Two Paths Home: Shamanic Soul Retrieval and The Coming Home Process

Understanding different approaches to bringing your lost parts back to wholeness

Throughout human history, wisdom keepers have recognized a profound truth: when we experience overwhelming pain, parts of our soul can separate from us. These lost parts don't simply vanish—they remain frozen in those moments, waiting to be found and brought home.

Two powerful paths have emerged for this sacred work of soul retrieval: the ancient shamanic way and the transpersonal regression approach I use in the Coming Home Process. Both honor the reality of soul loss. Both seek wholeness. Yet they offer distinctly different journeys home.

Understanding these approaches helps you choose the path that resonates with your soul's calling.

When Parts of Us Go Missing

Before exploring the paths home, let's understand what we're really talking about. Soul loss—or what psychology calls dissociation—happens when an experience becomes too overwhelming to process. It's our consciousness's brilliant survival strategy: if we can't bear what's happening, part of us simply... steps out.

That part doesn't disappear. It remains suspended in that moment, holding the unbearable until we're ready to reclaim it. Meanwhile, we continue life sensing something essential is missing, but not knowing quite what or where to find it.

Common causes of soul loss:

• Childhood experiences of feeling unseen or unprotected
• Accidents or medical emergencies that shocked our system
• Loss of someone we couldn't save or say goodbye to
• Moments when speaking our truth felt dangerous
• Past-life deaths that came too suddenly to process
• Times we had to abandon ourselves to survive

These separated parts influence us from their hiding places—through unexplained fears, repeated patterns, or that persistent feeling of incompleteness.

The Shamanic Path: Ancient Wisdom of Soul Retrieval

For thousands of years, shamanic practitioners have journeyed between worlds to retrieve lost soul parts. This ancient approach, beautifully documented by Sandra Ingerman and others, recognizes that healing sometimes requires assistance from one who can travel where we cannot yet go ourselves.

How Shamanic Soul Retrieval Works

In the shamanic tradition, the practitioner enters an altered state of consciousness—usually through drumming, rattling, or other sacred techniques. They journey to the spirit realms on your behalf, guided by their helping spirits, to find your lost soul parts.

The shaman might discover:

• A terrified child hiding in a spirit cave
• A part of you still at the scene of an accident
• An aspect frozen at a moment of betrayal
• Pieces held by ancestors or in other realms

Once found, the shaman negotiates for these parts' return, often discovering what prevented them from coming back on their own. With the help of spirit guides, they bring these parts back and blow them into your body—usually into your heart or crown.

The Gifts of the Shamanic Approach

This ancient path offers profound healing, especially when:

• You feel too fragmented to journey inward yourself
• The trauma feels too overwhelming to approach directly
• You're drawn to indigenous wisdom and ceremonial healing
• You need someone else to hold space while you receive

The shamanic approach honors that sometimes we need a skilled intermediary—someone who can retrieve what we cannot yet reach ourselves.

The Coming Home Process: Empowered Self-Retrieval

The transpersonal regression approach I use in the Coming Home Process shares the shamanic understanding of soul loss but takes a different path: you become your own soul retriever, guided and supported but ultimately empowered to bring yourself home.

How the Coming Home Process Works

Rather than having someone journey for you, you journey within yourself to find your lost parts. As your guide, I help you:

1. Enter a relaxed but conscious state where you can access deeper memories—from this life, birth, or even past lives
2. Follow the thread from current struggles to the moment parts got separated
3. Meet your lost parts directly in the inner landscape where they wait
4. Understand their experience through dialogue and compassionate witnessing
5. Create the conditions for return by providing what was missing then—safety, understanding, love
6. Guide them home yourself through the bridge of your own consciousness

Why Self-Retrieval Transforms Differently

When you retrieve your own soul parts, something profound happens:

• You become the hero of your own healing journey
• Lost parts trust the return more because you came for them
• The integration happens more naturally—it's you welcoming you
• You learn the path home and can return whenever needed
• Your sovereignty and self-authority are strengthened

A Tale of Two Retrievals

Let me illustrate with a client's experience of both approaches:

Sarah first experienced shamanic soul retrieval after a car accident left her feeling "not quite here." The shaman retrieved several soul parts, including a terrified 7-year-old. Sarah felt immediate relief and more presence.

Years later, working with me through the Coming Home Process, she discovered more layers. This time, she journeyed herself to find a past-life aspect—a young mother who died believing she'd abandoned her children. When Sarah herself went to this grieving mother, understood her story, and brought her home, something deeper shifted.

"Both healings were powerful," Sarah shared. "But when I retrieved that mother myself, I didn't just get her back—I reclaimed my power to heal myself. I became whole in a different way."

Choosing Your Path Home

Both paths lead to wholeness. The choice depends on what your soul needs:

Consider Shamanic Retrieval when:

• You feel too fragmented to journey inward
• You're drawn to ceremonial/ritualistic healing
• You want to receive rather than actively journey
• Indigenous wisdom traditions resonate deeply
• You need someone else to do the heavy lifting initially

Consider the Coming Home Process when:

• You're ready to actively participate in your retrieval
• You want to understand the full story of your lost parts
• Self-empowerment is important to your healing
• You're drawn to integrate psychological and spiritual approaches
• You want to learn to navigate your inner landscape

Common Ground: What Both Paths Share

Despite their differences, both approaches honor essential truths:

• Soul loss is real and impacts our daily lives
• Lost parts can and want to return
• Wholeness is our birthright
• The journey home is sacred work
• Integration takes time and care
• Every part of us deserves to come home

The Integration Journey

Regardless of which path you choose, bringing soul parts home is just the beginning. Integration—learning to live with all parts present—is where the real transformation happens.

Both approaches recognize that returned parts need:

• Time to settle back into your life
• Gentle attention and care
• Expression of their gifts and wisdom
• Integration of their experiences
• Honoring of what they held for you

Your Soul Knows the Way

Here's what I've learned after two decades of guiding souls home: your soul knows which path calls to you. Trust that knowing. Whether you're drawn to the ancient shamanic way or the self-empowered journey of the Coming Home Process, what matters is that you're ready to reclaim your wholeness.

Every part of you that's been waiting—in this life or beyond—deserves to come home. Every fragment holds a piece of your power, your joy, your essential self. The path you choose is less important than the choice to begin.

Ready to explore your path home?

• Book a Discovery Call to discuss which approach resonates
• Listen to The Soul Journey Tapes to hear retrieval stories (coming soon)
• Download my Soul Journey Starter Kit

Remember: You don't have to walk alone. Whether through shamanic retrieval or the Coming Home Process, support is available for your journey back to wholeness.

Note: Both shamanic soul retrieval and transpersonal regression therapy are powerful healing modalities. This article honors both paths while describing their different approaches. Always work with qualified practitioners who hold these sacred practices with integrity.