‘Wellness’

The term ‘wellness’ has a lot of currency presently. In the town in which I live, Saffron Walden, it has, dare I say, reached epidemic levels.

I have no problem with the idea of focusing on well-being rather than ill-health. There is a lot to be said for assuming that we can, to a degree self-manage, that we don’t need the professionals and their particular kinds of specialist knowledge simply in order to be well.

But, wellness also needs to be evidenced. Claims made by the wellness industry – and that is what it is – about our physical and psychological health need to be scientifically robust: otherwise, they are likely to be regarded as – at best – a kind of pseudo-science.

Very often, claims are made to either ‘simple’, ‘new’ or previously ‘hidden’ forms of learning or healing. As a psychotherapist who has worked in medical settings within the NHS for the last twenty years, I know a great deal about the nervous system and its function in physical and psychological ill-heath. Very little of what is claimed for is new. Anxiety, for instance, is of course a natural protective state. However, mental distress and psychological ill-health are often just so much more complex than is sometimes suggested.

Lastly, it is always important to ask the question of any big idea, who does this serve? Just as governments use health-directed innovations to keep the population in work – innovations such as the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme, for instance – the corporate world is very ready for quick fixes in order to maximise growth and productivity. Wellness, I believe, tends toward a strong self-focus, gearing us up to keeping going, which may be different from actually being ‘well’.