At the roots of most chronic physical, mental, and emotional illnesses is a basic wound: a lurking spiritual malady.
The basic philosophy that accompanies most spiritual healing traditions is that when we are disconnected from the Divine, we are severed from true wellbeing.
Since the Divine is the source of our energy (our life force), when we are alienated from it, we experience numerous illnesses that manifest in endless forms. And the purpose of these illnesses is to help us reconnect with our Divine inner Center – to point the way back to Wholeness.
This is where spiritual healing comes into the picture:
It’s a path of healing; of reuniting us with our true Spiritual Nature.
But not all approaches to spiritual healing are healthy. In fact, it’s wise that we practice discernment and caution. We need to look out for ourselves because there is the possibility of being used by so-called spiritual healers and preyed upon by false ideas.
As a person who has a lot of experience with spiritual healing, who works in the spiritual field, and who has published numerous spiritual books on the topic of healing (for spiritual seekers, empaths, and couples), I’ll be sharing key advice in this article.
Table of contents
What is Spiritual Healing?
Spiritual healing is the practice (and experience) of restoring, harmonizing and balancing our Spirit or Soul.
Spiritual healing is also seen as a transcendental experience of reconnecting with our true nature. As author and teacher Shakti Gawain writes:
Spiritual healing occurs as we begin to consciously reconnect with our essential being – the wise, loving, powerful, creative entity that we are at our core.
Spiritual Healing and Spiritual Awakening
For many people, spiritual healing is a crucial part of the spiritual awakening journey. By revealing and soothing the wounds that other modalities (such as psychology or nutrition) fail to heal, a doorway is opened to deeper inner spiritual alchemy. In other words, spiritual healing can offer us the chance to grow and transform in a way that no other path can.
Many sensitive and receptive beings, such as empaths or old souls, are drawn to spiritual healing. Some even become spiritual healers themselves. For many spiritual seekers, spiritual healing becomes a regular part of their spiritual awakening path.
Read more: Spiritual Awakening: 23 Major Signs and Symptoms »
5 Types of Spiritual Healing
There are many different approaches to spiritual healing.
For example, some new-age healing practitioners focus only on bringing balance to the etheric or non-physical energy field of the human body. Shamanic healers focus on restoring the spirit and curing soul loss. And other holistic healers focus on unifying the body, heart, mind, and spirit. Even psychologists and therapists are starting to incorporate spiritual healing into their work such as those operating in the depth and transpersonal fields of psychology.
So in summary, there are five different types of spiritual healing:
- Physical healing (of the body)
- Emotional healing (of the heart)
- Mental healing (of the mind)
- Spiritual healing (of the spirit or soul)
- Holistic healing (of the body, heart, mind, and spirit)
The type of spiritual healing that you’ll need will depend on the following questions:
- What is your main struggle in life right now?
- Do you have more than one pressing issue?
Depending on your answers, you’ll be able to determine what type of spiritual healing modality you need. For instance, if you suffer from chronic pain (for which no other methods work) and also depression, you would need physical and mental healing – ideally some kind of holistic healer would benefit you the most.
If, on the other hand, you only have one issue, like an unshakable sense of grief from a lost relationship, seek out healers who specialize in emotional healing.
Common types of spiritual healing include chakra healing, crystal/herbal remedies, breathwork, reiki, traditional medicine (ayurveda, Chinese medicine), aromatherapy, meditation/visualization techniques, and so on.
But what about soul healing?
What does that mean? And does it apply to you?
How Can I Heal My Soul?
If you’re interested in spiritual healing, it’s likely that you feel something fundamental is missing from your life.
Some people are able to verbalize this feeling, while others just feel a stark, bone-chilling absence of something vital. When a person is able to pinpoint what’s wrong, usually they discover that it’s rooted in the soul.
“I’m a lost soul,” they might think, or, “my soul is broken.”
But this is a fundamental misunderstanding. Yes, something is certainly wrong, but it’s not that the soul is broken (which is impossible from an objective standpoint), it’s that they’ve lost touch with their soul. In other words, they are living in a lifeless, colorless world that lacks the joy and succulence that the soul brings.
So the question isn’t how to “heal” your soul (because the soul is Divine and incapable of being fractured – you can experience this while meditating), but how to find your soul.
Informed spiritual healers (i.e., those who understand the nature of the soul), and spiritual healing resources out there (such as this website), will recommend a host of different methods. Some of them include:
- Self-love and self-care practices
- Inner child work
- Shadow work
- Soul retrieval
- Solitude and introspection
- Meditation and mindfulness exercises
- Connecting with spirit animals and spirit guides
- Spending time in nature (ecotherapy)
Click on any of the above links to get further guidance if you’d like a place to start with your spiritual healing.
I also highly recommend that you check out our article on Ensoulment which goes into great depth on reconnecting with the soul.
It’s important to be educated and use spiritual discernment here. Not all spiritual healing modalities are equal. Not all healers or teachers are in it for your best interest. And sometimes, our motivations for spiritual healing are wrong. I’ll explain why next.
The Dark Side of Spiritual Healing That No One Talks About
There’s a reason why no one talks about the dark side of spiritual healing. Number one, most people aren’t even aware that there’s a dark side. And if they are aware then number two: they are uncomfortable to face or confront it.
Here’s where I come in: your friendly neighborhood shadow worker. I will help to outline exactly how seeking for spiritual healing can be self-destructive and why. Sounds paradoxical, doesn’t it? Well here’s the thing, it is! Spiritual healing can feel like an enigma wrapped in a riddle, and I’ll explain why.
To be as short and succinct as possible, there are two dark twins of spiritual healing:
Issue 1: Spiritualized Resistance
The first dark twin is what I call spiritualized resistance.
What does spiritualized resistance mean? Basically, it means that sometimes we can use spiritual healing as an excuse to “get rid of” certain feelings, memories, and experiences that we’ve had.
What’s wrong with trying to banish or get rid of what we go through? It’s a form of resistance. And resistance leads to tremendous suffering. I’m talking: anxiety, depression, anger, resentment, bitterness, the whole shebang.
I believe that everyone in the spiritual community needs to understand that trying to “heal” is not always about healing. In fact, often, healing is used as an excuse to deny, suppress, disown, or reject what we’re going through.
It is completely understandable to want to try and get rid of our suffering – particularly if we are exhausted and deeply wounded. But here’s the thing: desperately trying to heal can actually exacerbate your unhappiness and deepen your resistance to what’s happening, thereby preventing you from actually healing!
I will repeat that sentence again (read it slowly): desperately trying to heal can intensify your unhappiness and deepen your resistance to what’s happening, thereby preventing you from actually healing!
It is important for us to understand that true spiritual healing is about facing, acknowledging, exploring, and integrating what we are going through. It’s not about trying to escape our reality!
Issue 2: Dark Spiritual Teachers
The second dark twin is perpetrated by spiritual “healers” and practitioners who are aware – either on a conscious or unconscious level – of the first dark twin of spiritual healing. These teachers are aware of the addictive quality of the push-and-pull game of eternal self-improvement and they use it for their own self-gain.
I see this literally everywhere. It’s a sad thing to behold. It’s prevalent in people who believe they must pay big bucks to “manifest their desires,” keep their vibration high, and basically accumulate more and be more (as if who they are and what they have isn’t already enough). When does this getting and being more actually end? It’s an eternal cycle that leads to suffering (which I wrote about in my thought-provoking self-improvement article).
Then, of course, you have the more sinister breed of spiritual teachers who appear divine and enlightened on the surface but are raging megalomaniacs underneath.
A true spiritual teacher will always give your power back to you, but a false spiritual teacher will not only parade around wearing your codependency like a crown but will also actively encourage it. They will purport to have the power to “heal” all your issues and provide you with the “one true path” towards enlightenment, illumination, self-realization, or Oneness. And if you believe them, you’ll be ensnared in a dangerous web of believing that someone outside of you can offer you salvation. (Read more about dodgy spiritual guidance.)
What is Authentic Spiritual Healing?
Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives.
– Akshay Dubey
I hope that during the course of this article, I have communicated myself clearly. Spiritual healing itself isn’t to blame, it is our mental approach towards spiritual healing.
When spiritual healing is used as a way to avoid, deny, suppress, and disown our issues through “spiritualized resistance” we are abusing its potential. And when spiritual healing is used as a dangling carrot by unethical and unwise spiritual teachers, then it is being desecrated.
What is authentic spiritual healing?
True spiritual healing is about facing, acknowledging, exploring, and integrating what we are going through. It’s not about trying to escape our reality! It’s really as simple as that.
Just think of it this way: if you had a blistering sore oozing blood and puss … would you really achieve much by covering your eyes and pretending to ignore it? No. The pain and infection would still be there. Would you really heal by pretending the sore wasn’t yours or by making it someone else’s responsibility to look after? No. You’d still carry that sore with you everywhere. It wouldn’t go away any time soon. The only way to heal that blistering sore is to face it, accept it, and find ways of alleviating your suffering – not as a way of trying to escape your reality – but as a form of self-love. This, to me, is true spiritual healing.
So when it comes to spiritual healing, please be mindful of these traps and practice healthy caution. Critical thinking skills and radical self-honesty are so vital in this day and age.
What I’ve Learned
I’ve been guilty of using spiritual healing as a way to try and escape my suffering before.
As a person who has wrestled with anxiety for years, I have often fallen into the trap of trying to spiritually bypass my suffering through fluffy feel-good thinking or methods that promise to instantly “get rid” of anxiety. It doesn’t work. Trying to put a band-aid on a festering sore will only make it worse.
Resisting your reality, even in a “spiritual” way, will only serve to deepen your suffering. The only way out is through. You need to go to the core and roots of your issues in order to heal them.
Please reflect on what I have written in this article because it might save you years of pointless struggle.
Love and peace to all.
Further reading:
What does spiritual healing mean to you? Tell me below!
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This has lead me to genuinely question what is life? And what does it mean to me. I’ve been trying to heal my own wounds and it turns out I was simply trying to run away from them. In pointless efforts of trying to escape my own reality unconsciously. But for me true healing is a completion of the psyche to merge and integrate all lost aspects of the self, even those we couldn’t see due to the mental clutter. Becoming the true you in an genuinely, unique, authentic way. No falsity of your way of being for any reason whether it be social conditioning, past traumas, or even negative subconscious beliefs. True healing to me means simply to be yourself as the true authentic great person you are.
At the center of who you are you have the answers; you comprehend who you are and you comprehend what you must do.
I have often thought, after studying and practicing witchcraft several years ago, that I may have opened something up or even placed a curse upon myself. Is that even possible?
thanks alot for your truth sharing. as always , it is a great reminder and so true. I find every of the article make so much sense and real, true. really can feel the heart that you guys putting into the article. feeling so grateful to know this website.
As always a great article. You’re work is so valuable to me and always brings me back to my core when I feel out of balance
Also that’s is very true! When I desperately try to heal because I feel broken and I NEED to fix myself fast so I deserve my soul connection again (which is not how it work but when you’re in a state of fear and desperation you lose your connection to the ground and go loco) it just gets harder. Because I’m not coming from a place of love and care for myself instead I try to get rid of what I perceive as broken or wrong. This comes from false conditioning and can be very painful.
I’m so happy that more and more people are addressing the fact that a healer doesn’t have the power to heal us instead gently guides us to heal ourselves. It’s about empowering others to follow THEIR soul not our egos.
Love to you both
Hi,
I read your articles with interest. I’ve known a few charismatic gurus in my time and I’ve been ‘around the block’ when it comes to various strategies and techniques for self-healing and self-fulfilment. At the same time I’ve been working for the past 35 years on my own ‘periodic table’ of (all) consciousness and relating it to some of my own more ‘colourful’ experiences. My only comment for the moment is that, like a ship, a lot of our being is ‘below the waterline’, inaccessible to conscious interrogation. (Though communication is permanently ongoing in an unconscious, ‘inspiring’ way and in both directions simultaneously) And yet we lead such ‘conscious’ lives that it is difficult to accept the idea that that which may be of the greatest good to us in any moment, sudden or protracted, lies in the unconscious and needs to be invoked in an approach which is a combination of technique and faith – that ‘state of our own personal nation’ voice that cannot be consciously directed or experienced – and belief. It has taken me years to develop this awareness and yet we live in times where results are expected almost instantly. And this leads me to my general criticism of modern, new-age spirituality; that it may hold out an unreasonable prospect timescale-wise for healing or fulfilment or whatever when in reality it all takes time and this needs to be emphasised. We have slow-food for our physical bodies and we need to take slow-faith for our spiritual ‘bodies’.
Then there is the realm of our destiny which sides on the other side of our consciousness from our spirituality and requires a kind of ‘super-consciousness’ to perceive and yet it is here that all the ‘action’ associated with our spiritual condition is generated that comes to challenge our control, kindness, openness, etc and which demands the acknowledgement and acceptance of our shortcomings that you refer to in your notes this time. And an approach to overcome them and progress. As part of this reality life speaks to me frequently through incidents that appear on first impressions to be against my personal interests at that moment and so I rail against them. It’s only a while later I see what life was trying to tell me and it is a joyous moment but I do wonder why I continue to be so quick to find adversity in events which – as it turns out – were for my benefit. And this is where faith comes in again as both the mechanism for improvement and the ongoing indicator of where you ‘are’ at that moment on your own personal journey to enlightenment.
I hope this makes some sense to you. I really am an egregious fellow with unusual perceptions so it would be nice to know that I am getting some kind of resonance out there somewhere in cyber space.
Thanks for reading .
David
Been through it all and seen the darker sides and experienced all that you spoke on and have done my homework and still do refreshers on my self to be sure not adding to anyones misery..they have enough to handle just like I did. What I do I do not charge for and never have. I refuse. I feel deep in my heart and soul that money is the root of all evil and if I charge I become part of that root..I make sure I am in God’s grace and His faith in me is strong otherwise I can not do anything and that’s my sign that I am doing something wrong and must take an inner look see and determine what needs to be fixed in my self. Once I fix me then I can proceed but only if God(Divine source)says so.I am shown and then go forth to help.
The disciples got angry with Jesus when they tried to perform His miracles and healings and they argued with Him about it..He told them if you are feeling pride in your works and try to do healing on anyone you will be prevented from doing so. They knew He was right because when they were pure in soul and heart they could do many things to help people but when argued amongst themselves even about who was Jesus favorite they could not do a thing. But still they did not listen and argued and became prideful arrogant jealous ego driven..this prevented many from being helped..I apply His principles to my self..If I am feeling pride arrogance jealousy anything that takes away from the pureness of healing I will not do it and if I try to force it to happen God does indeed let me know in no uncertain terms!
I listen to the Source and all I can say is this is what allows me to do what I do..I would not harm any one by the ways of this earth the humanness of it..It is a struggle I will not lie. But I keep in tune with Source My God and listen at all times and I my self have been healed of many things.
That’s it pretty much in a nut shell.
The main most important thing you must do is LISTEN.
Hi. First of all I want to say thank you for me to be here. And I hope that we can walk a path. I am very new to this and my whole life I have searched for answers and why and why and why….. Yes healing is not instant, it will make it a little bit easier to live with the scars inside of you. I found this article making sense and thank you for the wisdom and insight.
Great article. This line sums it up well for me
I completely agree that spiritual healing is not about escaping and am greatly saddened by all those claiming to be healers who only offer such things and sadly using the very methods meant to truly help bring healing and wholeness. Such abuse of power is disgusting and heartbreaking. It’s very true that when our power of love overcomes our love for power we will know peace. We will also know healing as well. This is a fabulous article with much helpful information. Thanks for sharing.
Addressing you both. First, you are absolutely correct that this spiritual healing journey will be painful. I found that I have in some form not intentionally but close lived my entire life being the person that others would accept. It requires a lot of energy being that person. What I learned this week – I have no self respect for my soul. I did and said what made others happy; abused my self by pretending and not facing my problems. Now I am not capable of hiding my outer self. Thanks to you both and your work, I can find self worth, self discipline and give my soul a chance to be authentic. I am under all my b… s…… but it is going to take a lot of work. Our souls have a difficult job. I never gave any thought that my spiritual soul is a living organ that requires the same high level of care as my physical organs. Sol, Luna, I am so greatful to what led me to you. Your teachings and writings are rich in truths. Thank you for being here for us.❤️️
Hi Alethia,
Great article and well written as I find with yours and Mateo’s work.
Really important topic! I’m glad you covered it.
The strange thing for me is that I do the work and I have grown immensely along the journey with this – that is evident to me with reduced anxiety and increased love for life… but I still am aware that a lot of what drives me with the inner work is a part of me that is ‘chasing peace’. I wonder if that is the same thing as resisting non-peace (anxiety, depression etc.).
What are your thoughts here if you have time to share?
Thank you for this wonderful treasure of a website :)
<3
Once again you have approached a healing topic with all the nuance it deserves. “The masters like the lesson left in their upper hand” – that’s me in a song called “Spontaneous Control”! Healing the self is a long process. Your insights are helpful to all who read your works.
Thank you, John. <3
This topic 5 Types of Spiritual Healing is so helpful to me, thank you so much for sending it to me, I have been on antidepressants to suppress my wounds, now that I have nearly weaned off them I can see this realisation. Meditation is helping me a lot also and reading your site, your book and the shadow work journal.
Theressa, I’m so glad it’s been helpful for you, as well as our book and shadow work journal. <3
Dear Aletheia,
Thank you very much. Another wonderful article! Your articles give me relief. But Scriptures says you should love and forgive those who hurt you. I find it very difficult. How can I do it?
Roopa, it brings me great joy to hear that these articles provide you with relief. :)
If you’re interested in the topic of forgiveness, I recommend reading more about the myths of forgiveness. I hope that helps!
Thank you, Aletheia.
Hugely helpful and wonderful vivid imagery about how we would heal a physical wound and why this applies here too. I just listened to Krishnamurti enquiring into when we believe we need authority so this has all resonated really deeply.
<3
The only way out is through. Perfectly and succinctly stated. Another great article. Thank you Aletheia :)
Thank you, Robert. :)
i am an intuit and empath from the womb, unconsciously healing, and ‘receiving’, from my beginnings. i feel called to speak to the love ly and well done article, please see above, from aletheia (thank you!). i am in my 64th year here. when i was young ~ fifty years ago, there was not much imposition of certification or licensing of the healing arts as we knew them, nor was there any certification required to teach yoga, among other practices. that is/was a good/bad thing depending on the circumstance. i decided to bow to today’s world and undertook the expense (approximately $1000.00) to become a certified ‘usui’ reiki master/teacher. this provided me with nothing, except some japanese guy’s ‘healing’ ideology filtered through another man’s trainings which left me very angry and further frustrated with the world as it is today. how in the universe do you walk into a (usually) four day class bequeathed with gifts only provided through the universal divine to truly ‘heal’??? it is not possible to cultivate. it is innate. it is an intangible gift that comes through you, not from you. i fear for the many trusting, hurting human beings that have no grasp of the concept and are spending money for what?!? because some one has a certification taped to their door?!? i am here to serve. this world hurts my heart. thank you for the opportunity to share my concern. namaste.
GDC, the fact that people charge that much money to become a ‘healer’ instantly rings alarm bells in my mind – but at one point I would have gladly paid that much. I think at the beginning of our spiritual journeys, most of us would pay (and do pay) ridiculous sums just to feel “legit” and “certified.” I wish that there was more integrity in certain areas of the spiritual healing field. Ultimately, I’ve learned to see the spiritual marketplace as any other aspect of life: it has its light parts and shadow parts. To acknowledge both is the beginning of discernment; the power to sniff out BS and find what’s genuine and real. Thank you for your comment. <3
Hi GDC, as a healer the same age as you, I have been just as frustrated by this growth in Reiki. I see it advertised as an added ‘therapy’, not just in complementary medicine centres but in beauty salons! The way it is sold reminds me of Avon and pyramid selling! Just lately, I have been getting prompts and nudges to resume teaching groups – no certificates or massive fees, just trust in the divine. Nurture the baby birds in the nest until they’re ready to fly on their own. Seeing your post has inspired me. With love, light and gratitude.
Dear Luna, Excellent article. Being seriously sick from iatrigenic causes for 12 years with many NDE, and operating from values very similiar to yours, I have indeed experienced the very dark side of over 70 modalities including many types of spiritual healing. Without exception the better the person the lower the price and vice versa. There are many ego driven healers, doctors of every modality, and even therapists. I found that only very conscious and honest people could help me. Another discovery, driven by a serious case of serotonin syndrome, is that every healer transmits in a dominant frequency. Most true healing.comes via theta (GABA in the brain) but many healers, being dopamine driven, use serotonin to calm themselves without knowing it and have made me much sicker. An outstanding Theta Healer helped keep me alive but I find few folks who either consciously use theta waves or even have any knowledge or curiousity about frequency. As neurotransmitters are the language of the brain, which is a quantum transceiver, it is vitally important to literally be on the same wavelength! As a long term meditator, steeped in psychology and Buddhism, with a knowledge of both mind-body healing and.brain-body healing, I have taken the whole affair as an education for the betterment of us all. And I have stumbled across a whole new paradigm of medicinals based on frequency. As soon as better I will be writing a second book in my grace series about the implosion of the American culture, which is why iatrogenic illness is the leading cause of death and disability in the US. I also will start a coaching business based on the post grad education this time became and have your site as one of my referrals for self improvement. So, please do keep up the honest, wise.and highly necessary work you do. And if you are curious I’m happy to share our simple process to make the frequency charged water medicinals, because more and more our ills, whether mental, physical or emotional have strong correlates to our diets, environmental toxins, and the frequencies that surround us. Boomers tend to know only mind- body stuff but brain-body healing, quantum biology based, is the 21st century’s gift to help humanity, and intimitely connected to depth psychology. You two helped me survive horrors and terrors no one should ever have to endure. I thank you greatly. Be well always, Valerie Deva, San Diego, CA
Thank you so much sister. <3 I appreciate the information you've shared here and your approach to/perception of spiritual healing. I find that binaural beats work wonders (theta, delta, etc.) – and they're so simple and accessible as well (you just listen to the music!).