Mapping the experience and use of traditional healing in Northern Norway. Among conventional health care providers, users and traditional healers

Abstract

The research project investigates the social processes, the understanding and experiences of traditional healing and conventional health care in three groups; The users, the traditional healers, and the health professionals. Furthermore, traditional healing as coping strategy (resilience) for the users in cases of illness was investigated. 60 semi-structured interviews and 7 focus group interviews were conducted. The researchers understand the use of traditional healing as a mechanism of resilience or a coping strategy on individual, social, and cultural levels. This tradition may be regarded as an expression of the culture in Northern Norway that binds people to an environment which is linked to a culture with a spiritual dimension that has long-lasting traditions in the communities in which the research was conducted. The use of traditional healing was an expression for the need for a spiritual dimension, that conventional health care providers do not meet. The users employed parallel treatment methods from the Norwegian conventional health care system and traditional medicine. The use of traditional healing indicated active patients and social networks.