Examine Why Complimentary and Alternative Therapies Have Become so Popular.

Complementary and alternative medicine therapies have grown in prominence in recent years in the UK, interlinked with our societies’ dynamic change. When considering this growth, different dimensions are provided by following a wider sociological evaluation as well as by listening to the voices of representative individuals involved. In doing, so two key themes emerge. A broader approach can be gathered by considering societal change in recent years. Contrasting with this the recent evolution of the relationship between giver and receiver of therapy can allow the focus to be placed on individual experience and such causal factors for growth evaluated. In a widening of the concept of post modernity Anthony Giddens (cited in Lee-Treweek, 2005, p.13) presents the changes of late modernity which describe ‘a greater acceptance of a wider range of sets of knowledge, ideas and ‘experts’ within society’. Running parallel to this has been a decline in ‘the power of claims from orthodox sources of information’ (Lee-Treweek, 2005, p.17). This evolution within the UK’s sociological backdrop gives insight into how the current orientation of the UK population to CAM has arisen. Increasingly in recent years an environment has existed in which people feel more empowered to try alternative and newly accessible sources of support for their health and wellbeing, in an increasingly consumerist approach to their ‘philosophies of health and wellbeing’ (Lee-Treweek, 2005, p.14). A central feature of this is the pursuit to feel more empowered in ‘being in control and [fulfilling] both needs and desires’ (Lee-Treweek, 2005, p.15). Such significant shifts in approach and attitude provide the framework within which a proliferation of CAM has been witnessed in recent years. you use short quotes to link your argument – in places, I think you over-use this, and could put some of this material into your own words (whilst retaining the in-text references so as to be able to trace the