ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses three main kinds of consultation: clinical consultation, systems or organisational consultation, and the consultation, which is a kind of informed partnership between the other two. It also discusses further the inherent complexity of healthcare practice and services, and why it is likely to get more so. The book focuses on systems consultation in relation to teaching and training. It presents an exploration of using systems consultation alongside clinical consultation as a natural partnership, evaluating the inner world (literally and metaphorically) of the patient's system alongside the outer system. The book discusses how the experience of consulting systematically and thoughtfully with others, advances the capacity to think through one's own work and decisions, in crises as much as in longer term matters. It talks about areas of cross-fertilisation between consultation, narrative principles and the humanities.
