Counselling for patient empowerment. Guest Lecture: The 2nd Janet Kinson Lecture Delivered at a BDA Education and Care Section meeting

This review article explores the concept of empowerment described in the health promotion and health education literature and relates it to the context of diabetes care and to how the nature of the communication, and thus the relationship between health professionals and patients within the consultation, can be disempowering.

A second article by Florence Brown in this issue (see Special Review Series) looks at the philosophy of person‐centred counselling and education and how the communication of that philosophy through the use of counselling skills in the diabetic consultation can facilitate self‐empowerment in people with diabetes.