This paper explores how the practice of patient involvement in neurorehabilitation is constructed in tension-riddled professional narratives. I adopt dialogic communication theory to focus on how involvement is constructed across different roles and voices. My analysis is based on an action research project that uses a dialogical communication perspective and participatory methods to explore patient-centred care through the eyes of healthcare professionals. I argue that patient involvement is constructed as a demanding process that requires memory, presence, communicative abilities and temporal understanding of personal needs. These requirements are not explicit in the situated institutionalized practices. As well, I show how the available involvement strategies are laced with taken for granted characteristics, which fall short in the situation that arises when patients do not have the ability to participate or play the role of an active patient. The findings in this paper contribute to the growing literature on patient-centred healthcare by empirically investigating how the discursive configuration of patient, health professional and institutional practices intertwine in producing certain inherent expectations, habits and taken for granted perspectives in care delivery. I also suggest that the findings can usefully be incorporated into patient-centred care design and organizational strategies in order to take into account both the patient, relatives and healthcare professionals as vital for creating a patient-centred practice, organization and professional environment.