Qi Gong and physiotherapy: A narrative review and conceptual synthesis

The practice of Qi Gong is based on the following assumptions: complexity and multidimensionality, various positive influences on an individual's wholeness through the mind, body, and the relationships between them. In a similar vein, the essence of physiotherapy as a multifaceted process requires teamwork and the efforts of various specialists such as psychologists, sociologists, occupational therapists, and nurses if patients are to benefit. This paper aims to present the conceptual integration of Qi Gong and physiotherapy when considering the essence of their underlying principles. The author also emphasizes the usefulness of Qi Gong practice in clinical units and explains how Qi Gong might be extrapolated and incorporated into the theoretical principles of the physiotherapy process. This paper reviews Qi Gong literature in a narrative manner. Consequently, during the discourse analysis some information regarding Qi Gong's and physiotherapy's essence is derived from the presented data to reveal the underlying core principles and the conceptual interface of both practices on the level of abstraction grounded in the qualitative approaches. Within the scope of this article the existence of several similarities between these two ‘concepts’ has been suggested in terms of their multidisciplinary approach toward patients and complexity of holistic care. Researchers, physiotherapists and their patients as well as Qi Gong practitioners can obtain valuable and additional arguments through the cross-fertilization of ideas across presented studies united by shared, underlying concepts. Such conceptual enrichment may be a useful source of inspiration for physiotherapists concerned about their patients’ overall health on a daily basis.