At first I thought it was a wiggle word, a marketing term used by either unqualified practitioners or by people who were basically practicing medicine without a license. So if you are starting from that point, I get it. I did too. Please bear with me for a minute! The more I’ve used the terminology of wellness, the deeper it has sunk in and the more I’ve realized – no, it’s really an important idea and it’s worth considering.
Most of what I say here is pretty easy to understand on a superficial level but it took me years of working within a wellness context to really get the importance of it. Here’s how I see it: we live in a world where if you just let go and do whatever is easiest, you’ll get very unhealthy. It takes an active effort to maintain and improve your health in the social environment that we’re in, and the physical environment that we’re in as well. Wellness practices are that work we have to do to maintain our health.
“Health care” is the broader category that we can divide into medical care and wellness. What I do is wellness. This means we’re trying to improve the structure and function of the body and its systems. I think a way that’s really easy to understand this distinction is the difference between getting physiotherapy (medical care) for a problem versus going to a personal fitness trainer like myself in order to get stronger, to build endurance, or train for a particular challenge (wellness). These kinds of improvements of your health are general and are raising the baseline of your health rather than trying to correct a diagnosable injury or disease.
So okay, why is this important? Why is it such an important distinction?
First of all, on a purely practical level, this is acting as a disclaimer. I am not a medical professional. I am a wellness professional. So please understand that when you come to me for any services or when you ask me for any advice, I’m not a medical professional. If you have a diagnosable disease or injury, then you should go to somebody who can provide medical services. I’m a wellness professional. That means that I can help you improve the baseline of your health. So that’s the legal and practical side of it.
In terms of social status or public perception, it seems like people often have this idea that wellness is less than medical. That if I got more training and did more certifications, then I would reach this higher level and become a medical professional and it’s not like that. It’s not lower and higher levels, or more or less training. It’s a fundamentally different approach of trying to improve health as opposed to counter problems. This is the part that really takes a long time to sink in – how different this really is. Health isn’t just the absence of disease. You can actually improve wellness. So that’s the status or theoretical side of it.
And then in terms of how to approach an issue, this is where it’s really going to become important if you and I are discussing an issue. Now, I’ll use the example of a painful shoulder. If someone comes to me and says, “I have this shoulder injury, can you tell me what’s wrong with it and treat the injury?” my answer has to be no. I can’t diagnose you and I can’t fix a diagnosable injury. I can’t give you medication for a diagnosable illness. That is outside of my scope of practice. This is not just for legal reasons, but because that’s just not the type of training I have or the type of approach that I take. It’s just not what I do.
On the other hand, if someone comes to me and says, “I keep having these problems with my shoulder, can you help me improve the function of my shoulder?” Yes, I can help with that. Or if someone says “I keep having repeated diseases in my lungs, can you help me improve the health of my lungs?” Yes, we can take a wellness approach to how to improve the health of your lungs.
So I ask you to consider this when you are presenting to me why you would like to work with me, whether it’s as a massage therapist, personal fitness trainer, or herbalist. All three of these subspecialties are parts of one big profession as a wellness therapist.
I hope this helps clarify the meaning of the word “wellness” for you. And if not, please let me know. I would love to address any details that aren’t clear.