The path to spiritual peace and inner balance often feels elusive, especially when past traumas and life challenges create a phenomenon known as “Soul Loss.” In the world of shamanic healing, soul retrieval is a transformative practice that allows us to reclaim lost parts of the soul, restoring wholeness and balance. This ancient process is not just about healing old wounds—it’s about fully stepping into the vibrant, empowered version of yourself that may have been hidden beneath layers of disconnection and fragmentation.
Soul Retrieval resides at the core of my shamanic practice. For more information on the sessions I offer, click here: Soul Retrieval Sessions with Katie Weatherup
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But how do you know if a soul retrieval is the right next step for you? Let’s explore the top 5 signs you might need a soul retrieval and the incredible ways this practice can change your life.
1. Persistent Feelings of Emptiness
If you’ve ever had the sense that something crucial is missing, that deep-seated emptiness that can’t be filled no matter what you try, this could be a sign of soul fragmentation. Whether through trauma, heartbreak, or the cumulative effects of life’s hardships, parts of your soul can detach as a way of protecting itself from unbearable pain. While this may help in the moment, over time, the absence of these parts leaves you feeling incomplete.
Soul loss is often an energetic response to physical or emotional pain, and when these pieces are lost, we can experience an ongoing sense of emptiness. This isn’t just a fleeting feeling of sadness—it’s the sensation that no matter what you do or achieve, something vital is missing.
Imagine your soul as a mosaic, each piece representing an aspect of who you are. When one or more pieces are lost, the whole picture is disrupted, leaving you feeling fragmented and unbalanced. Soul retrieval works to restore those missing pieces. It’s an invitation to return to wholeness, calling back the parts of yourself that have been disconnected, so you can move forward with a renewed sense of purpose and connection.
As the poet Rumi once said, “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” In soul retrieval, this light represents the renewed energy and vitality that comes from mending those wounds. It’s not about erasing what happened but healing the fragmentation that occurred, allowing you to fully integrate those experiences into your being.
The process of soul retrieval is not about reliving the trauma; it’s about reclaiming the vitality and energy that was lost during those difficult experiences. Once these fragments are reintegrated, the persistent emptiness begins to dissolve, replaced by a sense of wholeness and inner peace.
2. Struggles with Emotional Healing
Have you found yourself going through therapy, self-help books, or other healing modalities, yet still feel like there’s a lingering heaviness that you can’t quite shake? If you’ve been working on emotional healing for years but continue to feel weighed down by unresolved pain, soul loss might be playing a role.
As Caroline Myss noted, “The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.” This is what soul retrieval provides—a chance to go beyond the noise of the mind and restore the soul at its deepest levels.
Reuniting with these lost pieces brings you back into emotional balance. You may find that emotional patterns you’ve been repeating for years begin to shift, and you are finally able to move beyond past wounds. This is because soul retrieval restores the full energetic integrity of your being, allowing emotional healing to unfold naturally.
When I had my soul retrieval 25 years ago, I knew within 24 hours that this was what I most wanted to offer to people. I’d been in therapy for years and while it was very useful, there was this deeper level that wasn’t touched until I began engaging with energetic healing modalities. Soul retrieval was far and away the most powerful for me.
3. A Stagnated Spiritual Journey
Feeling stuck on your spiritual path is incredibly frustrating. You might be doing all the right things—meditating, journaling, engaging in spiritual practices—but it feels like nothing is moving forward. This stagnation is often a sign that something deeper is at play. When parts of your soul are lost, it can create a blockage in your spiritual growth, making it difficult to access deeper insights or feel connected to your higher self.
Our spiritual paths are not always predictable, and when we experience stagnation, it can feel as though life has paused without explanation.
Soul retrieval offers a way to clear these blockages and restore the flow of spiritual energy. By reclaiming lost soul fragments, you open the door to greater spiritual clarity, insight, and connection. It’s like finally removing the dam that has been blocking the river, allowing your spiritual growth to flow freely once again.
This process can re-energize your spiritual practices, bringing new depth and meaning to the rituals you’ve already established. Whether it’s meditation, prayer, or another form of spiritual expression, soul retrieval allows you to amplify the energy behind these practices, making them feel more aligned and impactful.
Moreover, this process can reveal hidden blocks that may have been preventing you from fully stepping into your spiritual potential. By addressing these blocks at their source, you’re able to move forward on your path with renewed purpose and vitality.
4. Feeling Disconnected or Adrift
In today’s fast-paced world, feeling disconnected or adrift is all too common. You might feel like you’re just going through the motions—doing what you’re supposed to do—but without a sense of passion or purpose. This disconnection can sometimes be traced back to soul loss.
When parts of our soul are lost, it creates a gap between who we truly are and the life we’re living. You might feel like you’re not fully present in your own life, as though some essential part of you is missing. This can lead to feelings of aimlessness, confusion, or even depression.
Sandra Ingerman, a well-known shamanic healer, notes, “Loss of soul is a loss of purpose—a loss of passion, a loss of love—and the ultimate cause of monotony.” When we are disconnected from these essential parts of ourselves, life can start to feel flat, as though we’re merely existing rather than fully living.
Soul retrieval helps bridge this gap by bringing back the lost parts of your essence, allowing you to feel fully present and engaged in your life once again. It’s a deeply transformative process that re-establishes your connection to your true self, ideally providing a sense of purpose and direction that may have been missing.
This is not just about feeling better in the moment—it’s about rediscovering your authentic self and realigning with your soul’s path. When you are fully connected to your soul, everything in your life begins to shift. Relationships, career, and personal goals all start to feel more aligned and purposeful.
5. Unresolved Trauma or Pain
Trauma has a way of leaving its mark, even years after the event. Trauma, whether from childhood or more recent experiences, can create a significant amount of soul loss. When we go through intense emotional or physical pain, parts of our soul may split off as a way to cope with the experience. While this may have helped us survive the moment, it also leaves us fragmented and disconnected in the long run.
Soul retrieval offers a powerful way to reverse the impact of trauma by reuniting you with the parts of your soul that were lost during those difficult times. When the soul parts return, they bring their wisdom and power. This disrupts the stagnant nature of trauma and can begin a process of collateral healing that continues to move through your life long after the session.
Often following a soul retrieval, the emotional charge around difficult events begins to dissipate, and you are able to move forward without the weight of the past dragging you down. Sometimes there is even a feeling of reincarnating within our own life, such that while we know an event happened at the level of fact, we no longer feel an emotional or energetic relationship to that experience.
Soul Retrieval Impact Varies from Person to Person
My soul retrieval sessions (https://handsoverheart.com/soul-retrieval/ ) are designed to provide a profound healing that is completed in one session. That being said, this work is not a substitute for professional medical advice or psychological treatment. While there’s a powerful impact in shifting to a fundamental wholeness at the soul level, it’s not a magic bullet that can be expected to instantly resolve long standing emotional or psychological issues or complex life circumstances. Sometimes, there is a significant improvement in those areas overnight, but more often, the soul retrieval provides a foundation that means that other efforts to heal mind and body have greater results.
Whatever challenges you face, you’ll be more resourced and resilient with you soul essence present. Because the work is occurring at the soul level, how this experience translates to the conscious human level varies from person to person. It’s not unusual for these sessions to be described as life changing. Sometimes, the results are very subtle and come in the form of increasing strength and wholeness felt over time. It’s not unusual for me to have clients return for a follow up session 8 or 10 years later and share that the soul retrieval was a profound part of their journey.
How Soul Retrieval Can Transform Your Life
Soul retrieval is not just a healing technique—it’s a journey of profound transformation. When you bring back the lost parts of your soul, you can start to restore your full energetic presence in the world. This has a ripple effect on every aspect of your life, from your emotional health to your spiritual growth and beyond.
At its core, soul retrieval is about returning to wholeness. When we are fragmented, we are not able to fully engage with life. We may feel stuck, lost, or disconnected. But as we reclaim these lost parts, we begin to step into our true power and purpose. This process opens the door to greater clarity, joy, and fulfillment, allowing us to live more aligned with our authentic selves.
One of the most transformative aspects of soul retrieval is how it impacts our relationships. As we heal and integrate our lost soul parts, we show up more fully in our connections with others. Old patterns of codependency, fear, or avoidance may begin to dissolve, making way for healthier, more authentic relationships. Whether it’s romantic relationships, friendships, or family dynamics, soul retrieval helps us engage with others from a place of wholeness rather than lack.
Additionally, soul retrieval can have a profound effect on our physical health. The body depends on the vitality and nourishing energy shared by an incarnate soul to function best. I often work with people with amazing lifestyle practices who still struggle with major health issues. When our essence is fully present in the physical body, our health and resilience are improved. And when we make good choices to care for our body on top of this, we further leverage health and wellbeing.
In essence, soul retrieval is a return to our true nature. It’s about reclaiming the fullness of who we are, so that we can move through life with greater ease, grace, and joy. It’s an invitation to come home to ourselves, to heal the wounds of the past, and to step into the vibrant, empowered version of ourselves that has been waiting to emerge.
Additional Resources
Want a full overview of the soul retrieval process? Check out What to Expect in Your Soul Retrieval Session– https://handsoverheart.com/2017/01/20/about-soul-retrieval/ or my full article series about soul retrieval.
Want to learn more about my soul retrieval work? https://handsoverheart.com/soul-retrieval/
Curious about how long people have been receiving some version of shamanic healing? Check out this article! https://www.thecollector.com/shamans-mesolithic-period/
Want to hear more from a clinical psychologist? Check out this Psychology Today article: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-true-refuge/201703/soul-recovery
