The Wisneski Institute seeks to serve humanity through an integral vision of wellness, education, and community.

An Integral Vision: Throughout our activities, one sees the term ‘integral vision’. Dr. Wisneski has defined this as a multidimensional view of life and living that understands people are more than physical beings. An integral vision approaches the person as a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual being living in a complex cultural and environmental context.

In his textbook, the Scientific Basis of Integrative Medicine, Dr. Wisneski wrote, “In the past two decades, biomedical research has changed our understanding of body systems. It is now known that there is a complex network of feedback, mediation, and modulation among the central and autonomic nervous system, the endocrine system, the immune system, and the stress system. These systems which were previously considered pristinely independent, in fact, interact on myriad levels. Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) also known as integral physiology addresses the synthesis of conventional physiology and how our individual psyches (mind, emotions, and spirituality) interact with the world around us to induce positive or detrimental changes in our bodies. In a broader sense, the concept, the health of society as a whole.” An integral health education seeks to promote this understanding of body systems and the effect of mind, emotions, and spirituality on healing.

The Wisneski Institute recognizes the great debate over the last three decades regarding the categorization and labeling of medical practices into fields termed western, conventional, allopathic, complementary, alternative, integrative, and global. An integral approach to health goes beyond the integration of complementary and alternative medicine and incorporates lifestyle, behavior, and social factors that affect personal well being as well as the patient-physician interaction. This arena includes Mind-Body interactions which refer to the relationships among cognitions, emotions, personality, social relationships, and health. It is our desire to move past labels towards a focus on the promotion of optimal healing. With this in mind, the term integral health – the optimal synthesis of conventional, complementary and alternative health practices delivered with reverence and humanism is a term that will be promoted by the Wisneski Institute.