Salutogenic Approaches to Wellbeing

First Published on 29th May 2022
Last Updated on 28th April 2026

“Rather than ask what makes us sick, isn’t it better to ask what keeps us well?”

Forest Bathing and Salutogenic Approaches

In this latest post on how Forest Bathing can be beneficial to health and wellbeing, we are looking at ‘Salutogenic Approaches to Wellbeing’. Forest Bathing has been described as ‘a health promoting, salutogenic, nature connection practice that aims to enhancewell-being, relieve stress, and encourage relaxation’.

But what exactly are ‘Salutogenic Approaches’?

The word ‘salutogenesis’ comes from the Latin salus (health) and the Greek genesis (origin) and so salutogenesis means the origin of health. The concept was developed by Aaron Antonovsky from his research into how people manage and cope with stress and at the same time maintain health and wellbeing. In his 1979 book, Health, Stress and Coping, Antonovsky observed that stress is pervasive and ever-present, but that not all individuals have negative health outcomes in response to high levels of stress, and he described his research into how people survive, adapt, and overcome even the most stressful life experiences.

Salutogenisis is an approach to health promotion that focuses on factors that support good health and wellbeing, and sits in opposition to the dominant ‘pathogenesis approach’ in healthcare that focuses on the causes of disease. Salutogenic approaches are therefore seen as primarily preventative. The basic assumption of the salutogenic approach is that, instead of perceiving physical and mental health as something that is operating perfectly, unless attacked by pathogens or maladaptive thought processes, that it is viewed as something imperfect and fundamentally unsound, continuously attacked by disturbing processes and factors which cannot be prevented and that we should make focusing on minimising these factors a part of promoting a healthy life.

Key components and approaches within the salutogenic framework include:

• Sense of Coherence (SOC):
  Central to salutogenesis is the concept of the "sense of coherence", which comprises three elements:

  • Comprehensibility:
    Referring to the extent to which a person perceives life's challenges as understandable, ordered, and predictable.

  • Manageability:
    Involving the belief that available resources - both internal and external - are sufficient to cope effectively with life stressors.

  • Meaningfulness:
    Relating to the perception that challenges are worth engaging with, and that life has purpose and significance.

• Focus on Health Assets:
  Salutogenic approaches emphasise identifying and harnessing health assets or resources that contribute to wellbeing, rather than solely focusing on risk factors and deficits.

• Empowerment and Resilience:
  Salutogenic models prioritise empowering individuals and communities to take an active role in promoting their health. This includes enhancing resilience - the ability to adapt and cope with stressors effectively.

• Positive Health Outcomes:
  The goal of salutogenic approaches is to foster positive health outcomes, such as improved quality of life, greater wellbeing, and enhanced overall health, rather than solely aiming to prevent disease.

• Holistic Perspective:
  Salutogenic models consider health as a holistic concept, acknowledging the interconnectedness of physical, mental, social, and environmental factors in promoting wellbeing.

• Emphasis on Health Promotion:
  Salutogenesis places a strong emphasis on health promotion strategies that facilitate the development and maintenance of health resources and a sense of coherence.

• Mind-Body Connection:
  Recognising the intricate relationship between mental and physical health, salutogenic approaches emphasise the importance of mental wellbeing in overall health.

Salutogenic principles have been applied in various fields, including healthcare, psychology, public health, and community development. By focusing on factors that support and nurture health rather than solely targeting risk factors or diseases, salutogenic approaches aim to empower individuals and communities to enhance their overall wellbeing and resilience.

Salutogenesis and Positive Psychology

There is a significant amount of overlap between the concept of Salutogenesis - especially when applied to stress, coping and mental wellbeing - and strength-based approaches such as Positive Psychology. Rather than focus on the negative aspects of the human mind such as mental illness, negative thinking and maladaptive behaviours, Positive Psychology focuses on building personal strengths and concepts such as wellbeing, happiness, self-development, hope, self-efficacy, resilience, optimism, self-esteem and gratitude. 

Although aspects of Positive Psychology are as old as psychology itself, such as William James’ writings on ‘healthy mindedness’, it is most commonly viewed as a branch of psychology developed from around 1998 onwards by Martin Seligman who proposed that:

“The aim of positive psychology is to begin to catalyze a change in the focus of psychology from preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building positive qualities”

— Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, p. 5

However, much less well acknowledged in Positive Psychology is the importance and influence of the salutogenic approach first suggested by Antonovsky in Health, Stress and Coping. Antonovsky proposed that health and illness should not be viewed as an either / or dichotomy, but as a continuum from good health to poorer health (from health-ease to dis-ease as he put it). In such an approach, no one is categorised as healthy or ill, instead everyone is somewhere between the poles of total wellness and total illness. Both Positive Psychology and the salutogenic approach challenged mainstream thought about the pathological focus (i.e. the focus on negative behaviours, and disease and illness respectively) of sociology in the 1970s (Antonovsky was a medical sociologist), and psychology in the 2000s, rather than the necessary resources for healthy functioning and positive human experience. This lack of prominence of the concept of salutogenisis within the field of Positive Psychology is sometimes attributed to Salutogenic theories having their origins in medical sociology rather than psychology.

Additionally, the basic assumption of the salutogenic approach is that, instead of perceiving physical and mental health as something that is operating perfectly, unless attacked by pathogens or maladaptive thought processes, that it is viewed as something imperfect and fundamentally unsound, continuously attacked by disturbing processes and factors which cannot be prevented - a basic assumption that is different to the core philosophical foundations of Positive Psychology.

So what does this have to do with Forest Bathing?

It has been recognised for a long time that exposure to nature and developing an improved connection with nature can have positive effects on mental and physical health and wellbeing, rather than merely providing an antidote to negative life experiences. In this way, Forest Bathing adopts a salutogenic approach in that it brings benefits to people who are experiencing negative experiences such as stress or anxiety, but also it has health improvements for people who are not feeling stressed or anxious, or do not realise that they are.

As a participant on one of our nature-connection activities said:

“I felt very relaxed when I got home. I have to admit I was surprised how a gentle quiet walk in good company made such an impact on my state of being. I’m not anxious or stressed, no more than usual, but I was surprised at how much tension I had.

So whilst Forest Bathing has been shown to attenuate a range of consequences of dis-ease, such as alleviating some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, dementia, depression and stress; and reducing some of the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - it has also been show to have positive effects such as improving the immune response; raising already positive moods; increasing concentration and focus; boosting imagination and creativity; and promoting recovery from mental fatigue in people who already have good mental health and wellbeing.