdom and Modern Healing as an Urban Shaman

Sandra Lloyd is more than a healer—she is a compassionate guide, a holder of sacred wisdom, and a bridge between ancient traditions and contemporary healing practices. As a Certified Hypnotherapist trained in Depth Hypnosis, Shamanism, Buddhist Psychology, Energy Medicine, and Hypnotherapy, Sandra has created a unique approach to personal growth and transformation. Her journey has been deeply personal, shaped by her own recoveries from two cancer diagnoses and her years of service as an advocate for birthing women. Today, Sandra combines these extraordinary experiences and teachings into a modern shamanic practice, blending the power of Depth Hypnosis and energy work to help clients heal core issues, solve problems, and reconnect with their authentic selves. In this Mystic Mag‘s interview, Sandra shares her transformative journey, the essence of her shamanic work, and how she bridges ancient traditions with the complexities of modern life to help others discover their true path.

Discover the best-matched psychic reader for you
Back
In which area are you seeking guidance?
Step
1
of
4
300+ people found the right psychic reading site today

How have your personal experiences with cancer shaped your approach to hypnotherapy and shamanic healing practices?

In shamanism, disease is viewed as a spiritual imbalance, a disruption in the flow of energy within the person. Here in the practice of Western allopathic medicine, practitioners usually don’t consider this aspect. Instead, the focus is primarily on the physical or emotional symptoms and how to alleviate them, but not looking further to consider the deeper imbalance, our disconnect with our Earth Mother, the ancestors, the elements and with the spirit in all things.

Shamanism has existed in cultures for over 100,000 years. It offers practical and pragmatic solutions to address the “dis-ease” of the individual and/or the community.  The shamanic practitioner has the ability to interact with the world of spirit through altered states of consciousness (travel in non-ordinary reality) and to direct the spiritual energies into the physical world for the purpose of healing.

In 2001, when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer I didn’t know anything about shamanism. However during my treatment I had the good fortune of meeting a hypnotherapist who worked specifically with cancer patients to help reduce the side effects of chemo and radiation. Working with him was life-changing. Under hypnosis, I found myself guided into a trance state, journeying through time into a deep, secret cave and meeting a guide who helped me through the entire treatment process. At the time, I didn’t realize that this was a form of shamanic healing.

This guide became a powerful force for me, helping me reclaim my life energy and release the cancer. Through this work, I didn’t consider cancer as an enemy but as a teacher offering me an opportunity to heal. I came to understand that my cancer was inviting me to look more deeply at the energetic patterns within me that allowed the cancer to manifest.

At the time, I was in early recovery from an addiction, which made me deeply reflective about how to navigate life in a new way. The combination of hypnotherapy, visualization, and spiritual guidance I received helped me identify the cancer in my breast as an accumulation of the dense energy of negativity and anger. By visualizing with the help of my spirit guide, along with my medical cancer treatment, I engaged in releasing this stuck energy. I began to heal—not just physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

This experience transformed my life and work. I became a doula, supporting women in birth, which became a deeply spiritual practice for me. Birth is raw, wild, and sacred. Being present with birthing women—holding space for them, grounding them, and helping them move through fear—was like witnessing a divine moment. Seeing life come into the world felt like a spiritual revelation, or what I call a “God shot.”

This profound connection to spirit led me to seek even deeper understanding. And, as has often happened in my life, when I open myself to a new level of learning, the right teacher appears.

I found my first mentor, Isa Gucciardi, creator of the spiritual counseling practice of Depth Hypnosis and founder of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream. Her wisdom teachings in depth hypnosis and shamanic practice resonated deeply with me. When I attended her first class and participated in my first shamanic journey, I realized I had already been doing this work for years—I just didn’t have a name for it.

This was the beginning of my journey to greater commitment to help others heal. Over the decades, I’ve worked with countless birthing women, addressing their fears of pain, uncertainty about their ability to give birth, unresolved childhood trauma, or even past-life experiences related to birth.

By incorporating depth hypnosis and shamanic practices into my work, I’ve been able to help women connect with the spiritual guidance of the Great Mother to heal and resolve many of these issues before labor begins. This allows them to more freely and easily access this guidance as they experience the powerful initiation of birth.

Depth Hypnosis combines elements of shamanism, Buddhist psychology, energy medicine, and hypnotherapy. How do you decide which aspects to emphasize when working with a client?

Depth Hypnosis is a holistic and transformative approach that integrates four key pillars: hypnotherapy, shamanic practices, dreamwork, and Buddhist psychology. Each of these elements plays a critical role in the healing process, allowing for profound personal transformation.

The hypnotherapy aspect of Depth Hypnosis focuses on helping a person deeply relax. If you’ve ever attended a yoga class or practiced guided meditation, you may have experienced a similar process—being led through a series of suggestions to breathe and release tension. Hypnosis in this context helps individuals reach a trance-like state—not an unconscious state, but one where the conscious or egoic mind quiets down and allows access to deeper parts of the psyche.

Unlike traditional suggestion hypnosis, often used to train the mind to think differently about habits like smoking or public speaking, working primarily on a surface level, Depth Hypnosis goes directly to the root of an issue. Whether it’s family lineage patterns, illness, anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, issues of self worth or personal power, this method bypasses the conscious mind’s defenses, which are designed to protect us but often hinder deeper exploration. In most talk therapies, the conscious mind remains active, creating barriers to revisiting trauma or addressing the origins of behavior patterns.

Depth Hypnosis provides a pathway to uncover and heal those forgotten or suppressed experiences, even ones from past lives. By doing so, it facilitates rapid and profound transformation.

The Shamanic pillar of Depth Hypnosis views illness as a spiritual imbalance within oneself. The inner imbalance often reflects outwardly in our environment, including the health of the Earth itself. By healing ourselves, we contribute to healing the planet—a connection that is vital.

Shamanic practices address three core healing mechanisms:

Power Loss: Reclaiming personal power that has been lost or taken due to societal pressures, family dynamics, or trauma.

Soul Loss: Healing soul fragments that have disconnected due to trauma, abuse, or inherited family patterns.

Energetic Interference: Removing energies that do not belong to the individual, whether they are patterns adopted from others (e.g., parental criticism) or external entities that attach during vulnerable times.

These practices restore balance, helping clients become more conscious of their energy field and reclaim their power.

Dreamwork, inspired by Jungian psychology, is closely linked to shamanic journeying. Dreams act as a bridge to the subconscious, revealing what the psyche is asking to heal. While remembering dreams isn’t essential, doing so can offer valuable insights into areas where the body, mind, and spirit are seeking alignment.

The resurgence of interest in altered states through practices like psychedelic journeys has brought a renewed appreciation for the wisdom accessible beyond ordinary consciousness. Depth Hypnosis leverages this wisdom, allowing clients to explore their inner worlds safely and intentionally.

Buddhist psychology brings the tools of meditation to help clients alter their state of consciousness. It helps to shift focus from the chatter of the thinking mind to one’s inner experience. Meditation is also a process of self inquiry to help focus your attention on something you would like to better understand. It is a way to examine three fundamental areas:  Attraction: What are we drawn to, and why? Aversion: What do we avoid, and what lies behind that avoidance? Ignorance (wrong knowing): What are we unaware of or misunderstanding in our lives?

These insights illuminate patterns and behaviors that perpetuate suffering. For example, someone might repeatedly seek unhealthy relationships, struggle with substance use, or face recurring conflicts at work. By addressing these patterns and understanding their roots, clients become more aware of the consequences of their actions and take responsibility for their choices.

What type of services do you offer?

My primary services are Depth Hypnosis and shamanic healing. Issues caused by soul loss, power loss, and energetic interference as they relate to current problems are addressed.

I specialize in working with women with the problems that arise regarding fertility, pregnancy loss, pregnancy and birth, preparing for birth, trauma from a prior childbirth or from their own birth experience as well as the postpartum period. I also assist women navigating and celebrating the profound initiation into motherhood—a transition that, unfortunately, receives little acknowledgment or support in Western culture.

I offer Ceremonies for major life initiations; including Motherblessings, weddings, celebration of significant life changes or initiations, death, divorce, house blessings,  abundance. Each ceremony is uniquely designed to honor the individual’s journey.

Womb Healing. Over time, we accumulate unwanted energies into our creative wombspace. Clearing and healing the wombspace can bring about transformative changes, especially in the areas of work and creativity, birth, pleasure and sexual expression.

I also offer Space Clearing for homes, workplaces and land. Typically, I clear newly purchased homes to remove lingering energies from the house itself, the land, or previous occupants. The land often holds unresolved energy tied to its history of colonization and displacement of Indigenous Peoples. I often encounter spirits or energies that wish to communicate. I work to honor their messages and requests, offer healing when appropriate, and communicate this information to the homeowner.

In addition, I lead a ceremonial circle with other practitioners who work perinatally with women. Together, we support one another, engage in journey work to continue our own healing, and maintain our connection to the Great Mother. This ongoing work strengthens us and allows us to better serve our clients.

I host a new podcast, the Perinatal Ceremonies Podcast, with Gena McCarthy and Elizabeth Theriault. It is available on Apple and other popular podcast platforms. We are interviewing perinatal practitioners from around the world who are engaged in healing ceremonial practices (acupuncturists, therapists, doulas, nurses and midwives) and we explore how they incorporate ceremony in their work with birthing women.

For someone new to shamanism, what is one foundational practice or principle you recommend for personal growth and healing?

The cornerstone of my practice is the shamanic journey, which involves entering a trance state—a deeply relaxed and altered state of consciousness. This is one of the initial steps when a client comes to me. The goal is to connect them with a benevolent guide. It doesn’t matter what their spiritual background or faith might be, whether they believe in God or not. There are benevolent energies in the universe that can manifest in various forms—an animal, a plant, a person, light, sound, an intuitive sense of a presence, or perhaps as an angel or a mythological creature, and are here to help.

I assist clients on this journey verbally, with use of a drum or rattle, guiding them through this state of non-ordinary reality. Together, we connect with their guide and the power the guide brings. The guide then becomes a foundational source of support, holding and assisting them as they navigate the deeper work that resides within. Initially we meet for three to five sessions to address the client’s current problem. Clients are often surprised to find they are able to work through issues quickly that have persisted for years, and that the results are long-lasting.

Clients can learn how to use the shamanic journey and work with a guide independently for healing and personal growth. This approach empowers clients, helping them feel in charge of their healing journey. Their benevolent guide serves as a mentor, teaching them how to hold their power and live authentically.

In your healing work, you mention a connection with spiritual allies. How do you guide your clients to cultivate or recognize their own spiritual connections?

What I just shared about connecting clients to a guide can be explored further. Many people believe they can’t be hypnotized, but the truth is, everyone can be, because hypnosis is always self-hypnosis. You are always in control—you can get up and walk out of the room if you don’t like what I’m doing. I don’t have power over you.

Once you are relaxed and the conscious mind, or ego mind, is quieted, the process becomes about allowing yourself to follow your intuitive knowing; the wiser, deeper part of yourself. The guide can appear in any form. Some people might say, “Oh, I was told my Spirit Guide is a lion,” but when we go on the journey, they might meet a mouse. This can surprise them, and they may wonder how a mouse can be a powerful guide.

The truth is, every animal, human, or goddess etc. carry their own medicine. The guide’s spiritual energy is uniquely suited to address the client’s specific issue. For example, the guide may provide the power to speak your truth, overcome self-hatred, establish healthy boundaries, or stop giving away power in a codependent manner.

When the guide appears, we always make sure that this guide is specifically there for this person. This allows the client to feel comfortable and trust the guide’s purpose. It is their benevolent spirit guide, uniquely suited to mentor them through their healing process.

The guide not only supports the client but also helps me during the session. For some clients, trusting this process is difficult in the beginning because it feels unfamiliar. However, over time, as I help them reinforce the healing components, they grow more confident in trusting their inner wisdom. This helps them move through the world feeling more whole, grounded, and complete.

Read more at www.sandralloyd.net

We rank vendors based on rigorous testing and research, but also take into account your feedback and our commercial agreements with providers. This page contains affiliate links. Advertising Disclosure
MysticMag contains reviews that were written by our experts and follow the strict reviewing standards, including ethical standards, that we have adopted. Such standards require that each review will take into consideration independent, honest and professional examination of the reviewer. That being said, we may earn a commission when a user completes an action using our links, at no additional cost to them. On listicle pages, we rank vendors based on a system that prioritizes the reviewer’s examination of each service but also considers feedback received from our readers and our commercial agreements with providers.This site may not review all available service providers, and information is believed to be accurate as of the date of each article.
About the author
Writer
Katarina is a Content Editor at Mystic Mag She is a Reiki practitioner who believes in spiritual healing, self-consciousness, healing with music. Mystical things inspire her to always look for deeper answers. She enjoys to be in nature, meditation, discover new things every day. Interviewing people from this area is her passion and space where she can professionaly evolve, and try to connect people in needs with professionals that can help them on their journey. Before joining Mystic Mag, she was involved in corporate world where she thought that she cannot express herself that much and develop as a person.