© 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Background: Guidelines advocate that non-specific chronic low back pain (NSCLBP) be considered within a multi-dimensional bio-psychosocial (BPS) framework. This BPS approach advocates incorporating the patient¿s perspective as part of the treatment process. `Agenda setting¿ has been introduced as the key to understanding patients¿ concerns in medical encounters; however, this has received little attention in physiotherapy. This study explored how physiotherapists solicit and respond to the agenda of concerns that patients with NSCLBP bring to initial encounters. Method: The research setting was primary care. Twenty initial physiotherapy consultations were video-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using conversation analysis, a qualitative observational method. Both verbal and non-verbal features of the interaction were considered. Results: This data highlights a spectrum of communication styles ranging from more physiotherapist-focused, where the physiotherapists did not attend to patients¿ concerns, to a more patient-focused style, which provided greater opportunities for patients to voice their concerns. On occasions, patients were willing to pursue their own agenda when their concern was initially overlooked. Conclusion: This study provides empirical evidence on communication patterns in physiotherapy practice. A more collaborative style of communication with a shared conversational agenda provided patients with the conversational space to describe their concerns more fully.