What Is Soul? A Depth Psychotherapy Perspective on Soul Loss and Soul Retrieval

Soul: A Mystery We Long For

There are words we use often without ever fully touching them.

Soul is one of those words.

In my work, I often talk about the soul — soul loss, soul retrieval, soul work.

But sometimes I realize: we rarely pause to ask, what is soul?

What are we actually speaking to, longing for, tending?

The word soul can feel slippery — both intimate and mysterious. It’s one of those words that points beyond itself. Like a finger pointing at the moon, it’s not the finger that matters, but the moon itself.

Indigenous Traditions: Soul as Relationship

In many Indigenous traditions, soul is not something we “have,” tucked somewhere inside the body like a possession.

Soul is relational. It is the breath between all things. The thread that ties us to earth, ancestors, animals, and the unseen.

It is our belonging — and when we lose touch with that belonging, we suffer.

Carl Jung’s Understanding of Soul

Carl Jung, whose work is woven deeply into my own, spoke of the soul as the bridge between the personal and the archetypal, the human and the divine. He wrote,

“The soul is the living thing in man, that which lives of itself and causes life… it is the living meaning of life.”

To Jung, soul was a mystery to honor.

The soul is the carrier of dreams, griefs, longings — the deeper currents that don’t always fit into the surface life we’re taught to prize.

Religious and Mystical Views of the Soul

Religious and mystical traditions offer many doorways into this mystery.

In Christianity, the soul is seen as the immortal essence carrying the image of the divine.

In Buddhism, the very idea of a separate soul dissolves into the great ocean of interconnected being.

In Sufism, it is the hidden garden within, yearning always to return to the Beloved.

The poet-philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote,

“The soul is the perceiver and revealer of truth.”

It is not through intellect alone that we come to know what is real — it is through the quiet, felt knowing of the soul.

Each tradition carries a thread.

No single one can show the whole.

Maybe that’s the point.

How I Experience Soul in Therapy

For me — as a human, as a therapist — soul feels like the current running beneath everything.

It’s the part of us that aches for beauty, weeps in the presence of tenderness, or trembles before mystery.

It’s the quiet whisper inside that says: there’s more to life than this surface we’re skimming.

Soul Loss: When We Become Disconnected

When I talk about soul loss, I’m speaking of the ways we become disconnected from that deeper layer — often through trauma, oppression, emotional neglect, or simply living in a world that prizes speed over tenderness.

Donald Kalshed and the Inner World of Trauma

Donald Kalshed’s work on trauma offers a profound lens into this. He describes how, in the face of unbearable pain, a protective system forms within the psyche — splitting off the most innocent, soulful parts of ourselves to shield them from further harm.

It’s a mercy.

But it’s also a tragedy.

What gets protected is also isolated.

What gets hidden is also forgotten.

Soul loss is not just about sadness or disconnection.

It’s about losing touch with the vital, living meaning that makes life feel real.

Soul Retrieval and the Path of Healing

When I talk about soul retrieval, I’m talking about the slow, sacred work of calling those lost parts home — through dreams, imaginal work, grief tending, ritual, nature, community, and love.

When I talk about soul work, I’m talking about living into the questions that don’t have easy answers. About honoring our wounds as invitations to greater wholeness. About remembering that healing isn’t just about functioning better — it’s about coming home to who we really are, underneath the armor.