‘Creating the right therapy vibe’: Relational performances in holistic medicine

This paper explores the relational constitution and performance of environments for holistic medicine. Informed by actor-network theory and the idea of 'affect', the findings of a combined observational and interview study of therapists are presented. These suggest how the mediation of care experiences involves influxes of humans, objects and ideas - some visualized, some physical, each providing relationalities to other places - that compose assemblages. These assemblages, in certain arrangements involving particular relationalities within them, create changing therapeutic vibes and possibilities. The paper closes by discussing the potential for conceptualizing place relationally beyond the current study across other forms of health care.