Dr. Barbara Stone, PhD., LISW, creator of the therapeutic approach called Soul Detective ®, describes this process as getting to the "invisible roots" of one's life challenges and "healing past life trauma to liberate your present." Traumas, phobias, and destructive belief patterns that interfere with our enjoyment of life have a root cause, be it from this life time or a past life or due to ancestral wounds, energetic cord attachments, vows, earthbound spirit attachments, detrimental energies, soul loss, etc. Using the diagnostic procedure of Applied Kinesiology, commonly known as "muscle testing", a Soul Detective practitioner, together with the client, zero in on the root cause of a client's distress or discomfort. When a cause is discovered (there may be several layers or aspects to an issue), certain protocols or approaches (meridian tapping sequences, vow renunciations, past life resolutions, helping an earthbound spirit to move on, to name a few) are employed to neutralize the effects of the interference.

Each Soul Detective practitioner, while using the basic format of muscle testing, zeroing in on a myriad of possible causes and drawing on certain prescribed protocols, also avails him or herself of all the therapeutic tools he or she already possesses (such as psychotherapy, body and energy healing, etc) to thoroughly address a client's needs. A series of sessions may be necessary depending on the complexity of the issues.

"The Soul Detective® approach developed by Dr. Barbara Stone promotes emotional well-being by using tools from the new field of Energy Psychology to find and clear the origins of emotional disturbances."