Shamanic healing is an ancient tradition that uses spiritual and energetic techniques to restore balance, remove blockages, and promote wellbeing on all levels of a person’s being. For thousands of years, shamans have served as healers, guides, and wisdom keepers in indigenous cultures around the world. Today, there is a resurgence of interest in shamanic practices as more people seek holistic alternatives to conventional medicine.

What is Shamanic Healing?

Shamanic healing views wellness as interconnected between mind, body, and spirit. When one part suffers, it affects the whole. Shamanic practices aim to get to the root cause of imbalance and disease by addressing spiritual, energetic, and emotional blocks.

Shamans access an altered state of consciousness to travel into non-ordinary reality and connect with spirit guides. They return with knowledge, power, and techniques to promote healing. While not everyone can become a shaman, which requires years of training and apprenticeship, anyone can benefit from shamanic healing methods.

Some common techniques used in shamanic healing include:

• Soul retrieval – Restoring lost soul parts and vital essence.
• Extraction – Removing intrusions, negative energies, or manipulation.
• Dismemberment – Taking something apart and putting it back together whole.
• Soul remembering – Accessing wisdom from past lives.
• Working with power animals & spirit guides – Power animals act as protectors and healers. Spirit guides provide insights.
• Ceremony & rituals – Creating sacred space and communing with spiritual realms.
• Ancestral healing – Resolving and releasing ancestral, generational, or family issues.
• Psychopomp work – Helping lost souls cross over.

Shamanic Energy Healing

A key aspect of shamanic healing is energy work. Shamans see spiritual energies that underly physical health and harmony. Imbalances manifest first in the energy body before appearing in the physical body as illness.

Shamans access enhanced sensory abilities in altered states to detect energy blockages, intrusions, disruptions or disturbances. They use spiritual power to move and release stuck energies and reconnect people to their vital life force.

Methods of shamanic energy healing include:

• Power animal retrieval – Restoring connection to a primary animal spirit guide for power, protection and healing.
• Extraction – Using psychic surgery to remove or transmute negative energies.
• Soul retrieval – Gathering lost soul essence and harvesting healing power from nature.
• Ancestral healing – Releasing trapped emotions or pain inherited from genetic lineages.
• Clearing energy imprints – Removing negative energy imprints left in the Luminous Energy Field.
• Space clearing & blessing – Clearing stagnant or harmful energies from a home or land.
• Cord cutting – Releasing attachments to unhealthy relationships or patterns.
• Chakra balancing – Removing blockages and bringing chakras into alignment.
• Crystal healing – Using stones and crystals to restructure energy fields.
• Smudging/saging – Burning sacred herbs to clear unbalanced energies.

The shaman’s job is to recognize where energetic blockages are occurring and to restore smooth and healthy flow.

Soul Retrieval

Soul retrieval is one of the most well-known and profound practices in shamanic healing. It is based on the understanding that trauma, difficult life experiences, or blocked emotions can lead to parts of our soul essence splitting off from the whole. This can result in feelings of depression, lack of energy or connection. Soul retrieval aims to call back and integrate these lost soul parts.

How does soul retrieval work? The shamanic practitioner moves into an altered state of consciousness and journeys to find the lost soul essence. This is often visualized as an inner child, animal, or other being representing the missing vitality. The shaman may need to negotiate with guides or spirits to bring this soul essence back home.

Once returned, the soul part can share hidden memories, wounds, and truths with the individual as part of the integration process. The client then feels a renewed sense of wholeness, vigor and peace.

There are many benefits reported from soul retrieval:

• Improved vitality and energy
• Feeling more fully present
• Regaining access to blocked parts of yourself
• Relief from depression or grief
• Release of destructive behaviors or addictions
• Deeper sense of purpose and meaning
• Greater emotional resilience

Soul retrieval is a powerful process that can be truly life changing for those who feel fragmented or blocked from living their full truth in the world.

Spiritual Cleansing

Spiritual cleansing is the practice of removing toxic or unbalanced energies from your mind, body, and spirit. Shamanic cleansing techniques help clear blockages, banish negative entities, release limiting beliefs and patterns, and reconnect you to inner guidance and wisdom.

Why cleanse? We can pick up heavy, unsupportive energies from many places – difficult life events, trauma, depression, negative people, electronics, news, or traveling in unfamiliar places. Cleansing helps us reset, regenerate, and restore equilibrium on all levels so we can thrive.

Shamans use a variety of techniques for spiritual cleansing:

Smudging – Burning dried herbs like sage, sweetgrass, cedar, or palo santo for auric cleansing.

Bathing – Immersing in plant infusions or salt baths to purify.

Drumming – Using sacred rhythms and vibration for energetic realignment.

Extraction – Removing or transmuting negative entities, implants, or energies.

Cord cutting – Releasing unhealthy attachments that drain lifeforce.

Ancestral healing – Addressing family wounds and inherited patterns.

Chakra clearing – Opening and balancing primary energy centers.

Crystals – Using certain stones and minerals to absorb toxic energies.

Movement – Dancing, shaking, or moving energy out of the body.

Light – Visualizing filling spaces with pure, high-vibration light.

Nature – Spending time in nature for grounding and rejuvenation.

Intention-setting – Shifting mindset and consciously choosing an uplifted state.

Regular spiritual cleansing can be tremendously healing, empowering, and transformational. It helps us release what no longer serves so we can thrive in our lives, not just survive.

FAQs

How do I find a shamanic healer or shamanic energy practitioner?

Look for reputable practitioners through websites like The Four Winds Society, Sandra Ingerman, or The Foundation for Shamanic Studies. Ask about their specific training and credentials in shamanic energy medicine. Rely on word-of-mouth recommendations from trusted sources. And interview potential shamans to find someone you feel comfortable with.

What can I expect during a shamanic healing session?

Practices vary but may include journeying, extraction, soul retrieval, ancestral healing, psychopomp work, power animal retrieval, or cord cutting. Discuss your intentions ahead of time. The shaman will guide you into a relaxed, open state and perform healing while you rest. Integration, discussion and energetic recalibration often follow.

How is shamanic healing different from other energy healing modalities?

While modalities like reiki also balance energy, shamans access non-ordinary states of consciousness and work directly with spirits. Their techniques rely on power from the natural and spirit worlds. Shamans take a holistic approach to identify core spiritual causes for soul loss or imbalance.

What benefits will I experience?

Benefits include improved energy; release of limiting beliefs/fears; feeling more centered, grounded and peaceful; reconnection to purpose; freedom from stuck patterns; inspiration and creativity; improved sleep; and deeper connection to intuition and inner wisdom.

How long do the effects of a shamanic healing last?

It varies based on personal circumstances but regular sessions can have profound cumulative effects. Implementing lifestyle changes and performing spiritual practices enhances longevity. Booster sessions are often needed during challenging transitions. Think of it as maintenance for your energy body!

Shamanic healing can spark deep transformation by addressing spiritual causes of illness and adversity. If you feel lost, fragmented, blocked, or simply disconnected from yourpurpose, consider connecting with the wisdom of this ancient tradition. With an open mind and heart, you may just find the missing pieces to restore inner balance and live your best life.