What is evidence-based health communication and how does it benefit patients? How has communication been taught to health professionals and how might it be improved? How can health care professionals make the most of short encounters in order to maximise their therapeutic effectiveness for clients? This book provides a comprehensive and critical review of the field of health communication and the kinds of evidence that have been collected concerning effective communication. It also critically evaluates the kinds of training health professionals receive in communication skills and examines its relatively limited role in the curriculum. In addition, it sets out what has been discovered about the micro-structure of interaction in health care encounters. The book offers vital new agendas for research training and practice in health care, based upon lessons learned from linguistics,