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Trust is vital for quality healthcare outcomes, yet existing research neglects the ‘embodiedness’ of the interactions on which trust is based. This article draws on qualitative data from semistructured interviews with cervical cancer patients. The significance of body work in winning or, on occasions, undermining trust emerged as a key theme within the responses. Interpretations of professionals’ verbal and nonverbal presentationsofself were often mutually reinforcing and intrinsically linked – forming a more general locus of meaning from which assumptions of competence and care were drawn. Yet it also became apparent that, whilst verbal communication was useful in establishing the agenda of the professional in relation to that of the patient, it was body work which was crucial in corroborating and validating beliefs pertaining to the ability and willingness of the professional to deliver this agenda in the future. The …