Soul Retrieval: Spiritual Healing for Trauma

Healing, Healing Touch, Shamanic healing, Shamanic Journey, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing

Most of us who live here on planet Earth will experience a trauma during our lifetime. It may be the death of a loved one, an accident or illness, an act of violence, abuse, or other distressing situation.

During a traumatic experience, part of your spirit or soul may split off and drop out of your life. In the shamanic worldview, this splitting off creates a condition called soul loss. Those who suffer from soul loss may feel that part of them died or was cut off from the flow of life when the trauma occurred. If this happened to you, you may feel out of body, empty, without vitality, or disconnected from full participation in life.

Soul retrieval is the shamanic remedy for the spiritual aspects of trauma and soul loss. The human spirit can be deeply affected by loss and harm, hardship, sudden illness, violence, injury, and abuse. Trauma can cast a dark cloud over a person’s life and keep them from living fully. Soul retrieval does not erase trauma, but helps a person regain their wholeness and return to the center of their own life.

This shamanic healing work can complement psychotherapy and western medicine for those who have experienced trauma. Western medicine concentrates on the physical body. Mental health therapy deals with the emotions and mind while shamanic healing focuses on the dimension of the spirit.

While focusing on the spiritual aspects of trauma, all levels of your being – body, mind and emotions – can be positively affected as your spirit heals and becomes whole again. Other areas of your life may come into balance as well because there is no separation between these four aspects of your existence.

For over a decade, my spirit helpers have been working in partnership with me doing soul retrievals for people of all ages. During a shamanic journey, my spiritual guidance shows me the “soul part” – the lost inner child or distressed adult- that split off and left their body behind after a trauma. They are shown to me at the approximate age they were when the soul loss occurred. I’m shown the state of their emotions through symbolic images, impressions and feelings. The information coming through from my spirit guides and helpers does not reflect the actual experience of the person, but symbolizes their spiritual and emotional truth at the time of the soul loss.

The journey unfolds with my guides showing me a symbolic narrative. These stories always include the state of the soul part’s emotions at the time they split off, a recovery of the soul part, a healing and clearing for the soul part, a retrieval for any power that was lost or stolen during the trauma, and, finally a return.

The return brings the healing into the physical world through a brief shamanic ceremony in which the energy of the soul part is returned to the person who lost it. Many times people who’ve had soul retrievals report feeling the familiar energy of their soul part return to them during this ceremony.

The basic structure of each soul retrieval journey is the same, but my helpers tailor the healing, narrative, messages, and images to each individual’s unique experience and needs.

Integration

On occasion, a soul part may be hesitant to return to full life again and rejoin their present day self . They may need reassurance that their life will be different now than it was at the time of the trauma, that they are safe, and will be taken care of, loved, seen and heard. This helps integrate them into your life once again.If you were a child when the soul loss occurred and are now an adult, explain that. Talk that through. Let them know they are safe now, that you are in charge of your life, that you will protect them. Explain where you live, if you have your own children and partner, the work you do… anything that occurs to you.

To continue the integration after a soul retrieval, there are several questions to ask your returned soul part that will help you create an ongoing dialog with them.

Why did you leave?

Why do you come back now?

What gifts do you bring back with you?

Soul parts always return with several gifts of the spirit such as a strong true voice, an open heart, a peaceful mind, a sense of playfulness, etc.

What can I do to sustain this healing?

For a child soul part this might include such things as playing outside, walking barefoot, hugging a tree, swinging, laying on the grass, spending time in a place of safety…. pay attention to what they are telling you and do the best you can to give them what they need and want.

To communicate with your soul part/inner child, tune into your heart, ask, and listen for the answers. You might hear the answers telepathically, see images, or feel a knowing in your body. If you have trouble connecting you might work one on one with a friend, healer or therapist to do this dialog together. You can write down the answers or draw pictures, speak them into a recorder- whatever works for you.

Shamanic healing is not a cure for trauma, anxiety, illness or injury, but can help bring balance, wholeness, and life changing insights into your life. Shamanic healing is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health care.

photo credits: Hand with hawk feather – jenelle – K2SXdKPEhcg – unsplash unsplash.com White feather – evie-s-white feather – unsplash unsplash.com

The Bracelet: A Story of Lost and Found

Connect with spirit, Healing, Shamanic healing, Spiritual Healing, Storytelling

When I was five years old, Dad took me to the ramshackle Victorian house of an elderly couple he visited often as a Methodist minister. He told me they were antique dealers. The house was loaded with curios and objects of art large and small. They seemed delighted to see me and allowed me to choose several treasures from their amazing hoard. Finally, after much dithering, I chose a shiny gold expansion band bracelet with a filigree heart and a tiny diamond chip (more likely rhinestone) in the middle.

This was a precious treasure to me! It was the prettiest thing I’d ever owned, and I wore it everywhere.

Lost

One day, my bracelet couldn’t be found. I looked everywhere in my room, in the house, growing frantic at losing my treasure. It did not turn up. In the days and weeks that followed I gradually forgot my bracelet and learned to live without it.

Found

Months later, in summer, while playing in the dirt under the church steps, I found my bracelet buried there, caked with soil, and dug it out. It must have fallen off my wrist while playing. My heart expanded with happiness! “I found it! I found it!”, my dad remembered me yelling as I ran into the house with my treasure.

Looking back, I owned myself as child, feeling happy, carefree, sensitive, and connected to nature. I loved trees, seeds, dirt, grass, gardening, loved to observe other children, to roughhouse and run, wrestle and climb trees, to laugh and be silly with my brothers, to pet and hold our Siamese cat as she purred.

Soul Loss

Then somehow, over time on my path to adulthood, my inborn wild and authentic nature deserted me, my personal power and vital parts of my soul were just gone. My self confidence was non-existent leaving me with little sense of self.

I knew something was missing in me. Pieces of myself were scattered, some even seemed to be buried in the dark soil like my bracelet. I felt unreal, ill at ease in the world. I didn’t feel confident or complete. I thought I was a mistake.

How did my once sparkling and free spirit get muffled, gagged and silenced? How did I allow it to withdraw into the shadows until I couldn’t connect with my inner spark any more?

Looking back, I freely gave parts of my spirit and power away to fit in to my family or group of friends. Others I depended on demanded that I give up parts of myself to be accepted and approved of. Yet others stole parts of my spirit and personal power from me through abusive acts or words.

The worst part of this was I didn’t realize that I was giving away and denying my most sacred treasure, the essence of my spirit. I couldn’t know as a child that these losses and thefts would hinder my life and impede my development as a young adult.

After living like this for years, I realized I didn’t want to exist in this fragmented way, feeling empty and isolated. But, there was no blueprint available, no book or self help guide to reclaiming my own self and my spirit.

The path to recovering myself was unclear at first. I had to reinvent my life, starting from an uncomfortable place of confusion, feeling alone and un-moored. I finally had to surrender and ask Spirit to guide me and show me my path.

It took me several years of dedicated focus to bring back the missing pieces of my spirit one by one and weave my inner life back together into wholeness. I couldn’t do this alone; energy healers, shamanic healers, dear friends, teachers, therapists, beloved spirit guides, and compassionate spirit helpers, self help books, and listening to my body and energy wisdom all contributed to my healing journey.

Like my shiny bracelet that was buried in the dark soil, I found and reclaimed my soul again. In shamanic terms what I did for myself was soul retrieval and integration– many times over.

I tell you my story because I want you to know that healing is possible. Reclaiming what you’ve lost is possible, reweaving your life, your spirit into wholeness is possible. You too can bring back the golden bracelet, your lost soul parts, your lost power, and connect once again with your true self.

Helping others like you navigate your personal healing path is now my life’s work, in partnership with compassionate and helping spirits. I am here to help you regain confidence, to develop, own, and trust your gifts!

I am here to assist you on your journey to wholeness, to reclaiming and reweaving the vital parts of yourself you’ve lost along life’s way.

What is healing?

Healing, Healing Touch, Shamanic healing, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom

Healing means trusting and stepping into the unknown from the well-worn, the comfort zone, the tried and tired old ways of being.

Healing means a change, a movement toward wholeness in your life. Healing means letting go of old stale harmful beliefs, self harming thoughts, energy patterns that no longer keep you safe or comfortable.

Healing means gathering your courage, looking honestly at your life and facing facts, then realizing you can transcend and grow and release what seems to hold you back, what seems a bedrock fact of your life.

You can hold a vision for what you want your life to become and begin your movement toward that, one step at a time. There is no need to rush! Hold your vision to your heart. No one can take it from you!

Healing is letting go, healing is allowing yourself to open to new possibilities and ideas and visions that harmonize with the core of who you really are. Healing brings your true self into focus.

Healing is not the same as curing. They are two separate things. Curing means the abolishment, the erasing of illness or disease. Healing is the movement of your spirit, heart, and mind toward your own clarity and light.

Healing is a gentle opening to your wise and true self, a letting go of all that blocks your spirit. If you are alive on this planet, in a body, you can heal.

(Dear readers, this post has been borrowed from my channeled blog, askgrandmothercottonwood.com)

How can energy healing help me?

Energy Healing, Healing, Healing Touch, Spiritual Healing

If you’re considering trying energy healing or new to the concept, here are a few basic facts I’ve learned over my years of doing this work.

We are all made of energy.

Our thoughts, feelings, emotions, physical bodies are all composed of energy. Our living cells respond to our thoughts, beliefs, intentions, and feelings. Our emotions send us messages important to our lives. This energy is meant to move and flow. It is the stuff of life!

When we try to bury an emotion, ignore a pain, hold on to the past, judge ourselves for thoughts we have or for feeling the way we do, our energy can get congested and build up like clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere before a storm. When this build up of stuck energy becomes overwhelming, it may lead to physical problems. Barbara Brennan who wrote the energy healing classic, Hands of Light, states that all disease and disharmony begins in the energy field.

Photo courtesy of ABMP

Layer by layer, at a pace that is right for you, energy healing helps you release these clouds of stagnant energy that have built up in your energy atmosphere, (your aura) and find clarity, balance, and harmony underneath. Many of my clients report feeling much lighter after a session.

Energy healing also works with the chakras, the subtle energy centers of your body.

Each of us has seven major chakras, each governing a different area of the body, from the crown of your head to the base of your spine. They are meant to spin freely, but if one or more are sluggish or blocked, your body is not getting the energy needed in those areas. If a chakra is chronically blocked, this could result in physical problems over time. By clearing and balancing the energy centers so they are open and spinning properly, your body has access to more energy and responds with renewed vigor and well-being.

Energy healing is holistic.

You are seen and treated as a whole person, not just a bundle of physical symptoms. Your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions are all taken into account and honored throughout the healing process. We are complex beings, and there is no one-size-fits all cure for anything! Everything is connected!

Energy healing, in partnership with your medical care and mental health care can help you reach your goals for health and well-being.

Physically, energy healing can help you gently ease pain without drugs, relax tension and stress, clear the effects of drugs after surgery or cancer treatments, accelerate healing of wounds, natural tension-headache relief , and much more. When needed, I refer clients to medical professionals.

Emotionally, the energy healing process can support you by creating a safe and sacred space for you to feel your feelings and release them when you are ready. Based on your intention, it can also calm energetic patterns of fear and anxiety. By providing acceptance for your feelings and your healing process, you are gently guided toward self love and self compassion. Many of my clients see mental health professionals as they work their way through tough emotions.

Mentally, energy healing can help you by bringing unhelpful patterns of thought and belief to your awareness. It can help promote mental clarity by calming and relaxing the mind. Many people that come to me for healing report “overthinking” or “monkey mind”. Energy healing can help you get out of your mind and into your heart and this helps you feel less anxious. Energy healing also helps bring in fresh new energy to your life, new ways of looking at your life, and new insights.

Spiritually, energy healing can help you by strengthening your connection to the divine. It can help you open up and trust the intuitive information and spiritual guidance you receive and allow you to see your life’s problems from a larger perspective. Energy healing can help make room in your mind, body, spirit, and life for growth and expansion into the person your higher self knows you to be.

Photo courtesy of ABMP

This work does not provide an easy pill that will magically take your problems away. It is an unfolding process that works in divine time – when your heart and spirit are ready. The healing begins within you when you hold a strong intention to heal your life.

Energy healing is not a substitute or replacement for your mental health care and medical care. It can complement your care along with other forms of integrative healing such as acupuncture and massage.

You can’t escape from your energy. To heal your life, you must transform it!

For more information or to schedule a session go to my contact page and send me a message. I’d love to hear from you!

Blessings for your journey!

How soul retrieval can help you feel whole again

Healing, Healing Touch, Shamanic healing, Shamanic Journey, Shamanism, Spiritual Healing, Spirtual Guidance

Do you feel as though part of you is missing?

Do you feel like it is an effort to “get it all together”?

When someone has suffered a traumatic event, loss of a family member, accident, illness, or a distressing situation, they may have experienced soul loss. If you have ever said the words “I’ve never been the same since…” or “part of me died when…” you may have experienced soul loss.

A soul part can also be stolen – as when someone takes your power, bullies, or abuses you.

A soul retrieval is a shamanic journey that locates and restores this lost or stolen soul essence to the client. The power and gifts that were lost with the soul essence are returned as well. This can be a very moving and life-changing spiritual healing experience.

Often, the symbolic pictures and stories of a soul retrieval journey show the soul essence as a child or young person, or the age they were when the event or injury occurred. I have also brought back soul parts in the symbolic form of precious gems.

Winter bird’s nest

Please come with me as I take you into the heart of a soul retrieval. (This is an excerpt of a soul retrieval my helpers and I did several years ago.)

…my spirit helpers, power animals and I enter journey space and travel along a wide stream. At a shallow place, we cross the river on stepping stones and climb up the steep bank. A nearby fence row is full of dead leaves. One of my power animals sniffs the decaying leaves and noses them aside.

I come over and begin to dig with my hands. Under the matted leaves is a little 4 year old girl with blue eyes and short dark hair – a soul part who left my client many years before because she felt deep shame when her father treated her in a humiliating way…

After a deep healing and cleansing, this soul essence was ready to return to my client, so she could be whole again. The little girl brought the gifts of fun and play, easy happiness, and self confidence back to the woman who had lost this part of herself so many years ago….

I blew the soul part into my client’s crown and heart and sealed in the healing by rattling around her 4 times. In the next few days, my client contacted the soul part and asked 5 questions to begin the integration process:

Why did you leave? Why do you come back now? What do you want? What can I do to sustain this healing? What gifts do you bring?

After a soul retrieval it is common to spend some time getting re-integrated with your newly returned soul part. They bring with them the fullness of who you were at the time they left you. It is a tender time of getting to know each other again, of remembering, of learning to be whole again, of reclaiming the inner child or young person you once were.

You may dialog with your soul part and let them know about your life in the present. It is important for healing and integration to listen and try to do what the soul part asks of you. If her or she wants to play, sing, swing, swim, run, paint fingernails…skip stones… etc, see if you can allow yourself to do these things in an easy and comfortable way adapted to your present life conditions.

Lost or stolen soul parts return when you are ready for the healing, wholeness, renewal and new energy they will bring to your life.

Blessings, Betty