279 © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019 L. Grassi et al. (eds.), Person Centered Approach to Recovery in Medicine, Integrating Psychiatry and Primary Care, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74736-1_15 G. Boniolo Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Chirurgico Specialistiche, Università di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy e-mail: bnlgnn@unife.it 15 Even if one manages to comprehend biological, psychological, and social fndings and to describe them in their respective languages, even if a method for the analysis of their mutual relationship has been created, there is still no answer to the pertinent question: Why did this person fall ill at this moment? (Langewitz [1], p. 434; for detailed information on psychoso- matic medicine, see also von Uexküll [2]) Ethical Counselling for a Patient-Centred Approach in the Context of Psychosomatic Medicine Giovanni Boniolo Abstract There is an increasing demand for help whenever ethical problems intersect clin- ical decisions, in particular decisions within psychosomatic medicine. In this chapter, we show how an ethical counselling centred on the needs and on the biographies of the patients could ameliorate their decisional process concerning which clinical option should be pursued. And, of course, the ethical counselling approach we propose does not diminish patient autonomy but, actually, increases patient empowerment. bnlgnn@unife.it