This book provides a distinctive sociological inquiry into the perspectives and social issues surrounding the use of alternative therapies. Dr. Low presents the experiences of twenty-one Canadians who use alternative approaches to health care.

Her study foregrounds the lay perspective by using a symbolic interactionist approach, which emphasizes individuals' own understanding of reality as a basis for their actions.

Dr. Low analyses why the participants in the study came to use alternative therapies; the ideologies informing the models of health and healing they espouse; the impact these beliefs have on them, and the implications of their experiences for Canadian health care policy.