Counselling in practice

The review article ‘Counselling for patient empowerment’ (see page 189) described some of the issues in defining empowerment in the context of health, and looked at the traditional paternalistic relationship that often exists between health professionals and patients.

This article seeks to describe the person‐centred philosophy and how that philosophy, when communicated by counselling skills, can facilitate self‐empowerment in people with diabetes.