Dr Tim Pearce
In aesthetic medicine, the consultation process is about far more than physical assessment. It’s about managing patient emotions and keeping them open to hearing your recommendations without ever making them feel trapped or manipulated. The art lies in helping patients understand why your treatment approach will help them achieve both their aesthetic and social goals.
The most successful consultations occur when patients feel empowered rather than sold to. This requires a delicate balance between sharing your expert assessment and connecting it to their personal goals. Whether they’re concerned about their appearance on zoom calls or while dating, your treatment plan must clearly relate to their real-world situations.
When conducting a facial analysis, we’re not just looking at physical features. We must manage our patients’ emotions throughout the process, ensuring they remain receptive to our suggestions. The key is helping them understand why a holistic treatment approach will help them achieve their psychological and social goals naturally.
Most patients find this process empowering when done well, but it requires practice in:
Your artistic diagnosis must blend seamlessly with the patient’s psychological and social situation. If there’s any disconnect between how they feel on a video call or during social interactions and your treatment plan, they won’t believe you’re acting in their best interests.
This is truly the art of consultation – ensuring your artistic diagnosis aligns with:
The consultation often reveals itself through the patient’s own words. For example, one patient described feeling she looked “like a thumb” – a brilliant description of someone without defining points. This personal insight guided the entire treatment approach:
By listening carefully to such descriptions, we can better understand both their physical and emotional needs.
Throughout the consultation process, we should relate everything back to the overall picture. From the initial assessment to individual injection techniques, every aspect should feel part of creating that overall outcome for our patients. This includes:
When patients understand how your treatment plan addresses both their aesthetic and emotional concerns, they’re more likely to:
The success of your consultation depends on:
Remember that every aspect of your consultation should feel like one cohesive solution to their specific problem, delivered by you, the expert injector.
Effective consultation requires:
Your ability to connect their concerns with your treatment plan transforms the consultation from a simple assessment into an empowering experience.
The consultation setting should:
While being empathetic, maintain your position as the expert by:
Patient education during consultation should:
ConclusionThe art of consultation lies in seamlessly blending your artistic diagnosis with patients’ psychological and social goals. When done well, patients feel empowered rather than sold to, understanding that your treatment plan addresses both their aesthetic concerns and real-world situations.
Success comes from making everything feel like one unified solution – their specific problem being solved by you, their expert injector, who has exactly the right approach for their unique situation.
Want to master Dr Tim’s Full Face Filler Framework to create stunning results for patients based on their unique anatomy and needs?
Dr Tim Pearce's Art Codes Course is a systematic approach that turns every consultation into a confident, professional experience.
Dr Tim Pearce MBChB BSc (Hons) MRCGP founded his eLearning concept in 2016 in order to provide readily accessible BOTOX® and dermal filler online courses for fellow Medical Aesthetics practitioners. His objective was to raise standards within the industry – a principle which remains just as relevant today.
Our exclusive video-led courses are designed to build confidence, knowledge and technique at every stage, working from foundation level to advanced treatments and management of complications.
Thousands of delegates have benefited from the courses and we’re highly rated on Trustpilot. For more information or to discuss which course is right for you, please get in touch with our friendly team.
