Moments of ‘touch’ as a way for mental support in Traditional Chinese Medicine consultations: Analysis of the interactional process of co-constructing understanding of the patient’s body conditions in Hong Kong

•TCM is different western medicine as it uses a holistic view to understand patient’s discomfort.•TCM uses four diagnostic methods: Inspection, Listening & Smelling, Inquiring and Palpation.•TCM practitioners through moments of ‘touch’ allows patients to understand their conditions.•Through ‘touch’, TCM practitioners shift from exploring to developing a mutual understanding.•Moments of ‘touch’ is a cultural script of internalizing illnesses by solving one’s body condition. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a growing phenomenon around the world. However, despite its historical role in Chinese society, there has been limited research on exploring the nature of TCM practitioner-patient interactions in the Chinese context. This study used 10 hours audio recordings of consultations to elucidate how a TCM practitioner used moments of ‘touch’ (where the term is used to represent the nature of holistic TCM interactions) for co-constructing understanding of the patients’ body conditions. In these moments, the practitioner interacted with patients in order to explore their ‘Zheng’, the outcome of an in-depth analysis of all symptoms such as an imbalance in the pulse, lack of energy. This study illustrates how TCM practitioner strategically used discourse features in shaping the patient’ understanding of their current body’s conditions, and thus opened up space to elaborate their concerns or seek clarifications, leading to a holistic understanding and compliance with the recommended treatments. Specifically, the data show how the TCM practitioner through using the moments of ‘touch’ to shape the ongoing discourse so that the patients can have a better understanding of their illnesses. The results suggest that the long-term relationships between TCM practitioners and their patients can be developed through recognising the specific communication strategies used by the TCM practitioners in shaping the patient’s understanding. If TCM practitioners can learn better communication skills, it will lead to better quality of interactions and reach better clinical outcomes such as high patient satisfaction and compliance with treatments.