Spiritual Bypassing and Trauma
When Avoidance Masquerades as Healing
Spirituality has the potential to be a powerful tool for healing trauma, offering hope, meaning, and connection in the face of deep pain. However, when spirituality is used to bypass the difficult work of processing trauma, it can do more harm than good. Spiritual bypassing—a term coined by psychotherapist John Welwood—describes the tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to avoid dealing with unresolved emotional wounds.
For trauma survivors, spiritual bypassing can feel like a safe refuge from pain. But in reality, it often delays or even prevents true healing. Instead of engaging with the raw, difficult emotions that trauma brings, bypassing encourages suppression, denial, and detachment—all of which can keep trauma trapped in the body and mind.
In my previous article I wrote about the dangers of spiritual bypassing. In this article, we’ll explore how spiritual bypassing interacts with trauma, why it’s harmful, and how to engage in authentic, integrated healing instead.
Understanding Trauma and Its Impact
Trauma is more than just a painful experience—it’s an event or series of events that overwhelms a person’s ability to cope, leaving deep psychological and physiological imprints. Trauma can stem from childhood neglect, abuse, violence, loss, accidents, medical emergencies, or other deeply distressing experiences.
Unprocessed trauma doesn’t just fade away with time. It lingers in the body, shaping beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. Many trauma survivors struggle with:
Emotional dysregulation (difficulty managing emotions like fear, anger, and sadness)
Hypervigilance (constantly feeling on edge or unsafe)
Dissociation (feeling disconnected from one’s body or reality)
Self-blame and shame
Trust issues and relationship struggles
Because trauma can be so overwhelming, survivors often seek relief through various coping mechanisms—including spirituality. While spirituality can be a healing force, when used improperly, it can become a tool for avoidance rather than integration.
How Spiritual Bypassing Shows Up in Trauma Healing
Trauma requires us to feel, process, and integrate painful experiences—but spiritual bypassing encourages avoidance under the guise of enlightenment. Here are some common ways this happens:
1. Using Positivity to Suppress Pain
“Everything happens for a reason.”
“Just focus on love and light.”
“Let go and move on.”
These statements may be well-intentioned, but for trauma survivors, they can feel dismissive and invalidating. While finding meaning in suffering can be powerful, forcing positivity without acknowledging pain only pushes trauma deeper into the subconscious.
2. Detaching from Emotions in the Name of Enlightenment
“I no longer identify with my trauma.”
“Pain is just an illusion.”
“I’ve transcended suffering.”
Some spiritual teachings emphasize detachment from emotions, but for trauma survivors, this can lead to emotional suppression rather than true healing. Processing trauma requires engaging with emotions, not bypassing them.
3. Over-Reliance on Spiritual Practices to “Fix” Trauma
Using meditation, prayer, or energy work instead of therapy or deep emotional processing
Believing trauma will heal only through high-vibration practices
Avoiding difficult conversations about trauma in favor of spiritual retreats or rituals
Spiritual practices like meditation, breathwork, and energy healing can be wonderful complements to trauma work—but they can’t replace the deep psychological and somatic healing that trauma requires.
4. Dismissing Therapy and Mental Health Support
“Therapy keeps you stuck in the past.”
“You just need to raise your frequency.”
“Talking about trauma keeps it alive.”
While dwelling on trauma indefinitely isn’t helpful, denying the need for professional help can be damaging. Trauma healing requires both spiritual and psychological integration.
Why Spiritual Bypassing is Harmful to Trauma Survivors
While bypassing may provide temporary relief, it ultimately prolongs suffering by preventing survivors from fully processing their experiences. Here’s why:
1. Trauma Stays in the Body Until It’s Processed (Read the book, “The Body Keeps the Score”)
Unprocessed trauma doesn’t just disappear. It lives in the nervous system, affecting how a person feels, thinks, and interacts with the world. Ignoring it through spiritual bypassing doesn’t heal it—it just buries it deeper.
2. Suppressed Emotions Can Manifest as Physical and Psychological Symptoms
When emotions aren’t acknowledged, they can manifest in the body as chronic pain, anxiety, depression, fatigue, or autoimmune conditions. The body holds onto what the mind refuses to process.
3. Avoidance Keeps Trauma Patterns Alive
Bypassing can prevent survivors from recognizing and breaking unhealthy patterns. For example, a survivor of abuse may use spiritual bypassing to avoid setting boundaries, believing that “forgiveness” means tolerating harm.
4. Bypassing Can Lead to Shame and Self-Blame
Many trauma survivors already struggle with self-blame. Spiritual bypassing can add another layer by making them feel like they’re “not spiritual enough” if they’re still in pain. Healing isn’t about perfection—it’s about patience, self-compassion, and integration.
What True Healing Looks Like
If spiritual bypassing isn’t the answer, then what is? Authentic healing requires a balanced approach that integrates spirituality with psychological and somatic work.
1. Acknowledge and Validate Your Pain
Allow yourself to feel and name your emotions.
Remind yourself that pain is not a sign of weakness—it’s part of healing.
Seek safe spaces where you can express your feelings without judgment.
2. Work with Trauma-Informed Professionals
Consider therapy, especially modalities like EMDR, somatic therapy, or IFS (Internal Family Systems) that focus on trauma healing.
Work with healers and spiritual guides who acknowledge psychological healing as part of the process.
3. Balance Spirituality with Emotional Work
Use meditation, prayer, and energy work to support, not replace, deep emotional healing.
Engage in shadow work—the practice of facing and integrating the parts of yourself that feel painful or hidden.
4. Practice Grounding Techniques
Trauma often disconnects people from their bodies. Grounding practices like breath-work, movement, nature walks, and mindful touch can help survivors feel more present and safe.
5. Redefine Healing as a Journey, Not a Destination
Healing isn’t about reaching a “perfect” state of peace.
Growth happens in cycles—some days will be easier than others.
Be patient and gentle with yourself.
True healing isn’t about bypassing pain—it’s about moving through it with awareness, courage, and self-compassion. Spirituality can be a powerful ally in the trauma healing journey, but it must be integrated with emotional and psychological work, not used as an escape.
If you’ve experienced trauma, know that your pain is real, your healing is valid, and you don’t have to do it alone. By embracing both spiritual and emotional healing, you create a path that leads not just to survival, but to true wholeness.
Stay tuned for the next article in this series titled, “Beyond Spiritual Bypassing.” For more on the dangers of spiritual bypassing, read my first article by clicking HERE!
Blacklisted Saint