The core business of medicine is the consultation. During the consultation one human being responds to another in distress. Most doctors spend more time talking with people than performing surgery, prescribing pills or ordering tests. The extent to which the doctor succeeds as a communicator may even govern the ‘success’ of any procedure performed, if we define success as relief from the condition causing distress. As human beings our ability to benefit from what is offered to alleviate our symptoms is limited by the extent to which we feel that we have been heard and supported with empathy. It has been demonstrated that the human body has the capacity to heal and that healers are limited by their capacity to facilitate that process. That is not to say that ‘talking’ can spare us the need for other interventions. In this review the author examines the factors that impact on the medical consultation with particular emphasis on the scope for harm when the consultation is interrupted.