Self‐Healing: A Concept Analysis

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a rapidly growing specialty within the healthcare field. One concept that appears central to the notion of CAM therapies is the concept of self‐healing. Although “self‐healing” is addressed within several bodies of literature, the concept is ill‐defined within the context of CAM therapies, specifically energy‐based healing modalities such as reiki therapy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the concept of self‐healing through a concept analysis using Walker and Avant's technique (1995). The resultant operational definition of self‐healing was the result of 6 weeks of study and is not considered to be a final product, but merely a beginning step to understanding this unique phenomenon.