What Is Spiritual Bypassing?

Inner healing work is a profound and transformative process that involves delving into one’s emotional, psychological and often spiritual wounds to foster genuine healing and personal growth. It is an essential component of therapy that enables individuals to confront and resolve deep-seated issues, trauma and patterns that hinder their mental and physical wellbeing, and fulfilment in life. 

Despite its importance, many people opt for “spiritual bypassing”, thinking this will bring the healing that is required. Spiritual bypassing is a tendency to use spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid dealing with unresolved emotional issues and psychological wounds. This is a practice that has become more prominent in recent years with the occult and ethereal wonder of crystals, ceremonies/rituals and tarot becoming more and more mainstream. This article explores the significance of doing the inner healing work in therapy, the concept of spiritual bypassing, why people engage in it and the common pitfalls of mistaking spiritual practices for true inner work.

The Essence of Inner Healing Work

Inner healing work is rooted in the understanding that our past experiences, especially those that are traumatic or deeply emotional, can leave lasting imprints on our psyche. These unresolved issues from childhood or more recent years can manifest in various ways, including anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties and a pervasive sense of non-fulfillment or unworthiness. The goal of inner healing work is to bring these hidden wounds to the surface, allowing individuals to process and integrate them, leading to genuine healing and personal transformation.

Renowned psychotherapist Carl Jung emphasised the importance of this inner work, stating, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” This highlights the necessity of confronting our inner shadows to regain control over our lives and achieve true self-awareness, rather than allowing life to be dictated to us and simply accepting it with a defeatist attitude. 

Spiritual Bypassing: An Overview

The term “spiritual bypassing” was coined by psychologist John Welwood in the 1980s to describe the use of spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid dealing with painful feelings, unresolved wounds, and fundamental emotional and psychological needs. Spiritual bypassing can take many forms, including excessive meditation, fixation on positive thinking alone and an overemphasis on spiritual rituals and concepts. 

Welwood explained, “When we are spiritually bypassing, we often use the goal of awakening or liberation to rationalize what I call premature transcendence: trying to rise above the raw and messy side of our humanness before we have fully faced and made peace with it.” This tendency to avoid the difficult work of facing our inner wounds because spirituality will make it non-existent or it will do the work for us, can be a significant obstacle to healing. 

Although no blame or fault can be attributed here; doing the inner work can be hard - it is normal to want to avoid it. However, avoidance or the misunderstanding that spiritual practices will heal the wounds for us is common, yet unhelpful. It is important to note that spiritual bypassing generally operates at the unconscious or subconscious level, where the individual is not fully aware of their avoidance behaviour and its underlying motivations.

This is often the reason why many people become frustrated with spirituality after years of firm commitment to practices; they remain stuck in traumas or patterns of behaviours with no improvement to their mental health worries. This is because they never healed these wounded parts of them; they took a spiritual bypass – which is often not a conscious decision. 

Why People Engage in Spiritual Bypassing

There are several reasons why individuals might choose spiritual bypassing over true inner healing work:

1. Fear of Pain: As noted above, confronting deep-seated emotional wounds can be incredibly painful. Many people use spiritual practices as a way to numb or escape this pain rather than facing it head-on. As Carl Jung wisely noted, “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” 
2. Desire for Quick Fixes: In a culture that often values quick solutions and instant gratification, spiritual bypassing offers a seemingly easier and faster route to feeling better without the arduous process of inner work.
3. Ego Protection: Engaging in spiritual practices can sometimes bolster the ego, providing a sense of superiority or specialness that shields individuals from the humility and vulnerability required for true healing.
4. Lack of Awareness: Many people are simply unaware that they are using spirituality to bypass their deeper issues. They may genuinely believe they are on a path of healing and growth, not recognising the avoidance at play.

Mistaking Spiritual Practices for Inner Work

It is not uncommon for individuals to immerse themselves in spiritual practices such as using crystals, tarot readings or other New Age modalities, believing that these activities constitute genuine inner work. While these practices can offer support and insight, they are not substitutes for the deep, often challenging process of inner healing. 

For example, you may have seen practitioners advertising online or through social media claiming trauma and wounds can be healed through energy healing or crystal therapy. Sadly, this is not the case, and many are led to believing that their painful experiences can be healed without any inner work. The fact is that using crystals for healing can provide comfort, working with energies and understanding a connection to something greater, but it does not address the underlying emotional wounds that need healing. Similarly, tarot readings can offer guidance and reflection, but they cannot replace the work required to understand and heal ourselves. Of course, these modalities can be beneficial offering support, comfort and genuine help. 

However, the honest truth is that no one - practitioners or otherwise, are able to do the work for us. The truth is that such practices cannot offer the results of the deeper healing work that is required; this is something only we can do for ourselves. We must find courage and strength to do what seems the hardest; taking a deep dive within ourselves and sitting with the pain of our emotions. Although once we have done this and healed ourselves, we hold more love, compassion, kindness and self-acceptance than we could have believed possible. This also leads us into greater awareness of ourselves and appreciating the beauty of authenticity, truth and the power of vulnerability. 

As psychologist Robert Augustus Masters points out, “Spiritual bypassing is a very persistent shadow of spirituality, manifesting in many forms, often without being acknowledged as such. It’s not an error to be corrected, but a necessary part of the spiritual journey to be understood and outgrown.” Recognising the difference between supportive spiritual practices and genuine inner healing work is crucial for true growth and transformation.

The Role of Therapy in Inner Healing Work

Therapy provides a structured and supportive environment for individuals to engage in the inner healing work necessary for lasting change. Therapists are trained to help clients uncover and process unresolved issues, providing tools and techniques to navigate the often painful journey of self-discovery and healing. It can also be beneficial to have a therapist who practices spirituality, which can bring many benefits to sessions. 

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT), hypnotherapy and other therapeutic modalities offer frameworks for understanding and addressing the root causes of emotional and psychological distress. These approaches help individuals develop healthier coping mechanisms, build resilience and foster a deeper understanding of themselves. You can learn more about these modalities here. 

While spirituality and its helpful practices can offer valuable support and insight, they should not be used as a means to bypass the essential work of inner healing. True transformation requires a willingness to face and process our wounds, a journey that is often painful but ultimately rewarding and will forever change your awareness, beliefs and sense of self. By engaging in genuine inner healing work, individuals can achieve a greater sense of self-awareness, emotional freedom and overall wellbeing.