Today, our modern lives have many demands that lend themselves to anxiety, sadness, lack of meaning and isolation, to name a few. The journey of shamanic healing and practices provide us the awareness to build healthier relationships by deepening our connection to ourselves and creating a more authentic self-perspective. By creating authenticity, we empower ourselves to seek better relationships with others and with life in general.

For those who are not familiar with the shamanic terms, please keep in mind that shamanism has its own unique terminology to describe energetic and psych-spiritual processes, imbalances, and illnesses. For example, soul retrieval has more to do with the essence and or quality of an individual, rather than the actual soul of a person.

One of the most common and universal techniques a shaman employs is a soul retrieval of a lost essence. Soul loss (essence loss) occurs when we experience trauma, shock, pain, or loss. A part of the essence leaves the body as a natural defense mechanism to avoid the pain of a particular situation, and is known in psychology as “disassociation”. Symptoms of soul (essence) loss include chronic depression, addictions, illness, prolonged grief, PTSD, memory gaps, feelings of disconnection with the physical body, and loss of empowerment. Causes of soul loss can include physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, and can be caused by the death of a loved one, including a pet, loss of job, financial loss, childbirth, divorce or separation, hospitalization, surgery, accidents, natural disasters, and war.