Thank you for writing this, Megan. This is such an important topic. I'm perhaps a bit of an oddball because, as my former therapist described me after knowing me for years, I'm a "delightful blend of pragmatic and otherworldly" — a science nerd and a mystic rolled into one. So spirituality is definitely a big part of my life. But I also had to be careful to throw away the nonsense over the years. Truisms like "everything is meant to teach you something," or backwards ideas about karma, and so on. I'm thankful that my spirituality was able to evolve to a healthier place (even though I can still sometimes see unhealthy influences from the Catholicism of my childhood...).

In any event, one thing that I've seen a lot in spiritual circles around the world is this idea that spirituality is a panacea. That it's unnecessary to go seek counseling as long as you're meditating and reiki'ing and affirmation'ing and "shadow working" and all that jazz. I think a lot of people — tragically too many people — see mental health issues as a source of shame, and they'd rather believe that visiting a counselor is entirely unnecessary. But spiritual bypassing (which sounds like a lot of what you describe here of your former experiences) indeed keeps people stuck in unhealthy patterns — and the unhappy experiences that come along with them. Thanks for spreading your insights, kudos on doing the hard work in therapy, and I wish you much luck and happiness on your healing journey!