It is the summer rainy season here on Hawai’i Island, and recently, a friend and I were word-playing, revisiting the well-traveled adage “You can never say Never…”

This brought us to wonder if it was ever appropriate to write the word ‘Never’ in a sentence. We decided to do so in a way that would create its opposite meaning, reversing its negative connotation to a positive.

My example was: “You can never underestimate the soul’s ability to heal.” So true.

Soul Reunion

I have been offering the powerful shamanic healing method of soul retrieval to others for nearly 17 years. During this time, I have done more than 4,000 soul retrievals… each an opportunity to be of service, yes… and yet each of these healing sessions is an opportunity to learn how soul retrieval works as well as the soul’s ability to heal based on its “readiness”.

I have also learned that spiritual healing has many facets and many stages. And the direct experience of the healing process teaches that each of us is ultimately responsible for our own healing path. Yet this process can be enhanced enormously by including a “healing team” of experienced and ethical practitioners, those with an accomplished track record who have the necessary skills and abilities that will help us along that path.

In this regard, I always see myself as a team member, a facilitator who may assist in the recovery and return of soul parts of our life essence that may have dissociated in response to some traumatic life experience.

My Soul Retrieval Work

Often people will ask me about my work by saying… “I hear you do an interesting form of healing… something about the soul. What is it that you do?”

In the past I attempted to answer the question with a straightforward reply, yet I was aware that I rarely responded to the question in the same way twice. I also noted that somewhere along the line, the inquiring person often looked confused, uncertain and even doubtful.

So I began to reply with questions, affording the other person the opportunity to engage in the process of self-discovery as the answers became apparent. For example, I would respond with “Let me ask you this…. have you ever had an experience that left you feeling as if you “lost” a part of yourself… or have you had an experience where you felt diminished? Perhaps it was a traumatic event, an experience of overwhelm or a profound shock to your personal reality? Or… do you have a deep knowing that something or some part of you is missing, and you do not know why or for how long?”

Inevitably, the person would acknowledge that they had had such an experience, often many experiences, to which I then asked…. “Did you ever think you could get those parts of yourself back?

Their response was almost always “No – I never even thought much about the loss after (the event), although I often sensed it… like something half remembered, yet now gone… like my childhood. And I have never considered that the return of these parts of myself might be possible.”

Western Mind

Across the years I have consistently observed in my clients that the Western “shape” of the their minds tends to determine much of their sense of what is possible, as well as what’s real and what can be expected.

In this vein, many people come to a point in their life where they feel compelled to seek assistance from alternative and complementary medicine practitioners, hoping to be “fixed” in much the same way that reflects the long history of the patient-doctor relationship in our Western world.

The Healing Process

The healing process begins when the request for soul retrieval comes from a person in need, based on their readiness to move forward along their healing path. I then help my clients begin to shift out of their Western mind-shape by informing them that my responsibility is not to fix or change them, but rather to bridge back that which has become lost–those dissociated fragments of their life essence that are rightfully theirs to claim- a healing experience that will allow for more of their soul to be available to them, enabling them to live their life more fully in the present moment.

The reunion of the soul is about enhancing the life that we are living now. No one else is living your life for you. Soul retrieval is a form of spirit medicine, which supports the restoration and care of a person’s life essence, their soul. Although we can experience the impact of the loss, the benefit of the returned soul parts can be experienced physically, mentally, and emotionally. And… our energetic field that is imbued with our personal supernatural self responds to this soul retrieval healing.

And once it does, life can become an incredibly enhanced adventure once again. The power of soul retrieval is best expressed by those who have experienced it, and so the following is a message I recently received from a soul retrieval client. I was of service to this sufferer at a distance, never having met him in person. I offer his testimony here with my gratitude for his courage of spirit and with his permission…

“In the past few weeks… since you did the SR [soul retrieval], I’ve been getting occasional glimpses of this supreme confident state which is the way I was in my early childhood before entering the hellish part of my adolescence. I’m feeling and reconnecting with this state more and more often now. I can’t say that it’s taken up full-time residence in my psyche yet, but I’m sensing it more and more. There is no need for fireworks or trumpets. It’s more like a quiet sense of knowing. And when I feel it, it’s absolute bliss.” JB, Paris, France July 31, 2009

Aloha ~ Jill Kuykendall

If you would like to learn more about soul retrieval and spirit medicine in general, then read Spirit Medicine: Healing in the Sacred Realms by Hank Wesselman and Jill Kuykendall. You are also welcome to contact me about my work directly. Mahalo!