I love this book! Sandra Ingerman provides a wonderful tool for self empowerment. With this tool, the reader will begin to tap into or become aware of those areas of her/his life that needs healing. "Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self Through Shamanic Practice" will help the reader learn how to identify issues in one's life while gaining compassion for him/herself and for others in the process. In doing so, the reader can begin piecing her/his life back together or learn to maintain the pieces; thereby, moving from a position of pain to a position of inner power.

Sandra Ingerman's book is a very good over view of the traditional shamanic technique of Soul Retrieval. Anyone interested in the traditional aspects of this technique will find this book helpful. Like the reviewer below, "Two Bears", I find that it is much more healing for the person, not the shaman, to do the Soul Retrieval. The practitioner (shaman) can hold space and help with integration, but the real work is most effective and empowering when the individual is doing the work for themselves.

In this book, Sandra demonstrates the traditional method, retrieving the soul part for the person, blowing it back in, and leaving the person more of an observer in the process than an actual participant. Clearly there are healing aspects to this method as well, though again, the potential for the person to feel dependant on the healing by the shaman makes me a bit squeamish. All in all, however, this book is a nice introduction into the methodology and offers some insights into the experience of Soul Retrieval.