ABSTRACT
This chapter is the first step in reducing the complexities of the consultation to manageable proportions. The key concepts of some important models of the consultation can be condensed into a simple metaphor of 'the consultation as a journey'. The consultation becomes no longer a checklist of things to do and points to cover, but rather a short series of places to get to, one after the other, and in the practitioner’s own way. The chapter shows a way of thinking about the consultation which is powerful enough to give the practitioner a sense of purpose and direction, but at the same time simple enough to be unobtrusive. It presents it simultaneously in two forms – in language that the analytical Organiser in the left hemisphere can readily learn, and in a metaphor which the Responder can intuitively recognise with the right hemisphere.
