[Who uses alternative medicine and what are the motivations?]

In an increasing degree, unconventional healing methods are used within the orthodox medical system by physicians and in clinics. An even greater variety of methods and settings can be found in the health courses of popular high schools and in private practices of non-medical practitioners. The great interest of medical students in unconventional methods, the prevalence of chronic diseases, and widespread psychospiritual beliefs in the population indicate a growing need for psychosocially based healing approaches and new settings such as weekend-workshops or year long groups. In this article, the sociodemographic data of the users of unconventional methods, their motivations, and their pathways into the informal sector are elaborated by analyzing data from literature and of our own survey among 1135 users of 5 different types of health-related seminars (aerobic, yoga, body-therapies, psychological seminars, spiritual healing).