THE SOUL, AS REFERRED TO IN SOUL RETRIEVAL, is the energetic essence of your being, including gifts, qualities, and aspects of who you are. It transcends physical experience. Pieces and parts of the soul essence can become separated, trapped, and lost. If you’re new to my website or writing, I’d recommend you start with my main Soul Retrieval Page. This article was something I created for clients after booking to help them understand the journey before their session.
Soul loss is part of the human experience. It’s designed to protect our essence from physical and emotional trauma. Psychologists refer to this as dissociation. The shamanic community calls it soul loss. Either way, it helps us to survive.
Trauma that causes soul loss can be subtle and different for each person. Being teased or shamed can cause a sensitive child to lose soul parts. Another type of soul loss occurs when a part leaves because it doesn’t fit or because it is sent away.
Soul loss can happen when parts of our soul are taken by or given to the significant people in our lives. People who have had soul parts taken unknowingly take soul parts from others. While there’s no judgment or blame, this does put people in an inappropriate energetic relationship.
In a romantic relationship, people often will trade soul parts. This exchange makes both people more dependent on each other, less able to stand on their own, and thus less likely to leave. It can feel safer and more connected for both parties, but both are diminished.
Whatever the source of soul loss, the effects are much the same. Soul loss will diminish a person’s sense of well-being, vitality, and joy in life. People often feel depressed, listless, and as though the world was all gray. Soul loss can lead to gaps in memory. People can feel fragmented or spacey or even as if pieces are missing. Sometimes people become accident-prone or keep falling into the path of misfortune. People with soul loss can spend a lot of energy working through events of their past and still feel impacted by them. In extreme cases, soul loss can cause a lack of sense of self, suicidal tendencies, and vulnerability to physical illness.
Impact of a Soul Retrieval
The emotional impact of soul retrieval is very gentle. Even when parts are lost due to severe trauma, they come back unharmed. After your soul retrieval, you may find it much harder to accept situations where you are not being honored, regardless of the economic or emotional advantages of being in that place. If you get soul parts back from another person, this can impact the relationship. In some cases, returning the soul parts instantly improves the relationship. However, any relationship where the other person is invested in controlling my client is likely to be made rockier by a soul retrieval, because it makes the recipient stronger and harder to control or manipulate. For people who have left a major relationship and are finding that they are having trouble moving on, a soul retrieval can help a great deal.
Honoring Privacy
When undergoing soul retrieval, you have the option to share or not to share the events and experiences in your life that may have led to soul loss. When people choose to share, I get more information and detail during the soul retrieval. If you choose not to share information about your life, my spirit guides will honor your privacy. If any information I receive conflicts with your intuition, trust yourself rather than what I told you. Sometimes I am given a different story as a placeholder.
How the Soul Retrieval Works
When we begin the call, we’ll talk in some depth. I’ll ask about the reader’s digest version of your general life story and traumas along the way. It’s helpful to know a bit about your relationship with your parents as a child and any romantic relationships that still feel as if there’s unfinished business. Sometimes the guides have some immediate messages that they ask me to share.
After we talk, I’ll get off the call for 10-15 minutes to do the work. While I am doing the soul retrieval, set your intent to release anyone else’s soul parts you may be holding onto and ask that they return to the appropriate person. While I’m doing the journey work and ask you to be in a quiet place with this intention and stay in stillness.
During the soul retrieval, I go into an altered or trance state while lying down quietly and listening to a drumming CD. I shift my awareness into shamanic reality, meet my guides, and begin the work. I begin by locating two power animals that will support you through the reintegration process. Power animals are spirit guides and helpers who appear in shamanic reality in animal form. They are sources of protection and power.
After the Soul Retrieval
After the soul retrieval, you need to welcome your soul parts back. I recommend people wait 24 hours before talking about the soul retrieval experience. Following a soul retrieval, if any soul parts have not returned, you are likely to experience spontaneous soul return of soul parts coming back on their own, now that the process has been activated. Except in cases of extreme trauma, most people who work with me only need one soul retrieval, rather than ongoing sessions. I work with my guides to make this healing as complete as possible.
If you have any questions or want more information, please read the full version of “About Soul Retrieval.” If that doesn’t answer your questions, please contact me.
Please note, the session will cover as much ground as 3-5 sessions would in another modality. While your energy body should be able to integrate the healing without difficulty, please give yourself space and time to unpack the many messages and suggestions the guides share when I provide the journey report.
Optional Next Step After your Soul Retrieval:
I have a number of specials for my soul retrieval clients, some are ongoing, others are time sensitive. You can check out the full list of offers here: Specials for my Soul Retrieval Clients
Would you like to receive ongoing support from my team of guides? When we work together, my guides have the chance to meet with your guides and higher self. From this experience, my team of guides get a detailed picture of what would support you in life. There’s only so much energy and information that can be shared within the 90 minutes we spend together. So, you may want to choose to have my team to hold and support you 24/7, either for a season as you integrate the soul retrieval work or as ongoing support for your life.
I offer this as part of my Membership offer for as little as $19/month. You can learn more here: https://www.patreon.com/practicalshamanism
I also offer a soul retrieval follow up session to align the new destiny paths that become possible following a soul retrieval. This optional work also helps to update and align your soul purpose. See the details here: https://www.handsoverheart.com/shamanic-healing/followup/
For more tips for supporting yourself after your soul retrieval, check out this optional video:
Want to learn more?
Check out the full version of this article About Soul Retrieval or Does Soul Retrieval Make You Tired?
©2005, Katie Weatherup. All rights reserved.
