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Funnily enough, I’m not anywhere abroad at the moment. I’m actually writing this blog at my beautiful home. But I have been exploring, and to be honest, doing a literature review because I’m trying to get into a master’s program that I’m really interested in. I never thought I would actually go back to university, but I have learned through experience to never say never because as soon as I say it, it usually comes around to bite me in the bum.
I didn’t believe that I would find something interesting enough, something that garnered my interest for a longer period enough to actually do an extended period of postgraduate study. But this notion has just rocked me to my core in a really exciting way, not only in a health perspective – one of the reasons and one of the supporting reasons I’m going back to clinical practice – but also in a business and global health directive way of doing things. So, the notion is Salutogenesis, which was originally written in a book way back in 1979, and then followed up with a series of about 4,000 publications over the past 40 years.
I’ve delved deeply into this concept, and it truly captivates me with its beauty.
Given my background in Pathogenesis (the study of disease) and the subject of Salutogenesis being the study of health and ease, it’s not surprising that one of the core elements in the salutogenic model has caught my attention from a health perspective. As I ventured further, I began applying these principles to various aspects, including business and urban planning – even extending to choices of residence.
At the heart of the salutogenic approach lies a standout feature: the notion of a sense of coherence (SOC). This concept holds remarkable significance, with its multiple factors quantifiable through assessments like questionnaires. A particular statement that resonated strongly with me emphasises that individuals possessing a robust SOC, akin to what we might refer to as resilience today, exhibit a distinctive response when faced with stressors.
They have the ability to perceive their situation in three key dimensions forming a triumvirate of attributes that empower them to navigate challenges effectively:
- Comprehensible (first)
- Manageable (second)
- Meaningful (third)
As I reflect on my interactions with my naturopathic clients, I can’t help but notice a common thread among those who undergo the most transformative shifts. This resonates with my own experiences over the past year, a period marked by surgeries and recoveries. During those times when I could truly grasp the situation, advocate for my needs, and comprehend the implications of tests and procedures, a remarkable sense of empowerment welled up within me – a tangible sense of coherence.
Feeling equipped to face whatever challenges lay ahead was a direct result of comprehending the situation’s manageability. The existence of a plan, coupled with my ability to take charge of my emotional responses, further reinforced this sense of coherence and empowerment. Yet, perhaps the most pivotal aspect was finding personal meaning amidst the circumstances. While the notion of everything happening for a reason might not always hold true, I discovered that crafting my own meaning and embracing it made a significant difference. This approach greatly eased the journey.
Interestingly, I observe a similar dynamic when working with my naturopathic clients.
As we sit together, separated only by a desk, the process of educating them about their bodily experiences mirrors my own journey. Sharing knowledge and enabling clients to comprehend their internal workings often forms the bedrock of empowerment.
I’ve now been around health and wellbeing for 23 years, whether it’s in hospitals or clinical setting or laboratories.
- Educating about that hidden thing that’s happening behind the scenes or under the surface of our skin, and making it comprehensible.
- And then creating a plan in co-creation with the person who this is happening to and in, and making it manageable.
- And then having a conversation about the meaning of this, how this makes any type of sense in someone’s world.
It’s so unique to each individual. Each different situation and each different time of our lives.
Having those three things in conversation in a naturopathic consultation is one of the gifts that we get to have as allied health practitioners. I’ve also got some other types of practitioners, creatives and business owners that I help from a mentoring perspective and a business perspective, where we discuss how to apply the same thing to business.
- How can we make the shifts and changes that we know we need to make on our website, or our offerings, or our services?
- How are we able to bring on board other staff members to our teams?
- How are we able to trust in the teams that we do have?
It’s through this sense of coherence, this strong sense that is garnered by making a situation, where we can comprehend what we need to change in our business. We can understand and manage the change. We can get a sense that it is manageable and workable, and that it’s meaningful, that it has purpose. How can we create that in our mission and our vision and our values in business? I really feel like having a strong sense of coherence is not just a healthy medical model.
It’s a healthy business model. If we were to actually embed these types of notions into the way that we project our businesses, the way that we choose the direction that our businesses take, and the way that we choose to onboard clients or staff, that strength can only continue to garner growth in our businesses in a really healthy and maintainable way.
Then my brain goes even further and says, our medical model actually did become a salutogenic model, and we were focused on everybody comprehending what was going on for themselves and being able to manage what was going on for themselves and create meaning out of their lives and their health and their wellbeing. And then they showed up to work that was comprehensible. They felt the sense of management, self-management, self-empowerment, and it was meaningful work. And then they went home in that same state, in that strong sense of coherence and had these amazing relationships and conversations where they were in conversation that felt that they could understand it, comprehensible, manageable and meaningful relationships. And then we were in communities, townships, states, nations that had this level of strong coherence.
Imagine the possibilities! By going that big can sometimes blow out some people’s brains.
So, bringing it back to yourself, I would just ask the question, how is your sense of coherence today?
- Do you feel like you can comprehend what’s going on for you?
- Or do you need to find somebody or some place that makes it more comprehensible?
- Do you feel like you can manage yourself and your time?
- Or do you need to lean on an allied health practitioner, a coach, a mentor that can help create a sense of workability in what you’re doing?
- And how are you choosing to create meaning?
- What type of meaning are you attaching to things and is it helpful or hindering to you?
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