Important Message for those interested in having a Soul Retrieval Session, as well as those who are interested in 5-day Soul Retrieval Training with Karen
As I wrote to you in 2009 I cannot support short workshops devoted to teach this powerful work. It is just not fair to potential clients who work with practitioners not adequately trained to do the work. Below is the letter I have sent to my email list of about 8,000 people: I am writing this letter for two reasons. One is now that my 2013 calendar has been published I am receiving emails and correspondence from many people expressing disappointment that I am not teaching a Five Day Soul Retrieval Training in the United States in 2013. I also have received many emails and letters from so many people asking about the difference between a weekend Soul Retrieval Training versus a Five-Day Soul Retrieval. As you are my community I felt I would like to speak to all of you. So hence this letter. In 2013 I have an exciting and full schedule. I am finishing my Two Year Teacher Training, and I have the most extraordinary participants in this training. I am so grateful for this. I am also co-authoring three new wonderful and exciting books. All of these books cover different subject matters than I have written about before. I love to write! I am also so grateful that I have the opportunity to take care of my 98-year-old mother. I am delighted to return to Europe to teach after about a five- year absence. I am teaching workshops and presenting at conferences in the U.S. in 2013. I will of course continue teaching Soul Retrieval and Medicine for the Earth in the United States and will be scheduling those workshops for 2014. In the meantime the reason I have been teaching Teacher Trainings is to be able to offer all of you in local communities great teachers who can work with. For workshops you are interested in please check out www.shamanicteachers.com. There are many brilliant and dedicated teachers you can work with on this list. Next I would like to discuss my feelings about teaching Soul Retrieval. I do not feel comfortable comparing workshops. This would not be right to do so and everyone has to find the workshops and teachers that they feel good about. I would like to share a bit about my history in teaching Soul Retrieval and also sharing what I feel you should look for in a Soul Retrieval Training. Before my book Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self was published in 1991 I taught weekend Soul Retrieval workshops all over the United States, in Europe, and in Australia and New Zealand. I found that in weekend workshops there was not the time to adequately train practitioners to deal with issues we face in a modern Western Culture. There is a lot to understand about the results of bridging the powerful and ancient method of Soul Retrieval into a modern day psychologically sophisticated culture. A longer time frame was needed to train practitioners. In 1990 I developed the Five-Day Soul Retrieval Training. And I find as I continue teaching Soul Retrieval I keep evolving the teachings. I am not trying to over romanticize indigenous cultures. But in indigenous cultures people from birth were supported in the gifts they were born to share with in their communities. And Soul Retrieval ceremonies were performed right after a trauma occurred in someone’s life. People in indigenous cultures were taught how to live a harmonious life and also knew what caused any disharmony resulting in illness. Life is not so simple in Western cultures. We are not always supported to live a life filled with meaning. We often cannot "connect the dots" to how our lifestyle has created emotional and physical illnesses we are dealing with today. People lose parts of their soul at very young ages and show up to shamanic practitioners for Soul Retrieval work many years after a trauma occurred in their lives. Shamans in indigenous cultures did not have to go back 40, 50, or 60 years looking for lost soul parts. And shamans in indigenous cultures did not work with a psychologically sophisticated population. I truly believe that the reason shamanism has survived over 100,000 years is the ability of the helping spirits to evolve the work to deal with the needs of people in different cultures and different times. This is why in 1997 I added a new introduction to my book Soul Retrieval and in recent years added a new Afterword. My new Afterword was written to share some of the brilliant brain mapping that has been done for people who have suffered traumas and the latest research on how to help people heal from traumatic experiences. When looking for a Soul Retrieval workshop I would contact the teacher of the workshop and make sure the following subjects are covered: What are the effects of performing soul retrieval work? Will I learn how to deal with healing crises that come up after a Soul Retrieval? Will I learn how to help a client deepen what are the more subtle effects of a Soul Retrieval? People show up to shamanic healing sessions expecting a miraculous and instantaneous change. Will I learn how to help a person who does not receive an instantaneous healing? Will I be taught how to help someone who lost a piece of their soul as a baby or a toddler and now have a habitual life pattern that runs the life of this person? People often notice that a recurring traumatic theme occurs in life such as always finding oneself being betrayed in relationships. Will I learn how to help a client create a new positive present and future different from the traumas of the past? Will I learn how to help a client fully integrate their soul parts so that the Soul Retrieval creates long term healing instead of short term effects that fizzle out over a short period of time? Will you be teaching how to share what was seen in a journey for a client to retrieve a lost part in a way that inspires clients to move on with their healing process instead of re-traumatizing them and taking them back into traumas of their past? This is key as I found that so many clients were re-traumatized by shamanic practitioners’ lack of education in how to tell healing stories. And the most important question is will you encourage me to perform Soul Retrieval ceremonies in an individual way to meet my clients’ unique and individual issues? This means you might need to change your work for each client that comes to see you. Every client deserves to be treated as an individual. Soul Retrieval is not a method that creates miraculous results after one session. It does for some but this is not the norm. Soul Retrieval is a process. I have been in touch with many veterans from both the War in Iraq and also the Vietnam War. They often talk about how disappointed they are to have worked with shamanic practitioners that were taught Soul Retrieval as a "simple" method and performed it almost in a robotic fashion. They turn to me to help them find practitioners who work in a deep and individual way. People today are very challenged. I know for myself I only contact shamanic practitioners for help when I need healing who have a deep understanding of the work. Personally I would only refer a veteran of a war to someone who had extensive training in Soul Retrieval. The same holds true for my precious loved ones. Clients deserve the best treatment and healing help that we would want for ourselves and those we love. Shamans work with the same principle as all helping professionals: Do no harm. You need to reflect on the needs you have as a student showing up to learn Soul Retrieval. And you must find the teacher who you feel will be best suited for your needs. You need to carefully explore how you can get the best training to be in service to people, all of life, and the planet. Personally I am proud to have been able to train those listed on www.shamanicteachers.com. All the teachers listed on www.shamanicteachers.com do teach extensive Soul Retrieval Training workshops. They often split the workshop up into a few weekends as many people cannot take off a week of work. I hope this information is helpful to you. And please feel free to share this letter in your communities. With love and blessings! Sandra Ingerman
