Purpose: To explore why Alaskans choose to pursue complementary medicine as a healthcare option. Design: Qualitative Descriptive. Method: A purposive convenient recruitment methodology was used to recruit project participants. Focus groups were conducted to collect the research data. Findings: Five themes were identified that highlighted why participants use complementary medicine: 1) dissatisfaction, 2) effective, 3) holistic, 4) relationship focused, and 5) a personal journey

Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Anchorage in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTERS OF SCIENCE