What is Integrative Health? (part 1)
Reiki, Energy Work, & Coaching
Our name is Minnesota Integrative Health Studio. Whether you have been part of our community since we opened in 2023, just found us recently, or are still thinking about whether to make a first appointment, you may have wondered: what is integrative health? This is an important question, and one that lays the foundation for our work at MIHS.
integrate(v.)
1630s, "to render (something) whole, bring together the parts of," from Latin integratus (https://www.etymonline.com/word/integrate)
It’s not uncommon to conflate “integrative medicine” with “integrative health.” However, these terms are not synonymous.
Integrative medicine generally refers to blending of the most effective and appropriate interventions of both conventional medicine and complementary and alternative (CAM) medicine. Mayo Clinic’s definition says integrative medicine “combines the most well-researched conventional medicine with the most well-researched, evidence-based complementary therapies to achieve the appropriate care for each person.”
While conventional (or “allopathic”) medicine involves things like seeing an MD, diagnostic tests, hospital visits, and pharmaceutical medications, an integrative medicine approach also incorporates complementary and alternative (CAM) practices such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, massage therapy, energy work, chiropractic, herbal medicine, and more. Rather than see conventional and CAM as opponents, or “either/or,” integrative medicine seeks to combine the best of both worlds for the highest good of the individual. Put simply, as Meg Jordan PhD, RN, NBC-HWC of the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) says, “integrative medicine is medicine that works, no matter if the source is conventional, complementary, or alternative” (2018).
Integrative health can include this blending of approaches—but is more expansive.
As Jordan notes, in recent years many organizations have come to adopt the term integrative health rather than integrative medicine, as “medicine implied the practice of medicine, exclusive to physicians, when the reality of integrative work encompasses a much broader field.” Jordan continues: “the burgeoning field of integrative health draws fresh thinking and solutions from a world of healing options…”
Integrative health also recognizes that wellbeing extends beyond professional care, placing the individual at the center of their healing journey. As integrative health researcher and practitioner Wayne Jonas MD (2018) defines it, “integrative health balances…medical and illness treatment with self-care and health creation–fully integrating preventative care and lifestyle with the treatment of disease, illness, and injury.”
There are many definitions of integrative health out there, as the field grows and continues to flourish. The truth is, there is no one “right” definition. At Minnesota Integrative Health Studio, we have been in conversation and developed our own working definition. It may continue to evolve as does the world—and with it, our practices.
At MIHS, we define integrative health by these 5 core principles:
Integrative health is holistic.
As the nature of life is interconnected, integrative health takes into account the whole person: including body, mind, emotions, spirit, identity, relationships, environment, culture, social conditions…and beyond.
Integrative health is restorative.
Rather than "fixing," eliminating, curing, or pathologizing, integrative health seeks a return to wholeness and balance, recognizing the innate capacity to heal that exists in all of life.
Integrative health is patient-centered.
Integrative health practitioners focus on the person, supporting them to achieve a higher level of wellness–rather than focus primarily on the disease, body part, pathology, etc.
Integrative health is interdisciplinary.
Integrating the best of conventional health care with the best of complementary/alternative practices, integrative health emphasizes mutual respect, support and communication among practitioners and disciplines. Integrative health exemplifies cooperation, or “both/and”; not competition, or “either/or.”
Integrative health is evidence-based.
Recognizing that evidence is foundational to best practice, integrative health draws on diverse sources and dimensions of evidence to achieve optimally safe, effective, and personalized outcomes.
In the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about each of these principles of integrative health, as our team sees them. This month, we begin with our first principle: integrative health is holistic.
Integrative Health is Holistic
Integrative health is holistic. As the nature of life is interconnected, integrative health takes into account the whole person: including body, mind, emotions, spirit, identity, relationships, environment, culture, social conditions…and beyond.
Allopathic Medicine
The orientation of conventional health care is historically that of isolation, separation, and specialization. Medical Doctors (MDs) choose a specialty: oncology, cardiology, dermatology, psychiatry, and so on. Health care and hospital systems are organized accordingly.
There is something extraordinary about going to see a surgeon who has specific expertise in hip and knee replacements, or an immunologist who can laser focus on your allergy symptoms and precisely how to treat them.
This is “allopathic” medicine: the approach that undergirds conventional medicine, “the fundamental basis of which is generally characterized as ‘the diagnosis and treatment of disease’” (Chaitow, et al., 2008). By breaking down the human body into its constituents, the theory has been, problems and their solutions can be found.
However. Despite the gifts and achievements of conventional health care, there are meaningful disadvantages to this “reductionist” approach.
“The Science of the Small and Particular”
“This dilemma confronts us not because the science is bad; rather, it’s because of the way we do science–seeking specific effects for particular biological targets that contribute to a disease and then using this information to treat complex, whole people who respond only partially in ways we want, and frequently in ways we don’t want,” Wayne Jonas MD writes in his 2018 book How Healing Works. “The problem,” Jonas argues, “is in the science of the small and particular.”
Humans are more than a collection of body parts; our systems are whole and fundamentally interconnected.
Take a condition like diabetes, for example. Type 2 Diabetes affects not only the endocrine system, but also the cardiovascular system, nervous system, skin, brain, mental health, and emotional wellbeing. The risk factors for diabetes are not only personal; they are social, environmental, and political. The condition and how it manifests itself is as complex and multi-factored as the person and the world they inhabit.
Conventional medicine has tremendous strengths in areas like highly specialized diagnostics and procedures, critical care, emergency medicine, and beyond. But it continues to struggle with meeting the challenges of preventative care and chronic conditions. In short, the health care system as it exists is not succeeding at keeping people well. Chronic physical and mental health conditions affect 60% of the U.S. population, and amount to 90% of health care expenditures.
Integrative Health: Caring for the Whole Person
This is where integrative health can provide the missing link. By combining regular medical care with personalized, lifestyle-based interventions, an integrative health approach offers real solutions to support people’s overall health throughout the lifespan.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), for example, is a system of medicine based on the whole person in the context of their environment. TCM diagnoses do not isolate body parts, but are based on the complex interactions of the human organism in its environment. Treatments aim to bring the entire system into balance. And while individual practitioners may not be able to change larger social and environmental conditions, they take them into account.
As MIHS co-owner Larissa Vados PhD, LAc notes, in TCM “the body is seen as being a part of, influenced by, and responding to the world around us.” Combining the balancing, whole-person approach of TCM with regular medical care can support the treatment of chronic conditions like Type 2 Diabetes–and in some cases, might slow or prevent its onset altogether. TCM may have similar benefits in supporting the treatment and prevention of other common chronic conditions including heart disease, depression, and more.
“In the United States…Acupuncture and Chinese medicine is considered ‘complementary’ or ‘alternative’ medicine. Integrative, in my opinion, better describes what we as Chinese medicine practitioners do, or should be doing. We have a unique set of skills to care for people in a way that our modern, allopathic system often does not. We take time with our patients, listen to their stories, and aim to address all parts of a person in our treatment and care of them. We aim to give patients tools to help themselves outside of our offices.” Larissa Vados PhD, LAc
How many times have you gone to the doctor or hospital and felt like the health care provider was looking right past you? That you weren’t really seen or heard? Or that you had to withhold or censor parts of yourself to get the care you needed? Unfortunately, these experiences are all too common in health care–and even more so for people with marginalized identities.
Even the most skilled and compassionate health care practitioners working in the conventional system can find themselves limited by the demands of health insurance restrictions, bureaucratic hurdles, and the challenges of operating in understaffed institutions. There often is simply not the time or conditions to attend to each individual with optimal care and personalization.
Rebekah LaVone RN, PHN, HNB-BC is a board-certified holistic and public health nurse who has worked for many years in the conventional hospital system, as well as practicing holistic modalities in the community. Rebekah shares:
“I absolutely love providing integrative care. It is the beautiful gap between western/eastern medicine. One thing I love about integrative care is that you are really able to care with holism in mind. Each patient is unique and their history and symptoms are unique.”
In the seminal text Integrative Nursing (Koithan & Kreitzer, 2014), the first principle of integrative nursing is “Human beings are whole systems, inseparable from their environments.” The authors note that, like Rebekah, “integrative nurses focus their healing interventions on the personal, family, and community/national levels of scale….Whole-person healing is defined as a focus on overarching, patient-centered outcomes such as wellbeing, energy, happiness, clarity, and purpose, rather than a focus on physiological biomarkers or specific symptoms.”
As integrative health practitioners, it brings us great joy and satisfaction to support people in all their beautiful and fascinating complexity. Minnesota Integrative Health Studio, created specifically for the purpose of offering integrative health care in our community, allows us to provide services in line with our values. Integrative health is holistic–and we are grateful you are part of it.
To find out more about Minnesota Integrative Health Studio services, check out our website. You can book online here. Questions? Feel free to contact us, call (612.345.5648), at or stop by “the studio” on our corner of northeast Minneapolis.
Resources
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Chaitow, J., Snider, P., Buratovich, N., Cronin, M., Orrock, P., Wallden, M. (2008). Chapter 1 - Physical Medicine in a Naturopathic Context (pp. 1-23). Naturopathic Physical Medicine. Churchill Livingstone. ISBN 9780443103902, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-044310390-2.50006-7. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780443103902500067
Covington, M.B. Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Treatment of Diabetes. Diabetes Spectr 1 August 2001; 14 (3): 154–159. https://doi.org/10.2337/diaspect.14.3.154
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Jonas, Wayne (2018). How Healing Works: Get Well and Stay Well Using Your Hidden Power to Heal. New York, NY: Penguin Random House.
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Kreitzer, M.J. & Koithan, M. (2014). Integrative Nursing. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Mayo Clinic (2022). Integrative Medicine. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/complementary-alternative-medicine/about/pac-20393581
National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation (2025). The Growing Burden of Chronic Diseases. https://nihcm.org/publications/the-growing-burden-of-chronic-diseases
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Tan, Y., Duan, R.,Wen, C. Efficacy of acupuncture for depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis School of Intelligent Medicine, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China. Front. Neurosci., 29 April 2024 Sec. Translational Neuroscience. Volume 18 - 2024 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2024.1347651 https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2024.1347651/full
