Tender Conversations: how can we navigate conversations about sorrow, fear, and loss?

Tender Conversations: how can we navigate conversations about sorrow, fear, and loss?

With Dr Kathryn Mannix and the Rt Rev Richard Holloway.

Organised by Faith in Older People. Thursday 12 May by Zoom at 4.30 pm.

The experience of illness, death, separation and other difficulties is part and parcel of getting older. Despite this, we often find ourselves at a loss when we come to talk about these issues with our families or friends. Sometimes, older people want to put their own minds at rest by helping their supporters understand their wishes, but those supporters are very reluctant to engage in the conversation, preferring to change the subject or to say ‘Things aren’t that bad yet!’ Other families find that although the supporters feel increasingly concerned that they don’t know their relative’s wishes, their sick or older relative declines to talk about it, asking people not to interfere or stating that this is not a subject they want to talk about.

Let’s think about these important, emotional and necessary conversations. Let’s think about how the attitude we take into the conversation can change the way it unfolds. Let’s consider how to begin, how to be a companion while someone considers their difficulties and their strong emotions, and how to ensure that our conversation finishes in a way that is safe, satisfactory and leaves open the invitation to talk again in the future. Let’s think about how simply by being a good listener, we can help people to process their worries and feel less alone with their sorrows.

We will think about how listening underpins compassionate action, and consider ways to create communities of compassion where all can be listened to and heard.

More information and booking is available here: weblink.