Qual Health Res. 2000 Mar; 10(2): 214-24.

Creative response to alternative medicine: clients of a modern Finnish healer in a northwestern Ontario city.

Warkentin R.

Department of Anthropology, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada. rwarkent@sky.lakeheadu.ca

Antti Auttaja is a Finnish Canadian businessman who practices alternative medicine in a northwestern Ontario city. His healing method involves pressing his hands and fingers firmly but gently on the feet, wrists, stomach, chest, and other bodily areas of his clients, who recline on their backs on the floor, with pillows propped under their head and knees. His clients respect him and his healing ability, and as the questionnaire and interview data presented in this article clearly show, they feel he has helped them enhance their quality of life in a way that is unique to him and very special to them. He exemplifies a holistic healer working along the periphery of the modern biomedical system. His practice exemplifies the alternative medicine category of the domain of nonconventional medicine.