If an illness has a shamanic origin, the underlying issue is always Soul loss or Power loss. In the long-awaited course, we will uncover the root causes and symptoms of soul loss, learn powerful techniques to locate and retrieve lost soul fragments, and learn how to bring them back, negotiate their stay, and ensure their integration into the inner system of our parts-of-self, our inner tribe.
In this course, you can learn about:
- Your “Inner Tribe. This will include (1) the shamanic understanding of the main parts-of-self – Body, Soul, Sprit and Ego, and (2) drawing on the more psychotherapeutic aspects of Therapeutic Shamanism, the many sub-parts of Ego, including fort-holders such as the protector-controller, managers, fire-fighters, pushers, pleasers, perfectionists, inner-critics, self-saboteurs, and the exiled and orphaned lost soul parts too.
- Shamanic Soul Retrieval. Traditional shamanic techniques for identifying soul loss, finding lost soul parts, returning them, and integration into the inner parts-of-self. As well as more straight-forward soul retrievals, we will explore other practices such as “singing the souls back home”, how to retrieve lost soul parts from the middle-world (and so, how to do middle-world journeys, including looking at issues such as safety and protection), what to do when soul parts have gone into the Land of the Dead, complications that can arise from ancestral issues, and the important issue of how to heal lost soul parts before returning them.
- Soul Retrieval Challenges in Modern Times. For reasons we will explore in the course, soul retrieval is a much more complicated process than it once was. It’s not enough to bring lost soul parts back; we need to ensure there are no other parts-of-self objecting to their return. So, we will look at how to negotiate with fort-holder (protector) parts to ensure that soul retrieval is successful. We will also look at the crucial issue of learning to distinguish between parts-of-self, and parts that may at first appear to be self but which are, in fact, “other”; things that should not be in us (e.g. intrusions, ancestral burdens, “curses”, and possessing spirits).
- Shamanism and Psychotherapy. We will explore the overlaps and distinctions between the two traditions, leveraging insight and learning techniques from both to achieve a comprehensive balance of the inner tribe, and lasting well-being.
Dates: September 11th to October 16th 2027 (Part 1)
Practical details
Bookings open soon.
Bookings open soon
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YOUR INNER TRIBE: Body, Soul, ego and spirit
Most people see themselves as being a single “self”, a single “I”. The reality is much more complex. Each of us is made of several different parts of “self”, each part having their own needs, drives, agendas and stories.
In Therapeutic Shamanism and Core Animism, we work with the four primary parts-of-self: Spirit, Soul, middle-world Ego and Body. Each of these has its own wisdom, gifts, needs and value. Central to shamanism is to understand this and ensure that the wisdom and needs of each is valued, honoured and respected, and that they are in a healthy relationship – a healthy and high-functioning inner tribe.
However, in modern times, in abandoning animist wisdom, this inner balance has become lost:
- Ego. These days, we live in a culture that the author and academic Steve Taylor says is characterised what he calls “egomania”, with the majority of people identifying almost entirely with their ego part, and seeing “who they are” as the middle-world roles and identity that they have adopted and/or been given.
- Body. Usually, the Body, an immensely wise part of us, is viewed as being nothing more than a “vehicle” we inhabit, and most people have lost any sense of how to listen to it.
- Soul. Connection with what animists understand as Soul has been almost entirely lost, to the extent that most people live and die these days having little, or ever, no idea at all as to what their Soul is.
- Spirit. Although some people are aware of Spirit, from an animist perspective, much of modern-day understanding of Spirit is mixed up with varying degrees of ungrounded and wonky thinking.
We are in a mess! On this course, we will look at the animist teachings, and shamanic and psychotherapy practices, to start putting this right.
HEALING SOUL LOSS
Shamans understand that parts of our soul can leave our bodies. If, however, those parts do not return, the result is a sense of emptiness and a feeling that something is missing.
Sometimes, the lost part is stuck back in the time period and place of the trauma. Other times, the soul part drifts further, fleeing to safe places in shamanic realms. And sometimes it gravitates to places of hopelessness and despair. What they need, is to come back.
To do that, to bring lost parts back home, in a shamanic journey, where we journey to find the missing parts and persuade them to come back, a process known as soul retrieval.
SOUL RETRIEVAL CHALLENGES OF THE MODERN TIMES
The principal cause of soul loss in modern times is usually that we send part of our own soul away, in order to ‘fit in’.
If all our soul (or souls) had left, then we would have died. The fact that we did not die means that part of us stayed behind and carried on, ‘holding the fort’ so to speak. In childhood, this is the part (or parts) of is the ‘fort holder’ the part(s) that stayed to ‘man the fort’ and to ‘soldier on’. The part of us that learns to ‘bite our lip’ or ‘hold our tongue’; to always be ready for a fight; to not show weakness; to not speak out; to swallow our sadness; to sell ourselves out in order to fit in or survive, and countless other strategies we may have adopted to get through childhood, and in particular, to try and fit in to our dysfunctional and domesticated modern world.
The fort-holder part of us may be ambivalent or even outright opposed to the ‘lost’ soul part returning, as it is likely to be nervous about the changes that doing a soul retrieval could (and would) bring. In fact, it is often the fort-holder part who sent the lost soul-part away in the first place, because at the time, in doing so, they were trying to protect us and help us fit in and survive. This is very common in our tamed and domesticated culture, which makes modern-day soul retrieval a much more complex issue than it once was.
LEARNING FROM THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: SHAMANISM & PSYCHOTHERAPY
Many modern psychotherapies have also come to understand that we are made up of parts-of-self. The list includes therapies such as IFS (Internal Family Systems Therapy), Voice Dialogue Work, Gestalt chair work, Transactional Analysis, John Rowan’s subpersonality work, and various others. In these therapies, it is understood that the issues people present with are often due to the various parts-of-self being in an unhealthy relationship with each other, with some parts having too much power, and other parts being marginalised or even excluded altogether.
Shamanism is also a parts-of-self model (in fact, probably the original parts-of-self model), and so parts-work is one area where shamanism and psychotherapy meet and overlap and an area where each can greatly benefit from learning from the other. This 10-meeting course will explore this in depth. This will include drawing on psychotherapy with its detailed understanding of how to identify parts-of-self and how to dialogue and negotiate with them, and then how to weave this into shamanic soul retrieval practices. By doing this, we can work in ways that are much more effective. And in turn, in doing this, we are following an ancient shamanic path. Namely, that shamans have always been pragmatic and adaptable. They have always taken the core principles and practices of shamanism and then adapted them to make them relevant and effective in the times and places in which they live.
... AND MUCH, MUch MORE!
practical DETAILS
Inner Tribe now runs in two parts. Part 1, Soul Loss and Soul Retrieval, runs in 2027. Part 2 follows in 2028.
Part 1 starts on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH and consists of:
• 6 pre-recorded theory modules. Each module contains a video presentation of between 1 and 3 hours in length, with accompanying learning resources. They will be released at weekly intervals, on Saturdays, on September 11th, 18th and 25th, and October 2nd, 9th and 16th.
• As usual, a Signal group, where students can ask questions, discuss topics, share experiences and additional resources, and get support, encouragement, and a sense of community.
• Bonus recordings if and when needed.
In addition, there is the option of adding:
• 5 Questions, Answers and Discussion (QAD) sessions. Run by Cat and Kaja, these provide a live and online space for students on the course to ask questions, discuss things, and for Cat and Kaja to provide more in-depth answers and additional teaching too. They run on Saturdays from 1pm to 2pm UK time, on September 18th and 25th, and October 2nd, 9th and 16th, starting a week after the course begins so you have time to watch the first recording. They are only open to people booked on this course. You can add all 5 QAD sessions for £15.
THE CURRICULUM
(MIGHT BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
SOUL LOSS AND SOUL RETRIEVAL
- What soul loss is, what causes it, and how it shows itself.
- Soul loss and power loss: similar symptoms, different remedies.
- Small-s soul and capital-S Soul, and the four parts of self: Body, Ego, Soul and Spirit.
- Fort-holders, the parts that stayed behind, and the lost and orphaned soul parts that left.
- Body armouring, and why childhood matters so much.
- Practice: a simple Lower-World soul retrieval, and integration afterwards.
PARTS OF SELF
- Shamanism as the original parts-of-self model.
- Parts-of-self models in psychotherapy, from Jung and Transactional Analysis to Voice Dialogue.
- Internal Family Systems: managers, firefighters and exiles, seen through a shamanic lens.
- Reichian character types.
- Practices: Constellations of the Self, and respite journeys for fort-holder parts.
RESISTANCE IN SOUL RETRIEVAL
- Why lost parts and fort-holders can resist a soul part’s return.
- How fort-holders develop and change over a whole life.
- Befriending the resistance, and why nearly all of you needs to be on board.
- The Shadow, and double signals.
- Practices: chair work, somatic dialoguing, and protection in the Middle-World.
THE IDEA OF SELF
- Who is observing? The Witness, Spirit, and the “Self” of Internal Family Systems.
- Soul and Spirit, and two kinds of oneness.
- What a true adult is, and why it has to be learned.
- The inner tribe modelled on the egalitarian hunter-gatherer band.
- Practices: lifelines, and the safe “window” technique for the Middle-World.
WHEN TRADITIONAL SOUL RETRIEVAL FALLS SHORT
- Why, in modern times, a soul retrieval is the first step of a longer process.
- What a part does, and what it carries.
- Reading body symptoms, and telling projection from perception.
- Witnessing rather than emoting, and meeting things where they are.
- Practices: Focusing and the felt sense, and somatic dialoguing.
THE BODY, INTRUSIONS AND EXTRACTION
- The body’s needs, body shock, and why the body never lies.
- Intrusions: thought-forms, introjects, hitch-hikers and possession.
- Telling a part of self from an intrusion.
- The extraction process, working with your Guides.
- Practices: unwinding, soothing touch, and journeying for the body.
want to work as shamanic professional?
THIS COURSE IS A PREREQUISITE FOR JOINING OUR SHAMANIC PRACTITIONER (PROFESSIONAL) TRAINING
Please note that completion of our Inner Tribe Course on soul retrieval is a prerequisite for enrolling in the Shamanic Practitioner (Professional) Course, which provides comprehensive coverage of the professional issues crucial for aspiring practitioners. Upon successful completion of the professional course, participants receive a certificate of attendance and the option to apply for membership of independent registers of practitioners, such as Indie Shamanism. If you plan to join the Practitioner Training, you will need to complete this Inner Tribe course first.
And, even if you don’t intend to become a professional practitioner, this is a big course that covers an absolutely key area of shamanism, one of its cornerstones, and which you will find invaluable in your own personal shamanic work. Don’t miss it!
HOW DOES IT WORK?
PRE-RECORDED ONLINE TRAINING
- Weekly video modules taught by Paul Francis, founder of Therapeutic Shamanism.
- Optional live QAD sessions.
- Study in the Comfort of Your Own Home.
SUPPORT BETWEEN SESSIONS
- Detailed Course Notes.
- Video Recording of Every Class.
- Submit Your Questions for the Next Session and Discuss with Peers.
- Learn at Your Own Pace.
YOUR SHAMANIC TRIBE AND COMMUNITY
- Meet Like-Minded People.
- Connect Between Sessions on Website Forum and (optional Signal group).
WHAT OUR STUDENTS SAY?
ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS
JOIN US!
To attend the ‘Inner Tribe’ course, you need to have completed our First-Steps course, and booked on at least one Next-Steps course with us (please note, there really are no exceptions to this). We have 2 Next-Steps courses available before this course starts on 11 September 2027:
Exploring the Lower-World
The Animal, Plant, Standing (Tree) and Stone People
Part 1 of the ‘Inner Tribe’ course consists of 6 pre-recorded theory modules, with the option of adding 5 live QAD sessions.
Payment by installments. We are committed to keeping our courses as affordable as we can, and this course is way cheaper than almost any comparable one. However, please remember that (depending on what country you are from) PayPal offers the option of spreading the payment over 3 monthly instalments. There is no fee at all for this, nor any interest incurred.
Bookings open soon.
