Gesundheit's Mission

The Gesundheit! Institute, a not-for-profit health care organization chartered under the Nonprofit Corporation Act of the District of Columbia, is a project in holistic medical care based on the belief that one cannot separate the health of the individual from the health of the family, the community, the world, and the health care system itself.

Gesundheit’s model is designed to protect care as the core of the medical interaction.

Our model is organized around these principles:

• Care is free.
• Patients are treated as friends.
• Ample time is given to the care interaction (e.g. initial interviews with patients are 3 hours long).
• All complementary medicine is welcomed.
• The health of the staff is as important as the health of the patients.
• Care is infused with fun and play.

Members of the Institute are health practitioners and health educators. Gesundheit’s intention is to model creative problem solving and to spark each medical facility to design their own ideal - to deliver health care in a context that is our ideal design and educate other health care practitioners to design their ideal models for care.

In its 40-year history, Gesundheit has offered care to tens of thousands, given workshops and lectures in over 65 countries, built and supported clinics, schools, and orphanages from El Salvador to Cambodia, and brought the joy of clowning to parts of the world damaged by violence and injustice.