The health and well-being of the individual is a central goal in nursing, and health promotion seeks to enable people to increase control over and improve their health. In mental health care, health is often described in negative terms such as the absence of mental illness, which may create hopelessness and constitute a barrier to a policy of health promotion. The aim of this study was to describe nurses' conceptions of how health processes are promoted in mental health nursing. Twelve nurses working in mental health care were interviewed and the data were analysed using a phenomeographic approach. The nurses expressed 11 different conceptions of the phenomenon, which were summarized into three descriptive categories: presence, balance of power, and focus on health. The findings show that the nurses expressed ambiguous attitudes towards meeting the patient in mental health care. It is suggested that the goal of nursing care should be clarified for nurses in practice, otherwise they may adopt the perspectives of other mental health professionals.