The Biz Bruja Podcast

Reclaiming Identity and Healing Trauma: A Conversation with Erica Priscilla Sandoval

Hola mi gente! So excited to share this conversation with you all! 

In this episode of the Biz Bruja podcast, host Vanessa Codorniu  interviews Erica Priscilla Sandoval, an accomplished mental health practitioner and healer. Erica shares her journey of reclaiming her identity and embracing her roots, including her decision to reclaim her birth name, Erica Priscilla. She discusses her upbringing in Ecuador and her move to the United States, where she discovered her passion for helping others. Erica also talks about her experience in social work and the challenges she faced as a single mother while pursuing her education. She shares how she overcame financial trauma and scarcity mentality to build her own successful private practice. Erica then delves into her recent training in Ketamine Assisted Therapy and the profound impact it has had on her own healing journey and her work with clients. She emphasizes the importance of self-love, intuition, and compassion in her healing practice.

​Some of our main takeaways: 

- Reclaiming one's identity and embracing roots is a powerful journey of self-discovery and healing.

- Pursuing education as a single mother is challenging but empowering, and it is never too late to go back to school.

- Overcoming financial trauma and scarcity mentality is crucial for personal and professional growth.

- Ketamine Assisted Therapy can be a breakthrough approach to healing trauma and depression, leading to profound transformations.

- Love, self-forgiveness, and intuition are powerful tools for personal and collective healing.

 

Bio:

Erica Priscilla Sandoval is an award-winning mental health practitioner, speaker, spiritual healer, podcaster, advocate, and four-time published author. She is the founder and CEO of Sandoval Psychotherapy Consultation, known as Sandoval Co Lab, where she oversees a team of social workers and leads diversity, equity, and inclusion work for various organizations. Erica is also trained in Ketamine Assisted Therapy and has been trained by renowned experts in the field.

Website: Latinx SocialWork

Website: Erica Priscilla

IG:  LatinxSocialWork

 

TIMESTAMPS:

Summary
0:00:01	Introduction to the podcast and the guest, Erica Priscilla Sandoval
0:03:41	Erica Priscilla's journey of reclaiming her name and identity
0:08:33	Erica Priscilla's background and how she became a social worker
0:10:05	The pivotal moment that led Erica Priscilla to pursue social work
[0:11:54]	Social work as a calling, breaking intergenerational trauma cycles
[0:14:05]	Going back to school as an older student, empowering journey
[0:18:18]	Overcoming shame and embracing imperfection
[0:20:37]	Transitioning from hospital work to private practice
[0:21:53]	Applying and getting accepted to NYU social work program
[0:22:28]	Balancing work, internship, and school, guilt and support
[0:23:14]	Emotional graduation, first in family to achieve educational milestones
[0:23:48]	Trauma of being laid off from nonprofit job
[0:24:19]	Overcoming fears and passing clinical license test
[0:25:25]	Walking into her purpose as a social worker
[0:26:39]	Importance of therapy and self-care for healers
[0:29:51]	Exploring Ketamine training and its impact
[0:31:39]	Ketamine training as a breakthrough approach
[0:34:30]	Seeing shifts in clients through Ketamine Assisted therapy
[0:36:25]	Tapping into subconscious healing beyond talk therapy
[0:36:35]	Embracing a holistic approach to healing
[0:36:35]	Breaking through ancestral patterns to be an entrepreneur
0:37:09	Fear of scarcity mentality and financial trauma in lineage
0:39:15	Breaking cycles and shifting mindset from scarcity to abundance
0:40:18	Different relationships with money among siblings
0:41:09	Ancestral gift of love and compassion as superpower
0:43:31	Tapping into intuition and self-love
0:44:32	Where to find Erica Priscilla for collaboration and retreats
0:45:43	Gratitude and closing remarks

Self-Love: A journey of mind, body and spirit with, Johanna Benavides, Founder of Luna Serenity

Excited to share a beautiful guide and healer, a client that I’ve gotten to know in the process of months, someone that truly walks their talk, please welcome- Johanna Benavides!

 

• Johanna shares her journey from her first real job in anti-sex-trafficking where she was exposed to self-care and yoga through work wellness programs.

 

•  How Johanna experienced self-doubt and going in her head during the first yoga classes and how that led her to understand that her body needed healing.

 

• How she started chasing that shavasana (final resting pose in yoga)  feeling of releasing stress and leaning into physical practice.

 

• Connecting with her spiritual self through the physical practice of yoga and meditation.

 

• Being pregnant during the pandemic and how she managed stress, fear and anxiety.

 

• Getting past the fear of asking for help, the stigma of therapy and the myth that we’re supposed to “do it all on our own.” 

 

• Johanna shares insights on how to get support for yourself if you feel that you’re family may not be supportive. 

 

• The importance of not settling when looking for a therapist.

 

• The energy of “aguantar” or “putting up” with things that translates into people pleasing.

 

• How Johanna’s dreams guided her to cacao and to many realizations.

 

• Her first retreat in 2022 allowed her to connect with self-love and the land of Mexico in deeper ways.

 

• Johanna’s deep connection to her grandmother and her dreams.

 

• How as Latinx and BIPOC are still holding back from owning their intuitive knowledge and other soul gifts.

 

• Johanna shares what people would be experiencing on her Luna Goddess retreat- leaning into rest, relaxation, sound healing, yoga, community and empowerment photoshoots and on her  Self-Love Retreat we explore all the ways in which we can love ourselves and receive pleasure in our lives.

 

• The addition of belly dance with Jannelle Cortes and the joy in connecting with our bodies.

 

• Capturing the magic of what happens on the Self-Love retreat in an 8 week course that Johanna is creating! 

 

• The importance of Mother Nature and connecting to earth.

 

• The ancestral patterns that needed healing around visibility and being afraid to be seen. Checking off the boxes of: What do my parents need me to be? 

 

• Learning and putting it into action and how that has helped Johanna grow. 
• Breaking the  martyr pattern, releasing guilt and shame around nourishing ourselves!

• Leaning into gifts through hypnosis healing and connecting with Ancestors and then receiving validation through a family photo! 

 

Syay tuned and follow Johanna! She has a free event coming up 8/27! It's an event that will introduce you to her work and you'll be the FIRST to hear about her 8 week course! 

For more information visit www.Lunaserenity.com or connect with Johanna on Instagram @lunaserenityyoga.

Johanna Olivas

500 RYT//RPYT

Reiki Master & Sound Healing Practitioner

LunaSerenity.com

IG: @lunaserenityyoga

 

BIO: Johanna Benavides

 

Johanna offers a range of services with the intent of helping you find your way back to self love. Her goal is to help you reconnect with yourself through yoga, vibrational sound therapy, and different energy healing modalities.

All of Johanna's yoga and energy healing work touches on the physical, vibrational and emotional aspects of yourself.  The physical practice is a chance to explore connection to yourself, the vibrational level is a way for you to connect to your emotions and move energy in the body and the emotional level allows you to explore growth. All sessions with Johanna are a way to come home to yourself.

Johanna is a first generation daughter of parents from Ecuador and Nicaragua. As a mother of two, her path to self discovery was set in motion more than 13 years ago. Her practices have formed the foundation of reconnecting and reclaiming her ancestral roots.

Johanna is 500 Hour Registered Yoga teacher with specializations in Prenatal and Fertility Yoga, has completed Meditation Teacher trainings, is a Certified Usui Reiki Master, Crystalline Consciousness Technique Practitioner and has completed several Sound Healing Trainings over the years. 

For more information visit www.Lunaserenity.com or connect with Johanna on Instagram @lunaserenityyoga.

Dancer, Dreamer and Wanderer: Jannelle Cortes Founder of GrooveTrips and GrooveFit

Dancer, Dreamer and a Wanderer: Jannelle Cortes Founder of GrooveTrips and GrooveFit

I can barely sit still as I listen to this episode! BEYOND excited to share someone that I personally know and love very much!  Please welcome, a multi-passionate, multi-talented entrepreneur, dancer, creative and leader, Jannelle Cortes. I’ve known this creative powerhouse since 2005, have studied various styles of dance with her and have traveled with her to Egypt and the Dominican Republic!

We met in 2005, when I was manifesting the best belly dance teacher at New York Sports Club in NYC and we (all the shimmy sisters) followed her everywhere, borough to borough just to dance with her! We’ve traveled from borough to borough and country to country as she expanded GrooveFit to GrooveTrips guiding people to trips such as Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Egypt and more! Many of us, including yours truly, were in her Middle Eastern cardio dance workout video, “ The Belly Dance Workout for Every Body!” She's a passionate, generous and beautiful being whose soul has guided to so many spaces, places and countries to support community, create community and share the magic of dance, culture and connection. 

 

• Early beginnings, from Baile del Perrito to Ballet, she shares “Ballet was my Yoga.”

 

• Dance was not something anyone thought she would pursue full-time and she entered her Fordham University Masters program.

 

• Grad school/Corporate World to Full-time dancer and teacher: The moment she realized that The Universe was opening a door to living a life with more passion.

 

• Her first belly dance class with Amira Mor filled her with joy and admiration, “I don’t know that I have ever felt that kind of exuberance and joy.”

 

• The term, “crazy belly dancer” and what it means- I went through that as a student!

 

• How Jannelle began taking belly dance students to Turkey, Egypt and Morocco so her students could learn from the land and the people where the music and dance was born.

 

• Jannelle shares how creating space for folks to express themselves makes her joyful because she recognizes it may be the only place where we can be other aspects of ourselves.

 

• “It provided all types of women, all ages, all bodies to come into class and be celebrated, Jannelle on her dance class teaching.

 

• Teaching dance class for Eddie Palmieri at the Savannah Hotel

 

• “When you’re born with something, you have to feed it. It’s you, this is a part of you,” Jannelle Cortes

 

• Supporting local artists and small businesses when she travels and why it’s important.

 

• How Cuba gave her the opportunity to meet organizations and people and feel called to give back through each trip. 

 

• Exploring her identity as a Dominican woman who comes from an island that has been impacted by colonization, oppression and colorism. How do I heal myself and help others heal? How have my people come about? 

 

• Her experience of coming home to Ghana and a sense of completion.

 

• Ancestral patterns and ancestral gifts that Jannelle has tapped into.

 

• Shout out to Ivonne Velasquez and to my Mom and Johanna Olivas and Vanessa Villaverde- same message, “ It is our responsibility to seek happiness for ourselves.”

 

• Jannelle closes with some advice for creative entrepreneurs:

There is no blueprint for entrepreneurship, most Latinx didn’t grow up talking about money so much of the business acumen we have, we’ve had to earn and learn.

You’re allowed to recreate yourself, over and over and over again.”

BIO:

 

Jannelle Cortes is a choreographer, travel professional, and entrepreneur that grew up in the Maryland area and now resides in New York City and Havana, Cuba. She is the Founder of  the Groovefit Dance Company and Groove Trips LLC, both intergenerational companies that  promote community, accessibility, and sustainability.  

Find Jannelle Cortes for updated info on her upcoming trips and masterminds: https://groove-trips.com/

Follow on IG: GROOVETRIPS

Summer Solstice: Connecting with & Shining the Luz Within

Hola! We back! It's been a minute! We'll talk Summer Solstice and explore some meanings and the Inti Raymi festival in Peru, June 24th and how the symbolism of the Outer Sun or Tayta Inti can light up and remind us who we are!

 

* Society and how the exterior rules that may have kept our Ancestors safe, may need to shift or go completely go!

* How we are all going through it and going through it differently in our systemically racist society.

* Personal stories of holding back and why staying small doesn't serve us in the long-run

* Following our passion and joy to greater expansion!

* Why I love improv and how I broke through societal imitations.

* Quick Visualization to reclaim our brightest and most expansive expression!

 

If you're looking for clarity book an Akashic Records session here

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Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio: Alchemizing The Change That Is Required Now

Hola mi gente! It's been a couple of weeks! I've been in Miami, teaching "Tapping Into Your Magic: Unlock Your Intuition, Unblock Your Biz" in person and a part of my beautiful amiga's Book Launch- Mood Ring Journal Celebration! I'm back at home and couldn't let this astrological biggie pass me by in terms of the podcast!

 

Lunar Eclipse Full Moon in Scorpio:

 

* What are the new moon and full moon cycles about 

* What does it mean that this is occurring in Scorpio 

* Scorpio is about our power within and the intersection of other people's power and resources

* How we have learned o hand over our power to "sobrevivir"/survive

* The more we reclaim our inner power we reclaim our authentic selves

* Grounding in this Taurus Season

* Dealing with the fear in the environment over finances

* Mercury in Reggaeton ( Retrograde) and how to lean into our faith and creativity

* Creativity beyond being a painter, becoming creative in our lives and in our work

* The Myth of the Super Woman- the one who does it all

* The Super human is a LIE

* Managing the duality of being a magnificent soul that we are and the human existence that requires sleep and rest

* What is your Soul telling you?

* How do we come into more peace while taking action on our priorities

* Where were you six months ago? What is coming to a close?

* Where are you holding on to old ways of being?

* The gift of taking time off and retreating

* Making the most of this phase

 

Mucho amor,

V

 

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Stop Outsourcing Your Spiritual Evolution: Dethroning the ”Power Over” System

Warning for anyone who has experienced sexual abuse. I don’t discuss it in great detail but it is discussed. 

 

We are all reeling from the video that showed the Dalai Lama transgressing boundaries and being sexually abusive to a child. It’s making us question ourselves, our system and for many, we are pointing to our eyes like our Abuelas, “Mira, Ojo! Ojo!” We’ve had the #MEtoo movement, #TimesUp, victims of Church and cult abuse and more celebrities and communities are discussing all sorts of abuses seeking greater visibility. 

 

What is at the heart of powerful people and those in authority at all levels of society feeling that they can do whatever they want?

 

Colonization brought more than smallpox to our people, it ended a way of life and created a hierarchical structure that carries “Power Over” patterns into all walks of society and all spaces rather than “Power from within.” Giving credit to witch, author and magical activist, Starhawk for writing about this since the 70s.

 

How does “Power over” affect us? One of the ways is that we’ve been taught to outsource our spiritual health, growth and evolution to others. How do we reclaim our inner power during this time of great transformation? 

 

In this episode you’ll find a couple of tips on how to know if  you’re working with a good healer with integrity. I share about Saturn in Pisces and Pluto in Aquarius cycles that are affecting us personally and collectively. 

 

• What makes a good healer?
• Are we afraid of our own power and leadership?
• How do we embrace our power and natural leading ability?
• What is Saturn in Pisces and Pluto in Aquarius and how are these energies impacting the collective?
• Exploring what it means when we say, “ the heart wants what it wants”
• Making decisions from our inner knowing
• Noticing how we ask our intuition questions
• What does fake “Inner Power” sound like?
• What does it mean to trust ourselves?
• What does it mean to hold values that are good for us personally and for the collective
• Doing the inner work creates less wobble in our energetic fields
• What does it mean to not doubt your intuition? Please don’t compare, do the work.
• Recap
• A guided experience to ask our inner intuition how we can become clearer and how do we connect more?
• A card Pick for us all from The Modern Spiritual Latina Oracle- Saturn, Ancestral healing for us all 

Seguimos adelante! Mucho amor, Vanessa 

 

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Saturn in Pisces: The Duality of Go with the Flow and No means No

Hola mi gente bella! Took a tiny two week break as I did a keynote for an incredible Latina organization, workshops and a panel discussion and then went into my Spring Equinox Retreat: Thriving in Our Sacred Medicine! I am creating more retreats as folks have been in the DMS and emails. I hope to meet you all in a sacred space to deepen and grow our Medicina in the world!

 

This week's is SUPER cortito as I hope don before a session and let Spirit guide me LOL I wanted to talk about boundaries but suddenly I'm talking about not boxing ourselves in, blaming the moon and stars for our issues and limiting our perception of ourselves and our lives...guiding me to Saturn in Pisces!

Saturn will be in Pisces from March 7 to May 24, 2025, then after a brief retrograde into Aquarius, from August 31, 2025 to February 13, 2026.

We touch upon it's essence and ho won't to be afraid of this archetypal energy that is bringing structure to support our spiritual growth and evolution!

From not boxing ourselves in, I then talk about duality and the essence of our existence being simultaneously eternal, multi-dimensional souls and spirits in a time-challenged vessel with an expiration date. What helps our Spirits soar on this earthly Planeta is creating an energetic structure that supports our healing, our creation and our thriving.

I believe that Saturn is Pisces is inviting is into releasing/healing addictions and escapism and showing up to create the physical container for our spirit to soar: better health, career and work on purpose and attracting the divine love and opportunities we desire because we are willing to do the work on ourselves that will make the difference!

One of the ways we do this work is by establishing and creating boundaries!

What are they and how do we keep them when there are folks who will trample all over them? Why do we let folks cross our boundaries? 

Let me know what you think! and if you are interested in joining me for a retreat or class- make sure to join the list at: https://thebizbruja.com

 

Mucho amor,

Vanessa

Follow me on IG : @thebizbruja no underscore or double letters- watch out for scammers- gracias :)

 

Afro-futuristic Spiritual Activism: Walking Into the Unknown with Faith with Kat Niambi

In October 2022, I held my first solo summit, The Soul of Business Summit and rebranded it to Ancestrally Rooted Business Summit. When I sat down to create my summit, The Hungry Medium was a dream guest in her grounded, sassy and wise magic- and I am so grateful she said YES!. She dives deep on how she grew through Christianity into her African traditions. I am beyond honored to share this powerful conversation with Kat Niambi, the Hungry Medium. Tune in to hear the ancestral patterns she transformed and the ones she leaned into to awaken and reclaim her magic and medicine.

 

• Kat shares her ancestral journey that brought her to her current work and path. 

 

• How disbelief in the form of life in the church shaped her current spiritual path. 

 

• How ancestors who didn’t agree in life may support you in bigger ways when on the other side.

 

• Kat shares the white table misa messages she received from trusted spiritualists that kept asking, “ why aren’t you doing this for people?” 

 

• Kat shares how her challenges are viewed as a series of events that had to occur so Kat could be who she is now.

 

• She goes deeply into the question, “Is it Spirit or is it God?”

 

• Christianity as a tool of the colonizer to strip Africans from their faith and identity as a historical fact.

 

•  Explains why Christianity and Black Nationalism don't align.

 

• Why Kat calls herself a spiritual activist in her work and how grateful she is to be awake. 

 

• Her journey on social media during Covid and post-pandemic and trusting Spirit with your marketing.

 

• What is the metaverse? The journey from the old days when spiritualists didn’t even read on the phone.

 

• Saying yes to opportunities that are in alignment can be stepping stones for more connection, relationships and expansion.

 

IG: https://www.instagram.com/thehungrymedium

Website: https://www.thehungrymedium.com

 

Bio

Kat Niambi, aka The Hungry Medium’s practice is rooted in an African spiritual tradition for which she is grateful. Without this tradition, she wouldn’t be where she is right now. For many, the “gift” of hearing Spirit doesn’t present itself in a way that’s easily

 recognizable. “I was either lucky or my soul has been around the block a few times and has navigated this mind-body iteration (aka me) to where I am today; a clairsentient spiritualist who’s able to make connections between spirit and the physical world.” 

 

She likes to think of herself as a “spiritual activist”; using her mediumship to help others find direction, clarity and focus in their lives. The goal is to help YOU help yourself. By tapping into your own power to problem solve and to work towards achieving actionable goals, you’ll feel more empowered to design a life shaped by you and endorsed by the Soul.