It is a gentle, graceful, and profound healing practice. This information will better help you understand your soul retrieval. In the description that follows, I am using a shamanic framework to describe and clarify the nature and experience of the soul. This article will help you understand and possibly engage with the unseen world by presenting a framework that our conscious minds can understand. You don’t have to believe in or agree with this framework to have soul retrieval.

The soul, as referred to in soul retrieval, is the energetic essence of your being. It encompasses the intangible aspects of your being, including gifts, qualities, and aspects of who you are. It is the “you” that transcends physical experience. Pieces and parts of that soul essence can sometimes become separated, trapped, and/or lost. If you imagine the soul energy as a sphere, when soul loss occurs, there are voids and areas that are missing.

Soul loss is part of the human experience. It’s designed to protect our nonphysical essence from various kinds of trauma. If something traumatic is happening, such as a car accident, physical violence, or an emotional assault, the last place we want to be is fully present in our bodies and in the experience. Instead, part of us goes away to avoid the trauma. Psychologists refer to this as dissociation. The shamanic community calls it soul loss. Either way, it helps us to survive the various kinds of trauma that happen in our lives.

Lots of kinds of trauma can cause soul loss. Examples include accidents, surgery, sexual violence, and combat trauma. Whenever someone says, “I’ve never been the same since my accident/that relationship/my surgery,” they are describing a soul loss experience. 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.

Whatever the trauma, the protective mechanism of soul loss causes part of our life essence to leave in order to protect itself from being damaged or traumatized. The soul part leaving sometimes carries away some of the memory and immediacy of the experience. In the normal course of events, the soul part would return on its own after the trauma had passed. But sometimes the trauma is so severe that the soul part goes so far and fast that it can’t find its way back and gets lost. In cases of chronic trauma or abuse, the soul part may not know it’s safe to come back. There’s no time in shamanic reality, so the soul part doesn’t know that twenty years have passed and the violent stepfather is no longer in the picture.

Another type of soul loss occurs when a part leaves because it doesn’t fit or because it is sent away. This could be an aspect that is shamed or punished; for example, a girl might send away her anger. Sometimes we send soul parts away because they don’t fit into our adult lives, disowning our impractical passions.

Finally, soul loss can happen when parts of our soul are taken by or given to the significant people in our lives. As human beings, we struggle to maintain good physical and emotional boundaries.
The concept of good energetic boundaries is not something that occurs to most people. When soul parts are taken or exchanged, it invariably happens on an unconscious, energetic level. 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.

Picture a mother, already diminished by her own soul loss experiences, looking at her child. She might think that if she could just have some of her child’s vitality and energy, she would be able to cope with her life.
On an energetic level, she reaches out and takes some of the child’s essence. The child may resist at first, but eventually it is easier to give up the soul part than keep struggling. Or perhaps the child feels sorry for the parent and gives up their soul part willingly. Again, I want to emphasize that this isn’t deliberate. When I retrieve soul parts, parents are always glad to give up their children’s soul parts once they realize what they’ve done.

In a romantic relationship, the people involved often will trade soul parts. Our culture’s love mythology implies that when we love someone, we give them our heart and our soul. It’s easy to mistake a lack of energetic boundaries for closeness and connection. People often unconsciously give their lover some of their own vital life essence along with their love. 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 to both parties, but in reality, both people 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 and joy in life. It can cause a lack of vitality and interest in the world. 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 like 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.