Contrasting the Western medical model: Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners' holistic perspectives on mental health and illness.

The dominance of the Western medical model in mental health care has been increasingly questioned for its illness-focused orientation and limited effectiveness in promoting holistic well-being. This qualitative study explores how traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) offers a comprehensive, theoretically grounded, and clinically meaningful paradigm through the perspectives of 17 TCM practitioners in China. Using consensual qualitative research methodology, we conducted semistructured interviews to understand how TCM conceptualizes mental health, mental illness, prevention, and treatment. The results show that TCM practitioners conceptualize mental health through concepts such as shen (, spirit), jingshen (, essence-spirit), and qingzhi (, emotions-will), viewing wellness as dynamic balance rather than absence of pathology. Mental illness is interpreted as a state of imbalance arising from interactions among internal and external conditions. Treatment philosophy and principles emphasize prevention, pattern differentiation, holistic root treatment, and multimodal interventions. These findings highlight TCM's potential as a health-promoting paradigm that reorients psychotherapy toward a holistic, person-centered, and preventive population health-oriented framework, offering valuable insights for advancing mental health care beyond symptom reduction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).