“It helps me cope”: a meta-ethnographic synthesis on lived experiences of spiritual bypassing

Abstract

Spiritual bypassing, referred to as the use of spiritual beliefs or practices to avoid unresolved psychological distress, is well represented in the etic (researcher- or outsider-derived) literature but has not previously been examined through a qualitative synthesis centered on lived experiences. This meta-ethnography addresses that gap. Using Noblit and Hare’s seven-phase approach alongside the eMERGe reporting guidance, five qualitative and mixed-methods studies conducted between 2014 and 2023 were synthesized, drawing on accounts from 55 participants across culturally and religiously diverse contexts. Participants from Muslim American, African American Pentecostal, predominantly Brazilian and Norwegian, African American addiction recovery, and Christian interpersonal recipient contexts were represented. The line-of-argument synthesis generated three third-order constructs: (1) The Emergence and Internal Dynamics of Spiritual Bypassing; (2) Social and Structural Mechanisms Sustaining Spiritual Bypassing; and (3) Resolution: From Defensive to Integrative Spirituality. The findings indicate that spiritual bypassing is more accurately understood not as a fixed psychological deficit located within the individual but as a contextually adaptive response to psychological pain, maintained by structural conditions and resolved through the differentiation from, rather than the abandonment of, spirituality. These results extend and, in several respects, challenge Pargament’s (2011) framework of religious coping and have implications for clinical practice and counseling education.