Soul Retrieval Therapy

An Ancient Shamanic Practice for a Modern Age

Do you ever feel that you're "not quite here"...? that there's a "bit of a hole" somewhere...? or an empty space that never gets filled...? We are beings of consciousness and feeling – consciousness that moves and flows, feelings that move our states of being from deep within. A violent shock can literally make us jump out of our skins. A traumatic experience can cause us to dissociate or separate part of ourselves from what is happening..."it was like watching it happening from a distance". A loved one who leaves us can take our heart with them if we "give our heart away". Even leaving a place that we love can "tear us in two" and can result in our leaving part of ourselves, part of our consciousness, behind in that place.

Wholesome re~integration is not automatic or inevitable and many of us are aware of an area of emptiness within... perhaps felt as loss... that something is missing. From the most ancient days of shamanic practice, this has been viewed as a loss of a part of one's soul and there are many traditional techniques for the retrieval and re~integration of that part of oneself that has become 'lost'. In most cases, this has involved the shamanic practitioner travelling to the bardo or underworld, finding and negotiating with that part of the client's soul or consciousness that has been abandoned and returning it to the waiting client.

A modern, and in some ways more effective and empowering way of working, is where the practitioner guides the client him/herself through the experience of locating/negotiating/re-uniting with and re~integrating that part of him/herself that has been lost. The client is guided through an extended relaxation process before being guided to a tunnel or stairway that leads deep into the earth. At the end of the passage is another world, where their spirit guide or guardian angel awaits. This, in itself, can be a powerful experience. Accompanied in consciousness by the practitioner, they embark on a boat that carries them along a river, during the course of which a power animal on the river bank is identified and befriended. Eventually they disembark and the magic of the moment takes place as the part that was lost is rediscovered...

What follows is entirely personal; the lost fragment may feel rejected or abandoned and need to be comforted or even persuaded to return...there may be other parties involved in the original event who need to be dealt with appropriately, before being forgiven and released...eventually, all is resolved and the client (more complete than when they left) returns to normal reality and a period of assimilation. It isn't a scary process; it is our own consciousness that we are exploring and, since it is ours, it is a place that is deeply familiar and where we feel at home.

The process of re~integration is empowering and emotionally uplifting; it leaves us feeling stronger, more whole and more wholesome. This is the most ancient 'psychotherapy' and, in my experience, amongst the most direct, most effective and most efficient ways of 'bringing ourselves back home'.