She is ill. The shaman prepares herself in the customary way of her people and travels to non-ordinary reality to consult with her helping spirits. Her goal is to discover the cause of the illness and set things right. The shaman does not classify the illness as either emotional or physical as we do in our culture. The shaman recognizes that the two are not separate.
Shamans believe that the soul can leave the body.
Even the most skeptical individuals in our culture believe this happens to everyone at death. When we dream, our souls wander about and return to our bodies without causing death. The soul that wanders may be thought of as the person's consciousness, and the soul that stays behind the one that keeps the body functioning. If the first soul does not return, the person will eventually die. In some parts of the world it is considered dangerous to awaken someone quickly as they may not be able to return to their body safely.