Emotion regulation in physician–patient communication training: current status and future directions in Western Europe

SUMMARY In this clinical reflection, we briefly overview how physicians’ emotion regulation has been addressed within communication training in the context of Western European medical undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education. For illustrative purposes, two examples of recently developed training programmes targeting both communication skills and physicians’ emotion regulation are described. We also discuss the existing gaps in emotion regulation-based communication training, as well as future directions for medical education regarding these skills.