Developing skills in consultation 1: The current context

Abstract

There is increasing pressure for clinical psychologists to adopt ‘consultation’ as a core part of their work, even in the early stages of their career. This is the first of four connected papers. It highlights the political and economic climate within the NHS that is creating this pressure, explores what is meant by consultation work, and makes suggestions for how we might adapt our training and career development pathways so that we are better prepared to offer this type of this work. The second paper looks at a specific consultation model that has proved helpful in enabling psychologists to take on effective consultation roles in teams. The third and fourth papers consist of a series of personal reflections on the process of developing consultation roles within teams. They highlight some of the challenges faced and lessons learnt from doing this work which we hope will be valuable to others.