What is soul retrieval?

Eight years ago, I found myself driving with no real destination, my heart pounding in my chest. I had just witnessed domestic violence, and something inside me got ripped open—a wound I thought had long since scarred over. Memories from a decade ago flooding my mind. My body was in fight-or-flight, my mind reeling, but I didn’t know how to make it stop.

After a while of driving, I ended up in the desert. I sat down, hands shaking, and wrote a letter to my 17-year-old self—the girl who had endured an abusive relationship and never really escaped. I closed my eyes, took a breath, and then… something shifted.

Suddenly, I was underwater, swimming through the dark, murky cold. As I surfaced, I found myself in a cave, and there she was—huddled in the corner, scared and alone.

I walked to her, knelt beside her, and whispered what she had always needed to hear. I wrapped my arms around her, held her, told her it was time to go. We waded into the water and rose to the surface, breaking through the darkness into sunlight. I let her step into the warmth. I let her be free.

Little did I know, that was my first experience with soul retrieval—and I hadn’t even known that’s what I was doing.

What is Soul Retrieval?

There are moments in life when we leave pieces of ourselves behind. Not always by choice—sometimes they are torn away in moments of trauma, silenced by fear, or hidden away for protection. These lost pieces don’t disappear; they remain stuck in the places where the pain first happened, waiting to be found.

Soul retrieval is the process of reclaiming those lost parts. It is the act of journeying inward, retrieving the fragments of yourself that broke away, and reintegrating them into your being so you can feel whole again.

In many traditions, soul retrieval is a shamanic practice—one that involves entering an altered state to find, communicate with, and bring back the parts of you that have been lost to trauma, heartbreak, or suppression. But soul retrieval isn’t just for mystics. It’s something we can all learn to do, in ways that are both spiritual and deeply somatic.

What Causes Soul Loss?

Trauma & Abuse – A part of you may separate to protect itself from pain.
Heartbreak & Betrayal – Pieces of your energy can get trapped in old relationships.
Suppression & Conditioning – Society, family, or religious structures may force parts of you into hiding.
Past Life Wounds – Sometimes, soul fragments linger beyond this lifetime.
Near Death Experiences - Crossing over, just to come back can seem to leave a part of you behind.

The Signs of Soul Loss:

Feeling Disconnected or Emotionally Numb – Life feels distant, like you’re just going through the motions without truly feeling present.

Struggling with Self-Abandonment & Repeating Old Patterns – You keep falling into the same toxic cycles, making choices that don’t align with your true self.

Feeling Like Something is Missing, But You Can’t Name It – There’s a hollow space inside you, an unshakable sense that a part of you is lost somewhere.

Parts of Your Life Feel Like They Belong to Someone Else – You look back at memories, relationships, or even your current reality and feel like you’re watching someone else’s story.

Chronic Fatigue or Feeling Drained for No Reason – Soul loss can create a deep energetic exhaustion, like you’re always running on empty.

Unexplained Grief or Longing – A sadness that lingers, a yearning for something beyond your reach—often, it’s a lost part of you calling to be found.

Dissociation & Memory Gaps – Feeling like you “black out” in certain situations, struggle to remember pieces of your past, or experience time in an unusual way.

Fear of Being Seen or Fully Expressing Yourself – A part of you may have been hidden away for so long that showing up as your full, authentic self feels impossible.

What Happens During a Soul Retrieval?

Soul retrieval can take many forms, but the experience is often profound. You might enter a dreamlike space, see the younger version of yourself in a forgotten place, hear their voice, or feel the emotions they were forced to suppress.

In that moment, you become the bridge between past and present. You see them. You speak to them. You bring them home.

Some people experience deep emotions, release physical sensations, or feel an overwhelming sense of relief, wholeness, or clarity after soul retrieval. Others might need time for integration, as the returned parts of the self begin to settle back in.

Why Does Soul Retrieval Matter?

Because you are not meant to live fragmented. You are not meant to walk through life as half of who you are.

When we retrieve our lost pieces, we reclaim our power.
When we reintegrate our wounds, we stop repeating the same cycles.
When we come home to ourselves, we finally feel whole.

In my own journey, I found soul retrieval long before I knew the words for it. I was just trying to survive. But when I held my younger self in the depths of that cave, I understood: healing is about more than letting go. It is about bringing yourself back.

In the next post, we’ll dive into how to locate the pieces of yourself that were left behind using Shadow Work and Somatic Mapping.