We are all souls living out this experience in human bodies, and there are times in all of our lives when parts of our soul’s essence fragments in response to trauma and stress. The impact of this soul loss can be defeating and devastating to our emotional, physical, and spiritual wellness, but there is a way to heal. Soul retrieval can help restore our sense of wholeness and accelerate our healing process.
What is soul loss?
Soul loss is the energetic equivalent to what we might think of in psychology as dissociation. Dissociation occurs in the moments of our life when we may have felt unsafe or experienced trauma.
Soul loss occurs when we disconnect from our thoughts, feelings, or experience to survive. It happens because we can’t get our needs for safety and security met, whatever that means to us in that moment. There may be apparent traumatic events we can point to and remember. But quite often, it’s subtle or even “normal” moments that result in fragmentation.
According to Sandra Ingerman, a long time practitioner and teacher of soul retrieval, “Any event that causes shock could cause soul loss. And what might cause soul loss in one person might not cause soul loss in another.”
The Impact of soul loss
Over time, if we accumulate soul loss, we may feel a lack of vitality, a chronic stuckness, or a barrier between how we see ourselves and who we are. We might spend months or years in therapy thinking and talking our way through it, working with a part that is not present and available. It can be like having a conversation with someone that isn’t in the room and expecting them to hear us.
It’s important to remember that it’s not necessarily bad when a part dissociates in response to trauma. Your psyche and your spirit are only working to protect you from pain you may not be able to bear without leaving your body for the experience.
Symptoms of soul loss
We all have moments when we may leave our bodies, primarily during painful events. Once we regulate and come back into our bodies and feel safe, we can integrate the experience into our psyche.
However, we may also experience events severe enough to cause part of our souls to become lost. That’s when help is needed to bring that part of your soul back for integration.
Here are some signs you may be experiencing soul loss:
Depression
Difficulty adjusting
Unhealthy coping mechanisms
Disconnection
Negative thoughts/self-talk
Low energy
Self-neglect
Difficulty staying present
Feeling a repeated barrier or block in the changes you want to make
Soul Retrieval and how it helps
Soul retrieval is a process that calls the fragmented pieces home. By journeying into the spirit worlds with a shamanic practitioner, we can find the soul parts that are ready to integrate.
We often uncover information about why these soul parts are left and what special energy they return to you during this process. The beautiful part is that you don’t have to cognitively reprocess the trauma to regain the connection with the lost soul part. And only the parts you are ready for will show up. It can often be a gentler process than other forms of trauma work.
While everyone has their own experience and process, many people report feeling an immediate shift in their vitality and a feeling of being more themselves.
Soul retrieval often times reminds us of the beautiful parts of ourselves that we may have forgotten, and can bring us hidden gifts, guides, messages, and supports to help us on our path to integration and healing.
