ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the listening loop, a model of choice in listening. Considerations emerging from the metaphor include the observation that a journey using an alternative route may be longer, shorter or more varied than the original route. Listening skills for beginning, sustaining and ending interactions are needed. The loop adds to these listening skills a focus on judgement concerning the explicit initiation of a listening segment within an interaction. The usefulness of the listening loop may be in defining that moment when an interaction might divert from the ‘tramline’ of a ‘biomedical’ consultation and take an alternative route. The listening loop focuses on this judgement and on factors which emerge from its analysis. The majority of the disclosures occurred after the opening segment, ‘when physicians were engaged in taking histories, performing physicals or discussing treatment recommendations for somatic problems’ and were facilitated by the doctor specifically enquiring.
