— Healing of the soul has been around for a long time, though it is sometimes labeled differently. When I was going to church it was called “inner healing.” In shamanism it is called “soul retrieval.” This is the term that originally sparked my interest in the type of soul healing that I do.
I first learned the term soul retrieval many years ago when my husband started attending spirit circles with medium Terri Rodabaugh. At one particular circle we attended, we took my stepdaughter along, who was fairly young at the time. Terri would go around the circle and connect with dead friends and relatives and Spirit Guides to bring each participant a message from the spirit world. During this particular circle, Terri suggested that my stepdaughter could benefit from a soul retrieval. She explained that normally soul retrievals are performed by a shaman. I was intrigued.
After the circle, I went home and ordered five books on shamanism and soul retrievals. We also searched for a shaman but found that there were none close by, at least that advertised on the internet. About halfway through the first book, I had what I guess would be a spontaneous past-life memory or an ‘aha’ moment. I knew without a doubt that I had done soul retrievals before but not in this life, and not only that, I knew how to do them.
Ecstatic at this discovery, I jumped up and ran inside to give Clay the good news. Honestly, I was not really sure how he would react. Only recently had I revealed to him that I could hear Spirit talking to me and that I have had the gift a long time. Now I was going to tell him that I thought I may have been a shaman in a previous life and I thought I knew how to do soul retrievals. I should not have been surprised that he was completely supportive and encouraged me to try to find a teacher or whatever I needed to do.
At first, I had no success finding a teacher or classes in the area that fit into my budget and worked around my day job. I was not deterred from my determination. I began to call on friends and family to allow me to do “journeys” for them (another shamanic term for the altered state of consciousness one goes into to perform this healing). For about three years I practiced on family and friends. Eventually some friends of friends began to contact me as well as acquaintances, or people who somehow found out about me. Another medium, Susan Lynne, began to call on me to help with some of her clients. Mostly I was doing the healings for free or a very small fee. I had not had any formal training and was not comfortable charging the rates I saw other shamans charging.
Looking back, I feel that it turned out to be a good thing that I was listening to Spirit and performing the healings with only the guidance of my guides and the instructions I had read in the books. When I finally took some classes, some of the techniques I had been using were discouraged or forbidden. However, I have learned to trust my Guides, and I had gotten good results using the techniques they taught me.
So exactly what is a soul healing or a soul retrieval?
I mentioned in a previous chapter that many times what is often mistaken for a ghost, is actually trapped emotions that have gotten imprinted in a particular location. In those times when you experience trauma or an extremely emotional event, pieces of yourself, whether you call it your soul, your emotional body, your essence or your energy field, get separated from your physical body. These pieces can get trapped in physical locations or somewhere in the non-physical realm. We also sometimes lose pieces of ourselves to other people.
When I do a soul healing, I enter an altered state of consciousness through drumming, rattling, or other repetitive music, or even with no sound at all, and Spirit takes me to where the soul pieces are hiding. I can also retrieve them from other people, places, or time periods. Many people find extreme changes in their lives after a soul retrieval.
Every session I have with a client will be different. I am completely led by my Spirit Guides in the process. I have no set expectations for how a session will unfold. Many shamanic practitioners have a format that they adhere to when going into the non-physical worlds. My sessions are a bit different. Sometimes I follow the format and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I don’t know I am going to do a soul retrieval until I get into the session with the client. Sometimes I retrieve the soul pieces and then recount the stories of the soul pieces before placing them back into the body of the client. There are times when I lead them into a light-altered state of consciousness and they are able to get their soul pieces back themselves. This is always done with the presence and participation of my Benevolent Helpers and the Helpers of the clients. Either way, healing comes.
Recently I worked with a client who had suffered from a string of failed relationships. We had been working together for quite some time over this pattern, but it seemed to continue, despite the work that we had done.
In preparation for her visit on one particular occasion, I was told in meditation to do a session in which the client would exchange soul pieces with past lovers. We had done this on a previous visit, but I decided that if Spirit wanted us to do it again, we would follow Spirit’s instructions.
I found that one of the past relationships involved a man who was very controlled by his mother, which the client confirmed. I believed that the mother was trying to reignite the relationship and was unconsciously or consciously doing some sort of manipulation of energy to reconnect her son to my client.
Using remote viewing, I went into her house and asked my client if the mother had a decorative box of some sort that had belonged to her. She confirmed that she had given it to her as a gift. I had to extract my client’s essence from this and any other items that had belonged to her to prevent any manipulation of energy causing distress to my client. My client confirmed she had felt a dark presence lately in her home and felt it was related to this past lover, as sometimes she would awaken and feel his presence. I conversed with the mother’s soul and asked her to desist from whatever she was doing. It was important to allow her son to make his own choices, despite her feelings that he was making a mistake. I also requested that she cease her activities involving my client.
In this case, I worked with my client’s higher self and her combined intuitive ability with mine, to retrieve the energy that was missing in her physical body. When I retrieved the soul pieces, I asked her higher self to heal the soul pieces before returning them to her body. After the session, the client later reported that she had gone home and slept for almost four hours. She had felt a release and a complete change in her energy.
Yes, at this point in my life, I do believe it is possible to manipulate someone’s energy without their permission, as I felt this ex-lover’s mother was doing. She may have been doing it consciously or unconsciously, but her intentions, or prayers, or whatever she was doing, were having an ill-effect on my client. These are things I cannot know until I go into an altered state of consciousness during my sessions with clients. My Higher Guidance System gives me the information and then tells me what to do to correct the situation.
I would like to stress though, that these healings can be undone through the choices of the client. If I heal a piece of a client’s soul that was lost or damaged due to a toxic relationship but the client continues in the relationship, the healing will be short-lived. Soul healing, many times, is like peeling the layers of an onion. One healing session is often not enough to reverse years of trauma or repetitive disempowering behavior.
There is also the possibility that the client is in some way benefitting from the toxic behavior. They think they want healing, but when faced with the possibility of having to live without the toxic person or behavior, they revert back to the toxic behavior. Soul healings are a collaboration between the healer and the client. A client has to be committed to their healing. They have to be committed to changing their behavior once the healing is complete.
This is not a miracle procedure. Healing of the soul is a process. It is kind of like losing weight. An overweight person can diet and exercise for a while and lose weight but if the everyday behavior is not consistent, the weight will come back. Weight issues by the way, can also stem from emotional issues that can sometimes be corrected with soul healings. But eating is a habit and once the healing occurs, the habit of eating badly or not exercising has to be reversed.
One healing practice is that of talking to the souls of people with whom you have not experienced closure. This is done by going into a state of meditation or a light trance and imagining the person is standing in front of you. You are actually connecting with that person’s soul or essence. Although the conscious awareness of that person will probably not acknowledge the communication, on a soul level the person will hear you. Spirit told me years ago that the best way to do this is to wait until the person is asleep, but I have found that is not always necessary. The important part is the communication itself. Tell the person what you may not be able to tell them if they were actually standing in front of you. Tell them the down and dirty truth of how you really feel—not how you think you are supposed to feel, or how an enlightened or spiritually aware person should feel. Just let it all out.
Then forgive.
Forgive yourself for your part in the relationship, and forgive the other person for their part. At some level, there was a soul agreement, before birth perhaps or in another place and time, when you both agreed to the experience.
Then let it go.
Sometimes, miraculously, the person with whom you communicate receives the message and acknowledges, or in some way receives the communication. But more importantly, you are changed. You have let go of the poison inside and admitted to yourself the truth of how you feel.
