Connecting for Health is our effort to provide readers with a holistic view of the elements that shape health, which we experience in our daily lives.

Those elements are defined by physical, emotional and spiritual experiences.  Experiences are defined by where you, as individuals, communities and societies (what we have labeled as “indiCoSies”) direct your energy. The elements span a wide variety of ideas, things and actions that determine what health is, from the constant presence of mass media and technology, to our own individual assumptions, state of mind, physical state, and emotions that influence health. Our blog is to explain connecting points among those ideas, things and actions.

We believe explaining connections among all those seemingly disparate elements is important in building our indiCoSots’ capacity to experience health in a holistic way.

What are “indiCoSots” and why create such a label?

To reinforce our belief that health is an interconnected experience, we have coined the word “indiCoSots” as a collective, multi-level entity that encompasses the individual, as a person, the community as the connecting points among persons, and societies as connecting points among communities.

An analogy would be to compare indiCoSots to the multiple levels of biological organisms, such as how the eye is an individual organism. It works as part of the head, which has a brain, which is part of the body. While the interconnections within a body can be seen – the eye moves, the head hosts the eye, the body has a head – the interconnections among individuals, communities and societies are somewhat opaque and abstract. The label “indiCoSots” intends to make the interconnections more explicit.

Just as an eye cannot work without a head (or a brain within the head), and a head cannot work without a body, so too the individual person exists within a community (or at the very least is intended to exist within a community – most of us are not hermits), and a community cannot exist without society.

Who are we?

Maureen Schriner – Professor Mo – is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, in the Communication and Journalism Department. Her first career was as a journalist, for daily newspapers and then public television. Her second career was in public relations, primarily providing strategic communication for health organizations. In her third career as a professor, she teaches communication and public relations courses, advises students and student organizations, and conducts research. Her research interests are in health communication, online communication about health, organizational communication about health, and the connections between new (social) media and traditional (mass) media.

Veronica Willenbring is a Holistic Health Practitioner and certified kinesiologist.  She has treated people from all walks of life.  Whether you are an athlete, a person with a demanding job, a retiree, a baby, or somewhere in between, Veronica welcomes you with open arms.

Veronica, one of nine children, was born and raised in North Dakota.  She started her career path in life as an architectural engineer, first designing, and then managing large commercial construction projects. But she always knew that she was meant to do something that helps people.  Her path led her into applied kinesiology.

Because of her background, she is trained to problem solve.  She looks at the big picture first and then the details.  This approach, along with her unending compassion and commitment to your well-being, will lead you to a life filled with health and happiness.  For more information about her practice, read here.