Neuroscientific narrative consulting: how to engage our patients

Abstract

Narrative approaches to the consultation offer an elegant and compelling way to harness the power of storytelling. Allowing and encouraging a patient to tell their story can offer unheralded insight and lead to particularly satisfying consultations for both patient and clinician. New neuroscientific research not only helps explain why, but also suggests ways in which we might communicate even better. Functional MRI scans demonstrate that, when we hear a story, more areas of our brain are active than when hearing facts or simple instructions. Crucially, this includes areas engaged with working memory such as the hippocampus, thus, stories are both more engaging and memorable.