We’ve all seen the words “complementary” and “alternative” but what do they really mean and how are they different?
This page looks into these terms to help you understand them better and gives you a brief picture of the mission and role of them in mental health. It’s important to remember that the terms “complementary” and “alternative” are continually evolving but the descriptions of these terms below are how both researchers and the public currently define them.
Complementary Versus Alternative
According to recent surveys, more than 30 percent of adults use health care approaches that are not typically part of conventional medical care. When describing these approaches, people often use “alternative” and “complementary” interchangeably, but the two terms refer to vastly different concepts:
If a non-mainstream approach is used together along with conventional medicine, it’s considered “complementary.” If a non-mainstream approach is used in place of conventional medicine, it’s considered “alternative.” The majority of people who use non-mainstream approaches also use conventional health care.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Mental Health
When most people think of complementary and alternative modalities for mental health, they think of the following:
- Acupuncture
- Meditation
- Yoga
- Herbal medicine
- Massage
- Reiki
- Homeopathy
- Aromatherapy
- Dietary supplements
- Electrical stimulation
- Electromagnetic therapy
- Exercise
- Hypnotherapy
- Light therapy
- Mindfulness
In reality, there are many more complementary and alternative modalities for mental health, such as:
- Cold Laser
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Biofeedback
- Chiropractic
- Energy medicine
- Meditation
- Naturopathy
- Reflexology
- Reiki
- Tai chi
- Alexander Technique
- Ayurveda
- Body-based manipulative therapies
- Chelation therapy
- Chinese medicine
- Spiritual Mind Treatment
- Feldenkrais Method
- Massage and joint manipulation
- Nutritional Healing
- Light Therapy
- Sauna Therapy
- Hydrotherapy
- Crystal Therapy
Integrative Health
In the treatment of mental health, integrative health brings conventional and complementary approaches together in a coordinated way. Integrative health emphasizes multimodal interventions, that is two or more interventions such as conventional health care approaches (such medication, physical rehabilitation and psychotherapy), and complementary health approaches (like meditation, tai chi, and nutrition) in various combinations. There’s an emphasis on treating the whole person (mind, body and spirit rather than only one part of the system. Integrative health is focused on coordinated care between different modalities by bringing conventional and complementary approaches together to care for the whole person.
