Listen : how to find the words for tender conversations / Kathryn Mannix.

Storytelling -- Opening the box -- Getting started -- Listening to understand -- On tenderness -- Curiosity -- Using helpful questions -- Getting alongside : 'being with' distress -- Using silence -- Finishing safely -- Towards change -- Listening, noticing, wondering -- Staying present -- Giving way the power -- The voice within -- Building bridges -- Thresholds : the courage to begin -- Anger -- Lessons in listening -- In-between-ness -- Unwelcome news -- Revelations -- Cross-purposes -- Last conversations -- Listen -- Towards connection -- Where are the listening spaces?

Why do we so often come away from important interactions feeling we could have done more, been more honest, approached things differently or reached the heart of the matter? Why do we skirt the conversations that matter most? Listen uses case studies from every walk of life to look hard at conversations some term 'difficult' but which here are described as 'tender'. Examples include a child coming out to their parent a family losing someone to terminal illness; a relative noticing early signs of dementia; and a careers adviser and teenager with radically different perspectives. With a lifetime's experience working in palliative medicine, Kathryn Mannix offers stories and expertise to help us better speak our minds and be there for others when we need to be.