It is about talking to the person.
It is about being non-judgemental.
It is about being empathetic.
It is about appreciating why they have come to see you and why they are worried
It is about understanding their concerns and providing appropriate advice.
It is about seeing more than just the patient sitting there in front of you.
It is about seeing past the abnormal physiology that presents to you.
It is about putting things into the patient’s perspective.
It is about showing that you understand how this must be impacting upon their lives.
It is about explaining things in lay terms.
It is about consulting other professionals to help in all aspects of the treatment process.
It is about showing that you are thinking of how they may cope when they get home.
It is about acknowledging the friends and family.
It is about gaining their trust and creating a workable relationship.
It is about finding out their occupation and seeing how this will be affected.
It is about asking about social circumstances and seeing if you can help.
It is about compromising to suit the situation.
It is about realizing that the patient is a person who will have many questions.
In the real world it is about understanding all of this and more and not about writing poems or stories, or drawing pictures or making collages.

With all this is mind, my first consultation in my G.P. surgery attachment was with a 20 year old girl who complained of a lack of interest in sex. After exploring for any pathological causes and finding none, I had to almost become a counsellor or psychologist and find out if there was anything in this girl’s life that was worrying her. I tried to explore her relationship status, her school life and home life but all seemed quite normal and if there were any problems, they weren’t immediately obvious. Eventually we concluded that she needed to have psychosexual counselling.