Soul Loss and Soul Retrieval, What It Means and How to Heal It

Do you ever feel like a part of you is missing? Or that you don't quite feel like yourself, even in a life that looks fine from the outside?

Maybe you've been through something that left you feeling disconnected, numb, or not quite who you were before. Shamanic traditions describe this as soul loss, when a part of you steps away, or fragments, at a time of trauma, grief, or overwhelming life experience. It's a protection mechanism, not a weakness. But left unaddressed, it can make ordinary life feel harder to navigate than it should.

Talk therapy is one route into this territory, and often a very effective one. Soul retrieval is another route, one that complements rather than replaces that work, moving below the conscious mind to work directly with what talk alone doesn't always reach - the parts of you that fragmented under the weight of what happened can be found, welcomed, and integrated back, through a process known as soul retrieval.

What is soul loss?

Soul loss is one of the central concepts in shamanism. It describes what happens when a part of you withdraws or fragments at a time of trauma, shock, grief, fear, or overwhelming experience, a natural, protective response, and is not a weakness.

This has a close parallel in modern psychology, where the same experience is understood as dissociation, the mind's way of distancing itself from something too much to process at the time. Different language, same essential territory.

Soul loss can happen after an accident, surgery, a bereavement, childhood neglect or abuse, an abusive relationship, or any experience that overwhelmed your capacity to process it in the moment. Many people carry some degree of it without ever having a name for what feels missing.

Signs and symptoms of soul loss

You might be drawn to explore this work if you've noticed:

A persistent sense of feeling incomplete, or that something is missing
Feeling numb, flat, or disconnected, as though you're going through the motions
Chronic fatigue or low vitality that doesn't resolve with rest
A sense of having never fully recovered from a particular event, even years later
Repeating patterns or life challenges you can't quite shift
Difficulty experiencing joy, connection, or feeling fully yourself

If several of these feel familiar, it may be worth exploring whether soul loss is part of what you're carrying.

What is soul retrieval?

Soul retrieval is the shamanic practice of finding and welcoming those lost or fragmented parts of yourself back, so you can feel more whole, present, and connected again.

This is not something done to you passively, and it is not a process I carry out on your behalf. It is a collaborative process between us, working with your own inner resources so that what is ready to return can return, followed by integration, helping that part find a safe and lasting place in your life.

Sessions may include drum, rattle and pendulum used as sound and energy therapy work, and ceremony used deliberately as part of the integration process.

What to expect in a session

We begin with a conversation: a gentle discussion about what's going on for you and what you'd like to explore or bring to the session
You lie down, and I open the space: using rattle and drum to begin the session
I check the energy: using pendulum or my hands, I look over your energy to sense what's present
The journey begins: with recorded drumming, I journey on your behalf, into the space where extraction, soul retrieval, soul healing, or ancestral healing may take place, depending on what's needed
We talk again afterwards: sharing what came through and what it means for you

A full session takes approximately 2 hours.

Why work with me?

I trained as a shamanic practitioner and in shamanic counselling and transpersonal therapy at the Irish Centre for Shamanic Studies. My approach draws on this training alongside my background in NLP and traditional Chinese medicine, held together by a genuine respect for the intelligence of your own inner world.

During your session, I journey on your behalf, using drumming, sound, and focused attention to enter that space and work directly with what is ready to be found, released, or returned. Afterwards, we talk together about what came through, so you understand what it means for you and how it connects to what you're carrying.

Investment

Each shamanic healing session lasts for 2 hours and is £90 per session.

Sessions are available in-person or online.

Where I work

I work with clients in person at my therapy space in Crossmaglen, South Armagh, easily accessible from Newry, Dundalk, minutes from the North County Monaghan and County Louth borders, and online with clients across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and the UK.