TPC Journal-Vol 9- Issue 4-FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 9, Issue 4 389 Well-being. It should be noted that although most participants did not provide comprehensive definitions that specifically mentioned all three concepts of think , feel , and act , as used by HHS, there were 23 participants in the sample who used the term well-being . As indicated in the following, well- being was not seen as specific to one area but rather an overall experience. One participant stated, “More than a sense of psychiatric disease—overall well-being” (P4), and another shared, “Overall health of a person—their well-being” (P5). Thus, for many of our participants, a comprehensive definition of mental health they demonstrated was the general term well-being . Think. The most salient concept found among our participants was related to cognition, thinking, the mind or brain, or the term mental . Thirty-four responses focused solely on mental health as being how we think, including statements such as “state of mind” (P6), “mental health refers to your thoughts” (P7), and “brain imbalance” (P8). These responses suggest that the cognitive aspect of mental health is a primary way these rural participants conceptualize mental health. We also saw this demonstrated in other definitions provided by the participants that had think in combination with either feel or act . Think and feel. The next most salient conceptualization provided by participants included elements of both cognition and emotion—how we think and feel. Eighteen participants provided responses in this code, including “mental health is my ability to cope, how I think, rational thinking, and my emotional stability” (P9) and “state of mind and feeling of well-being” (P10). It is noteworthy that again when discussing cognition and emotion, there was frequent use of the phrase well-being , even when limited to just think and feel , thus further supporting the term well-being . Think and act. Cognition or thinking was further salient and used in connection with behavior, or how we think and act. Conceptualizations from these 10 participants included statements such as “condition of one’s mind and if any affect [sic] on behavior” (P11) and “well-being in thought and action” (P12). Again, also noted is the use of the term well-being , even when specifying think and act . Non-salient concepts within the HHS definition. There were other conceptualizations of the term mental health that supported aspects of the HHS definition. There were seven participants who focused solely on feelings—how you feel. Although there were five participants who only focused on mental health as behavior or how one acts, neither of the singular concepts were considered salient in participant responses because of infrequent responses. Other non-salient concepts. Also provided by participants were concepts focused specifically on a mental health diagnosis such as “depression” (P16, P17) and “depression, bipolar” (P18). Also, it is interesting to note that although not salient, a few participants saw mental health as a function of physical health. This was demonstrated in definitions such as “condition of health” (P19) and “special help for the sick or assist those that have some type of disease” (P20). It is important to note that a few responses were unclear or too vague and could not be categorized, such as “Don’t know” (P21, P22). Summary Overall, participants’ responses suggest a strong tendency toward cognitive aspects of mental health rather than a comprehensive definition that can be found when looking in formal sources, such as the HHS definition (2019). However, a negative case that emerged was that these rural participants did provide the term well-being as an overall comprehensive definition for mental health. Frequency counts for each concept can be found in Table 2. In the following section, we discuss these findings.