[Counseling: a tool for enhancing the communication with the patient]

Counseling is a technique used in psychology that has shown a major impact on health: in deep, it is the methodology recommended by the Worl Health Organization to help HIV-infected patients. Although it has been translated to spanish by assisted counseling or helping relationship, counseling covers a broader concept. It is defined as an interactive process based on communication in which the clinician helps the patients to think about their own health and to take appropiate decisions based on their values and interests. In short, counseling is a tool to enhance communication with the patient, resulting very useful during clinical interview in pharmaceutical care programs in order to improve pharmacotherapy and patient safety.