What is ‘Soul Retrieval’? And Is It Right For Me?
Here’s a quasi-secret: I’ve been certified in Shamanic Soul Retrieval techniques for about two years.
I haven’t spoken about it much because I studied Soul Retrieval only to enhance my day-to-day Reiki healing skills, not to become a proper shaman. I offered the option to clients only after determining it might help them. However, given all the weirdness in the world right now, my Divine guides and angels are encouraging me to speak up more about this powerful healing tool.
The basic theory behind Soul Retrieval is that every time we are traumatized, taken advantage of, abused, or give away our own power in some way, a piece of our soul breaks off and stays in that moment of time-space. As we go through life with these “holes in the soul”, those holes can leak energy and make us vulnerable to absorbing energy that doesn’t sustain us. We don’t feel “whole”, or even know what it is to feel whole.
There is evidence of these soul holes in our language. Have you ever said, “my heart feels empty”? Or heard someone say, “After the accident, I was never the same”? Addiction recovery groups actually talk about how addicts use substances or compulsive behaviors to fill “holes in the soul” — and they don’t always realize how right they are!
Soul Retrieval is the sacred process of ‘calling back the pieces of soul’ and reuniting them with the body. Each practitioner has their individual way of performing this type of healing ceremony. My particular way involves lots of prayers for forgiveness and gratitude between the Divine, the pieces and the client’s body. I especially like to do this work outside in the warmer months, with my bare feet in the waters of the beautiful river behind my house.
My outdoor office.

So why now? What is so important about Spring 2020 that I’m willing to “come out of the broom closet” about Soul Retrieval techniques?
Well, look around. You are a person in the world. You can see how fraught everything is right now. Lots of people are scared, fighting each other, and acting out in their fear. Others are overwhelmed, not knowing how to relax or how to process their spectrum of emotions. Moving into the unknown without “all of our pieces intact” seems to be a large contributing factor to this stress. Perhaps if more of us were reunited with missing soul pieces, we could feel more stable.
I speak from experience. When I had my first Soul Retrieval ceremony in 2018 I felt changed. It felt like everything up to that point about my personality and how I related to the world had been, like, B.C., and after the ceremony was A.D. The change was that stark. I felt whole, and more mature. I remember telling someone, “For the first time, I feel like a grown-up! I can react to things the way a grown-up would!”
I was already deeply in love with self-work and shadow-work before that so I’m sure my previous deep dives into self-awareness laid the groundwork for such a huge feeling of change at that time. Still, I believe all people can benefit from an open mind and a reunification with their soul pieces.
As we traverse this weird and new reality, I believe that each person will be better equipped to deal with the changes we are facing if they are operating at “100% capacity”, without energetic drain or absorbed trauma from soul loss. I guarantee that if I had not had soul retrieval before now, if I was facing quarantine and a crumbling global economy from my previous, swiss-cheese energy body, I would be a literal wreck right now. A hot mess. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to experience it when I did.
There is so much that has been written about Soul Retrieval and I encourage you to do your own research into this beautiful tool. If you are interested in trying Soul Retrieval yourself, please reach out. (Pro tip: this work can be done remotely, so your chosen healer does not have to be local to your area!)
Good luck to you and, as always, be well.
xoxoxo,
Jessica
