How Shamanic Practice of Soul Retrieval can heal Trauma

How Trauma, Dissociation and Soul Loss impact Aliveness

"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears as fate." - Carl Jung

“You don’t seem yourself these days,” my friend said to me. I had gone through a recent and challenging divorce without much support, and it seemed like part of me wasn’t home anymore. It didn’t just seem like it. The truth was that a part of me had left during the trauma of my life unraveling in a fast and unforgiving manner. I had lived in a beautiful home overlooking the ocean and then found myself in a small rental with my two children and a creepy drug addict next door looking into our windows. It seemed that the ground below me was shaking continuously. I had never had an anxiety attack in my life until that time. I was waking up abruptly in the middle of the night in utter panic, hyperventilating and sitting in front of a fan to cool off my overheated body. I clearly was experiencing symptoms of PTSD. Thankfully I was already familiar with various therapeutic and shamanic healing modalities and found help to safely bring back the parts of me that had left during the crisis of my divorce.

I haven’t met anyone who has not suffered some extent of trauma. Interestingly I have also found that what is traumatizing to one person doesn’t have to have the same effect on another. But all of us carry trauma with us, be it minor or major, that needs to be healed for us to lead our lives to the fullest.

The experience of trauma can lead to what is called dissociation in Psychology which essentially means a lack of connection or connections. Dissociation is an internal mechanism that leads us to disconnect from feelings and emotions to avoid painful and traumatic memories. It is a defense mechanism in which we separate out of our memory of painful and traumatic events that we are unable to deal with at the time. In shamanic work we call this occurrence soul loss.

What are the signs of soul loss

So, what are the symptoms of soul loss and how would you know that you have soul loss? You may find that your enthusiasm, your trust in life and your enjoyment of life are greatly diminished. Even when you think you have recovered from a traumatic occurrence and feel completely over it, if you really look deep inside you will see you are no longer the same, no longer as happy, and carefree as before. The birds don't seem to sing quite as beautifully anymore and even a sunny day seems not as bright as before. It is almost as if your world has turned to muted shades of grey.

Many sufferers of soul loss feel as if a part of them is missing, as if they are no longer whole. They feel incomplete. This feeling is in fact very accurate because they have indeed lost a part of themselves and are no longer whole. The sufferers of soul loss may feel as if they are but a pale shadow of their former selves. Great sadness and depression are typical symptoms of soul loss. The depression can range from mild to extreme, depending on the severity of the soul loss. The depression of soul loss stems from being dis-spirited, having lost part of your spirit. In case of very significant soul loss serious, possibly severe illness will occur and with near total soul loss, the person will usually fall into a coma from which death could result from if the soul stays out too long.

Sometimes the soul piece can return automatically after a few hours or a day or two after a traumatic event but often it does not. In those cases, the soul piece has become permanently lost in the non-ordinary reality and is either unable or unwilling to return. A skilled shamanic practitioner can retrieve the lost soul piece and restore wholeness to the dis-spirited person. The shamanic technique of finding and restoring a lost soul piece is commonly called soul retrieval.

How to heal soul loss

Several types of trauma therapy are available to clients which can be very effective. However, when I learned about Shamanism as a methodology to aid my own and my clients healing process, I felt that it was adding a dimension that was missing in the world of clinical psychology. Shamanism is the oldest spiritual practice known to humankind. We know from the archaeological evidence that shamanism was practiced all over the world for at least 40,000 years. However, many anthropologists believe that the practice dates back over 100,000 years.

The word shaman comes from the Tungus tribe in Siberia and means “one who sees in the dark.” Shamanism has been practiced in parts of Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, Greenland, and Native North and South America. A shaman is a man or woman who uses the ability to see with "the strong eye” and interacts directly with spirits to address the spiritual aspects of illness, performs soul retrievals, divines information, helps the spirits of deceased people cross over, and performs a variety of ceremonies for the community. Shamans have taken on many roles in tribal communities. They have acted as healers, doctors, priests, psychotherapists, mystics, and storytellers. Shamans look at the spiritual form of illness which might manifest on an emotional or physical level and many cultures around the world believe that illness is caused by a loss of soul. The definition of soul utilized here is that soul is our essence, life force, the part of our vitality that keeps us alive and thriving.

The types of traumata that could cause soul loss in our culture would be any kind of abuse - sexual, physical, or emotional. Other causes could be an accident, being in a war, being a victim of a terrorist act, acting against our morals, being in a natural disaster, surgery, addictions, divorce, or death of a loved one. In essence 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.

While soul loss can occur because of abuse it can also be a way of life we learned from our families or as a way of coping with our sensitivity. Many women describe dissociation as a spacy or numbing sensation. In the middle of a crisis or traumatic situation that might be a good thing but when habitual patterns are robbing us of the ability to feel alive, vibrant, and happy it causes further issues. Trauma and dissociation go hand in hand. To dissociate is a natural built-in survival strategy to manage very stressful and fear-based situations.

Why this type of work is so powerful and profound

In my experience the main difference between soul retrieval and other psychological methods is that the shamanic practitioner relies on the wisdom and skills of the compassionate helping spirits. The practitioner does not determine what part the client is ready to reintegrate and never makes the assessment him or herself. It is the helping spirits who provide the diagnosis, and the practitioner never uses his or her own energy to facilitate healing. It is the bond and the relationship with the spirit helpers that determines the practitioners’ abilities. The spirit help will instruct the practitioner on which methods to use and in what order. Frequently a combination of methods is being called for. The compassionate helping spirits know more than the practitioner who is limited by human mind and ego. The work is based on embracing the fact that the helping spirits exist in a non-ordinary reality which allows them a bird’s eye view over the situation of the client.

The helping spirits have also proven incredibly helpful in gauging the approach when working with cumulative trauma. An example of that was a client of mine who was sexually abused as a child by a family member, was date raped in college and then ended up in a marriage where she was verbally abused. Several soul pieces had dissociated during her life and now all needed to be brought back and integrated. Even though my spirit help may show me what these pieces are, they might advise me to first empower the client in a certain way. This could be done with a power animal retrieval, or a medicinal song brought back to the client for example. In many cases where the client has experienced cumulative and complex post-traumatic stress disorder it is instrumental to proceed slowly with the healing and retrieval process. Often it is not beneficial for the client to receive several soul parts at once. Their emotional system could get flooded since all those parts need to be integrated back into the self. I have also found that soul pieces can decide to leave again if there hasn’t been enough integration time for the client to truly heal. So the wisdom of the helping spirits is truly instrumental in guiding the healing process.

What are the effects of soul retrieval

The effects of having a soul retrieval vary from person to person. Some people feel that they are more grounded in their body and feel more solid. Some people feel lighter and a joyful way of being returns to them. For some memories of the past traumas might be triggered bringing up a variety of feelings that must be worked through. And for some people the effects are too subtle to notice a change until further integration work is done. This type of healing work also is beneficial when utilized in addition to more traditional methods of therapy.

On return of the soul piece the seeker of healing usually feels an energy entering them. This can occasionally be accompanied by a vision. More frequently there is a strong emotion on reconnecting with the soul piece. Mostly this is a happy and familiar feeling, a sense of relief, but sometimes the old sadness or trauma will come up again and be experienced once more to be permanently released during the healing crisis.

As people feel more present in their bodies and in the world, they become more conscious of behavior that might be out of balance and disharmonious. When we are numb, we might be aware that things in the world are not right, but we can easily distract ourselves from feeling a need to change. When we are fully “inspirited” there is no place to retreat to and we are more inspired to change our lives. Being fully inspirited is the basis of leading a fulfilled and present life. In essence there is more of “you” available and present every day.