General Practice is, in some ways, the most difficult of the medical professions because most of what comes through the door is people in distress for whom we don’t have a biomedical diagnosis who need our humanity, who need, dare I say it, our compassion. Or at least our willingness to hear them without holding it back behind emotional armour. To do a good job in general practice you have to be somewhat emotionally available but, of course, in making yourself emotionally available you need a way to regulate yourself.