Highlighting the Utility of the Consultation Analysis Record for Consultation Research and Training

What we say in consultation is important, and thus studying spoken messages has been an important topic in consultation research and training for decades. Here we raise awareness of the Consultation Analysis Record (CAR; Bergan & Tombari, 1975), a well-established verbal interaction coding system that has largely disappeared from the professional literature. Following a description of the CAR and six summary findings from research that has employed it, we turn our attention to its future utility, including facilitating its use with technology and its applications to multitiered systems of support teams and procedural integrity research. The central thesis is that the CAR remains a valuable tool to study processes and outcomes of consultation as well as to train consultants, and it should be used more often for these purposes.