Purdie Wood

SOUL RETRIEVAL SESSIONS

Soul retrieval is the ancient practice used to call back fragmented aspects of our life essence that have separated from us during challenging or traumatic experiences.

When any living creature is fully infused with it’s own spiritual force or soul, it will radiate energy and vitality. By contrast, when any creature loses a part of it’s spiritual essence, a profound depletion and alienation from the rest of creation occurs.

Many of us today don’t feel totally whole, don’t feel as if we are all here. When we become aware of this, we want to recover the intensity of life, and the intimacy that we once enjoyed or of which we hold an image. We want to come home more fully to ourselves and to the people we love.

According to the animistic perspective, one of the major causes for this and for illness generally is referred to as soul loss. The word Soul has taken on many meanings, here it is used simply to mean our vital essence. The concept of soul loss has been understood in ancient cultures for tens of thousands of years to be the experience of losing crucial parts of ourselves that provide us with life and vitality.

The basic premise is that whenever we experience trauma, a part of our vital essence separates from us in order to survive the experience by escaping the full impact of the pain. What constitutes trauma varies from one individual to another. Soul loss can occur as a result of such traumas as loss of a loved one through death or divorce, shock, sexual or physical abuse, surgery, accident, illness, miscarriage, abortion or the stress of combat or addiction. It can also occur due to less obvert developmental trauma caused by familial dynamics present during childhood.

Some symptoms associated with soul loss can be simply having difficulty staying “present” in the body, looking to external things to fill up an internal void, feeling numb, apathetic or deadened, or more serious conditions such as chronic depression, dissociative behaviors, addiction to alcohol, drugs, food, sex or gambling.

Other specific indicators can be chronic illness as a child, weakened immune system, significant gaps in the memory of your life or finding unusual amounts of difficulty moving on with life after a divorce or death of a loved one. Any of these symptoms may indicate that the person is dealing with soul loss and has lost contact with essential core parts of the self.

Soul Retrieval is an ancient practice in which the practitioner works with people to return these lost parts of the soul or life essence. There are many different approaches and techniques used by different cultures and practitioners. My preferred way of working is a collaborative process in which we work together to bring back and integrate the vital essence that has been separated back in to the body. I have trained in a broad field of modalities and because my approach is instinctual rather than systematic I allow space for other work that may be needed prior and post soul retrieval work. It will always differ from person to person how the process unfolds and how much time is needed.

Integrating the returned soul parts and the gifts that they bring back into our lives is an ongoing process. The importance of continuing to work with these parts once they have returned is paramount to maintaining a sense of well being and wholeness. They may have been gone for years and when they come back they come back as allies, bringing a wealth of information and imploring to be acknowledged. Ritual, meditation, journey work, psychotherapy and bodywork can all be appropriate adjuncts to assist in fully assimilating what has taken place in your Soul Retrieval session.

Includes excerpts from Sandra Ingermans book "Soul Retrieval".

The term soul in this context refers to the life force energy or vital life essence with which we are each born. Through learnt behavioural patterns or during experiences of trauma this energy can split or separate from our bodies. This process of fragmentation is understood as a self protective mechanism designed to help us survive by escaping the full impact of the pain. Click here to read more about the art of soul retrieval.

INTERNAL TRACKING