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High Vibes Can Hurt

When spirituality feels like a slap in the face instead of a soft place to land

High Vibes Can Hurt

When spirituality becomes another place trauma gets silenced 

A short trauma-informed guide for therapists, coaches, facilitators and healing practitioners.

 Many clients arrive in therapy, counselling or coaching spaces having already been exposed to powerful spiritual or personal development messages. Some of those messages sound like:

“Everything happens for a reason.”“You created this.”“Just let go of the story.”“Raise your vibration."

 These ideas are often intended to empower.

But when they are applied without an understanding of trauma, they can sometimes deepen shame rather than support healing.

High Vibes Can Hurt explores how well-meaning spiritual language can unintentionally silence nervous system responses and lived experience.

And how practitioners can hold these conversations in a more trauma-informed way.

This free mini-book is for anyone who has ever been told their trauma was a story they should be over, a mindset they should shift, or a vibration they should rise above.

It gently unpacks how spiritual language can sometimes invalidate nervous system injury, survival responses, and lived experience - and how real healing begins not with positivity, but with safety.

Receive the free guide

“This guide is for you if…”

  • You work with people who have explored spiritual or personal development spaces before coming to therapy or coaching.

  • You have encountered clients who feel confused, ashamed, or self-blaming because healing did not look peaceful, spiritual, or elevated.

  • You have noticed how language around manifestation, vibration, or mindset can sometimes clash with what we understand about trauma and the nervous system.

  • You want to support clients without dismissing spirituality, while also protecting them from narratives that may retraumatise.

What you’ll explore inside

In High Vibes Can Hurt we explore:

1.Spiritual bypassing - named clearly

How well-meaning healing language can unintentionally silence trauma responses and make people feel responsible for what happened to them.

2. Why trauma doesn’t respond to positivity

A simple, compassionate explanation of how the nervous system holds survival responses, and why mindset alone cannot resolve trauma.

3. The risk of “you created this”

Why certain narratives around consciousness and manifestation can deepen shame further rather than guide and support recovery.

4. A different way forward

How healing spaces can honour both spirituality and trauma awareness by prioritising safety, regulation and compassion.

What this guide may help you with

This guide can help practitioners:

  • Understand why some clients feel harmed by previous healing environments.

  • Recognise when spiritual language may be reinforcing shame rather than empowerment.

  • Hold conversations around trauma and spirituality with greater nuance and care.

  • Support clients in reconnecting with their nervous system rather than feeling pressured to transcend it.

About the author

Lou Lebentz is an international trauma trainer, speaker, and founder of The Voyage®.

With more than two decades working in trauma, addiction, and recovery, Lou bridges neuroscience, lived experience, and psychological insight to challenge narratives that can unintentionally retraumatise people.

Her work is known for being deeply compassionate, trauma-aware, and grounded in the realities of how healing actually unfolds. 

A helpful resource for your practice

This guide is available in two versions:

Practitioner version
For therapists, coaches and facilitators wanting to understand spiritual bypassing through a trauma-informed lens.

Client version
A gentle reflection guide that practitioners often share with clients who may have experienced similar dynamics in other healing spaces.

You are welcome to download the practitioner version for yourself and the client version to share with people you work with.

Download the practitioner guide

We’ll send the guide directly to your inbox.

Download a version you can share with clients.

If you would prefer a version written directly for clients, you can download that here.

 

 

“You don't need to dismiss spirituality to support trauma recovery." 

But healing spaces become far safer when they understand the nervous system. 

And when people are no longer asked to rise above their pain before their bodies have felt safe enough to land.Â