A positive concept of health - interviews with patients and practitioners in an integrative medicine clinic

Using the phenomenography method, interviews with patients and practitioners were undertaken to explore their understanding of 'health that is more than the absence of disease'. The question was challenging and stimulating for all interviewees. A few were unable to conceptualise this positive definition of health, some perceived it as an optimum end-state, whereas others saw it as an ongoing process. Many positive attributes of health and its influencers were identified. The more advanced understandings of this concept were of a holistic, multidimensional, expansive state where the all dimensions of health are interdependent and positively reinforcing. The results affirmed that wellness is more than psychological wellbeing, 'happiness' and life satisfaction. Optimum physical and cognitive capacities along with spiritual, social and occupational wellness were equally as important. 'Energy and vitality' were sufficiently emphasised by patients and some practitioners to support the inclusion of the principles of vitalism in any discussion about health.