In many difficult experiences, as in tragedy or trauma, a person could lose part of him- or herself as a survival mechanism to withstand the emotional and physical hurt. In shamanic terms, this process is called soul loss. In psychology, it is called dissociation.
Psychology does not ask where the lost part goes and how one gets it back. In the practice of shamanism, when a piece of the soul or energy leaves, it goes into another reality and is lost from the person. A void then exists in that person’s soul.
Think of the soul as a giant jigsaw puzzle. When you experience a trauma, a piece of the puzzle is lost, leaving an empty space. When soul loss occurs, a soul retrieval is necessary to restore wholeness. In a process called journeying, a shaman is trained to enter an altered state of consciousness and travel into different realities to find and retrieve the lost soul parts. The shaman then “blows” these parts back into the client via the heart and the top of the head, restoring wholeness.