Kasandra Lundquist, LCSW
Licensed Clinical Social Worker · IFS Level 2 Therapist · EMDR Trained · Buffalo Wellness, Holladay, UT
Maybe you’ve spent your whole life following a map that someone else drew, and somewhere along the way, you realized it wasn’t yours. Maybe you’ve lost someone, and grief has changed the shape of everything. Maybe you’ve had an experience that cracked the world open in a way that’s hard to put into words. If any of that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.
I specialize in supporting people navigating religious trauma and life after leaving high-demand religions. The grief, shame, identity confusion, and quiet relief can all arrive at once. I also work with complex trauma, loss, and the kind of grief that doesn’t fit neatly into a timeline. I know these experiences aren’t abstract. I’ve lived versions of them too.
I had a near-death experience at 19, I’ve lost people I love to suicide, and my own healing journey has included plant medicine ceremonies and expanded states of consciousness. Most recently, I sat for four nights and three full days in complete darkness at Sky Cave Retreats. I didn’t grow up with religion, but I’ve built my own sense of connection to the universe rooted in compassion, and that north star guides everything I do in this work.
HOW I WORK
I’m a Level 2-trained IFS (Internal Family Systems) therapist, and I was one of 18 people selected to attend an eight-day intensive training with IFS founder, Dr. Dick Schwartz. My training goes deeper than the standard curriculum. I’ve worked with Bob Falconer on unattached burdens (UB) and past life parts, and trained with Kay Gardner to understand Legacy Burdens. These are dimensions of IFS that allow us to work with inherited trauma, ancestral patterns, and the parts of a person that exist beyond ordinary biography.
This approach allows us to work with all the parts of you: the ones that protect, the ones that carry old pain, and the ones that are ready to heal. Including parts whose stories reach further back than this lifetime.
My path to get here was nonlinear. A political science degree, two years as an AmeriCorps VISTA, nearly a decade in the hotel industry, then a psychology degree, a Master of Social Work from the University of Utah, and now a Doctorate of Social Work at Tulane. That winding road taught me that people are capable of profound reinvention. I believe that about my clients because I’ve lived it.
Outside the office, you’ll find me skiing in the winter, camping in the Uintas in the summer, or somewhere in between with my partner and our two dogs.
HEAR MORE OF MY STORY
I appeared on Armchair Expert Anonymous and talked openly about my near-death experience, what happened, what it changed, and how it shapes the way I show up for clients. My interview begins at 41:48, skip ahead or listen from the start.
